Wonderful news for Emmanuel’s Dream!

There’s been a bunch of excit­ing news regard­ing Emmanuel’s Dream late­ly, and I want­ed to share it all with you…

First, it was recent­ly select­ed as a Notable Book in the Children’s Africana Book Awards! One of my all-time favorite pic­ture books—One Plas­tic Bag by Miran­da Paul—was sim­i­lar­ly rec­og­nized, which makes this hon­or even more special.

 
Emmanuel’s Dream was also list­ed in the CCBC Choic­es 2016 by the Coop­er­a­tive Children’s Book Cen­ter and in the Bank Street Col­lege of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year for ages 5–9!

It was a final­ist for the 2015 CYBILS (Chil­dren’s and Young Adult Blog­gers’ Lit­er­ary) Awards in the Elementary/Middle Grade Non-Fic­tion cat­e­go­ry. I’ve helped judge this cat­e­go­ry sev­er­al times, but obvi­ous­ly had to bow out this year! Since I know first­hand what a thor­ough, care­ful job the judges do to select the final­ists, it was tru­ly a thrill to have my book rec­og­nized for this award.

 
Emmanuel’s Dream has start­ed show­ing up on some state lists around the coun­try, too, which means even more kids will be read­ing it. That’s super excit­ing! Some of the state hon­ors I’m aware of so far include:

• Recip­i­ent of a 2015 Eure­ka Hon­or Award from the Cal­i­for­nia Read­ing Association,
• a Star North Nom­i­nee in the Min­neso­ta Youth Read­ing Awards,
• a nom­i­nee for the 2016–2017 Black-Eyed Susan Book Award by the Mary­land Asso­ci­a­tion of School Librarians
• a Tran­si­tion­al Non-Fic­tion Hon­or Book in the 2015 Mary­land Blue Crab Young Read­er Awards
• a final­ist for the 2016–2017 Geor­gia Children’s Pic­ture­book (Gr. K‑4) Award, and
• a nom­i­nee for the 2016–2017 Nebras­ka Gold­en Sow­er Award (Pri­ma­ry)

 
Last, but cer­tain­ly not least, I’ve learned that Emmanuel’s Dream will be pub­lished in Kore­an! One thing I always dreamed of was hav­ing my books pub­lished in anoth­er coun­try, and now I’ve got two (a Japan­ese ver­sion of My Dog Is the Best should be com­ing soon, too).