Good news for Emmanuel’s Dream

It is so hard for me to believe that I’m still get­ting good news about Emmanuel’s Dream more than three years after it was pub­lished! I thought I’d share some of the most excit­ing bits with you here:
LittleFreeLibrary Action Book Club logoFirst, you’ve heard of lit­tle free libraries, right? Have you heard about the Lit­tle Free Library orga­ni­za­tion? If not, def­i­nite­ly check them out, here. They are doing all kinds of great things, but per­haps my favorite is their Action Book Club™. In a new twist on the tra­di­tion­al book club, this part­ner­ship between Lit­tle Free Libraries and Read­ing Is Fun­da­men­tal (RIF) invites par­tic­i­pants to read books on time­ly top­ics, engage in live­ly dis­cus­sions, and take part in meaningful—and fun—group ser­vice projects to ben­e­fit their com­mu­ni­ties. How is that for com­bin­ing two of my favorite things: read­ing and social engage­ment!? Plus, Action Book Club mem­bers can share their expe­ri­ences online, which helps spread a rip­ple effect of pos­i­tive activ­i­ty across the coun­try and around the world. I love every­thing about this idea, so it was super excit­ing to learn that Lit­tle Free Library select­ed Emmanuel’s Dream for their cur­rent Action Book Club theme of Every­day Heroes, “which cel­e­brates acts of brav­ery, char­ac­ter, and kind­ness that trans­form our world in ways big and small.”
Illinois Monarch Award logoSec­ond, the Illi­nois School Library Media Asso­ci­a­tion (ISLMA) announced that Emmanuel’s Dream is includ­ed on their 2019 Monarch Award Mas­ter List. This means that stu­dents and their teach­ers in par­tic­i­pat­ing schools will be encour­aged to include Emmanuel’s Dream and the 19 oth­er titles on the mas­ter list in their read­ing or lis­ten­ing expe­ri­ences dur­ing the school year, and then stu­dents will vote for their favorite! The author and illus­tra­tor of the book receiv­ing the high­est num­ber of votes in the statewide bal­lot­ing will be declared the win­ners of the Monarch Award and will be invit­ed to attend the ISLMA con­fer­ence and par­tic­i­pate in pro­grams to fea­ture and hon­or him or her. Squee! I love the ones where stu­dents get to vote. Every­one wins!
El Sueno de Emmanuel coverLast, but not least, I’m thrilled that the Span­ish edi­tion of Emmanuel’s Dream is not only avail­able, but it’s avail­able for read­ers of Span­ish who live here in the U.S., too! A huge thanks to Men­sajero for mak­ing this edi­tion pos­si­ble and spread­ing Emmanuel’s inspir­ing story.
That’s all for now. Thanks so much for read­ing. =D
 

Great news for TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE!

2018 is off to a great start so far with a bevy of awards and acco­lades for Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive!, and I’m so excit­ed to share the lat­est good news with you here!

TLA Topaz list logoFirst, the Texas Library Asso­ci­a­tion include it on their 2018 Texas Topaz Non­fic­tion Read­ing List. Accord­ing to TLA, the Topaz List “high­lights recent­ly pub­lished non­fic­tion gems for read­ers of all ages. Adult ser­vices and youth ser­vices librar­i­ans serve on sep­a­rate com­mit­tees that con­sid­er hun­dreds of non­fic­tion titles for adults and youth respec­tive­ly. The librar­i­ans debate the mer­its, appeal, and impor­tance of the works to curate a list of engag­ing non­fic­tion titles intend­ed to reveal new or lit­tle-known infor­ma­tion, open doors to oth­er worlds, or intro­duce fresh voic­es. With titles for adults and chil­dren PreK-grade 12, there is some­thing for every­one on the Topaz list!”
Texas librar­i­ans ROCK, and being on this list is an incred­i­ble honor! 
Nerdy Book Club bannerNext, the Nerdy Book Club announced their 2017 Nerdies for Long Form Non­fic­tion. I love read­ing this blog, and their pas­sion for chil­dren’s books real­ly comes through. Plus, some of my favorite books and authors are on this list, so I lit­er­al­ly gasped out loud when I scrolled down far enough to see the cov­er of Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive! Thank you, Nerdy Book Club! So exciting!!
Cybils 2017 bannerThen, the Cybils announced their 2017 Elementary/Middle Grade Non-Fic­tion Final­ists, and Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive! was on their list, too! Again, there are some amaz­ing books here (includ­ing Zoo Sci­en­tists to the Res­cue and Fred Kore­mat­su Speaks Up, which I reviewed in past posts here), and I have been a Cybils judge in the past (so I know how seri­ous­ly they take their work!). Being a Cybils final­ist is an unbe­liev­able thrill!
Booklist Lasting Connections bannerFinal­ly, Book­list shared some love, in both their Spe­cial Fea­ture: Last­ing Con­nec­tions 2017 and Edi­tors’ Choice: Books for Youth, 2017.
Last­ing Con­nec­tions high­lights their top 30 choic­es for the K–8 class­room, all pub­lished in the pre­vi­ous year and all select­ed for their nat­ur­al con­nec­tions across the cur­ricu­lum and to the Com­mon Core State and Next Gen­er­a­tion Sci­ence Standards. 
Booklist Editors' Choice bannerAnd the Edi­tor’s Choice list is select­ed by the Books for Youth edi­to­r­i­al staff, who are “com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing a broad selec­tion of out­stand­ing books that mix­es pop­u­lar appeal with lit­er­ary excel­lence,” as best-of-the-year non­fic­tion and fic­tion books and pic­ture books. Wow!

Hav­ing a book that you’ve worked hard on appear on lists like these is tru­ly a dream come true, and I could­n’t be hap­pi­er with this news. Cheers to 2018!

More good news for Emmanuel’s Dream!

Great news: Emmanuel’s Dream has been select­ed to the 2017 IBBY Out­stand­ing Books for Young Peo­ple with Dis­abil­i­ties!
2017 IBBY Selection catalog cover
Every two years, the Inter­na­tion­al Board on Books for Young Peo­ple (IBBY) choos­es out­stand­ing books for and about chil­dren and young peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. This bien­ni­al selec­tion draws atten­tion to books pub­lished around the world, in an exten­sive vari­ety of lan­guages and for­mats, that address spe­cial needs and sit­u­a­tions and which encour­age inclu­sion at every lev­el. Books select­ed as 2017 out­stand­ing titles are fea­tured in a print cat­a­logue that will be launched at this year’s Bologna Chil­dren’s Book Fair in Italy on Mon­day, April 3rd. Out­stand­ing titles become part of The IBBY Col­lec­tion of Books for Young Peo­ple with Dis­abil­i­ties, a one-of-a-kind resource. Con­sist­ing of 4,000 mul­ti­lin­gual books, the IBBY col­lec­tion is locat­ed at North York Cen­tral Library in Cana­da, part of the Toron­to Pub­lic Library.
Thanks, IBBY!!

Emmanuel’s Dream a WA State Book Award Finalist!

Washington State Book Awards logoThe Wash­ing­ton Cen­ter for the Book announced the Wash­ing­ton State Book Award final­ists for 2016, and I’m hon­ored to say that Emmanuel’s Dream is among the three final­ists for the Scan­di­uzzi Chil­dren’s Book Award in the Pic­ture Book category!
The Wash­ing­ton Cen­ter for the Book at The Seat­tle Pub­lic Library announces the Wash­ing­ton State Book Awards final­ists in eight cat­e­gories for out­stand­ing books pub­lished by Wash­ing­ton authors in the pre­vi­ous year. This is the 50th year of the pro­gram, for­mer­ly called the Gov­er­nor’s Writ­ers Awards. The book awards are giv­en based on the strength of the pub­li­ca­tions’ lit­er­ary mer­it, their last­ing impor­tance, and their over­all qual­i­ty to an author who was born in Wash­ing­ton state or is a cur­rent res­i­dent and has main­tained res­i­dence here for at least three years.
Win­ners will be announced at the awards cel­e­bra­tion, held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sat­ur­day, Oct. 8, at the Cen­tral Library. The awards pro­gram will fea­ture emcee Frances McCue, an award-win­ning poet and arts admin­is­tra­tor who received the Wash­ing­ton State Book Award for poet­ry in 2011 for “The Bled.” The pro­gram also fea­tures brief read­ings from 2016 win­ning titles. A recep­tion and book sign­ing will fol­low in the Liv­ing Room on Lev­el 3 of the Cen­tral Library. The awards and cel­e­bra­tion are spon­sored by The Seat­tle Pub­lic Library Foundation.
Con­grat­u­la­tions to all of the final­ists, espe­cial­ly to friends Deb­o­rah Under­wood, Martha Brock­en­brough, Kel­ly Jones, and Jes­sixa Bagley!

Good news for MY DOG IS THE BEST!

MY DOG IS THE BEST cover

MY DOG IS THE BEST cover
I’m tick­led to share some good news about MY DOG IS THE BEST with you today:

 
First, it was list­ed in the CCBC Choic­es 2016 by the Coop­er­a­tive Children’s Book Center!

 
Sec­ond, it was also award­ed a 2015 Blue Rib­bon from The Bul­letin of the Cen­ter for Children’s Books (BCCB)!

 
My Dog Is the Best activity kit coverThird, I worked with Curi­ous City to devel­op a free sto­ry­time and canine craft kit for edu­ca­tors, librar­i­ans, and par­ents, and I think it turned out beau­ti­ful­ly. Just down­load and print, and you’ve got a ready-made activ­i­ty plan to go along with the book. Enjoy!

 
Final­ly, I can’t remem­ber if I men­tioned this or not, but now that the date is approach­ing, I’m get­ting more and more excit­ed… My Dog Is the Best will soon be pub­lished in Japan! It is expect­ed to release this sum­mer, and in an even small­er (and cuter!) trim size. I’ll keep you posted!

 

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:

 
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).

An ALA Schneider Family Award for Emmanuel’s Dream

Schneider Award
This is old news at this point, but I’ve been so busy that I’m just now FINALLY get­ting around to post­ing it here. So, just in case you’ve been too busy to keep up with the news in the chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture indus­try, Emmanuel’s Dream has won the Schnei­der Fam­i­ly Book Award from the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion! The pur­pose of this spe­cial award is to “hon­or an author or illus­tra­tor for the artis­tic expres­sion of the dis­abil­i­ty expe­ri­ence for child and ado­les­cent audi­ences,” so I’m extreme­ly hon­ored that the com­mit­tee select­ed Emmanuel’s Dream.
Emmanuels Dream cover with stickerThis and oth­er Youth Media Awards were announced on Jan­u­ary 11, 2016, dur­ing the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion (ALA) Mid­win­ter Meet­ing & Exhibits in Boston and via live stream. Here in the Pacif­ic North­west, we have to get up at 5am to catch them, but it was def­i­nite­ly worth it! The award itself will be pre­sent­ed in Orlan­do dur­ing the ALA Annu­al Con­fer­ence & Exhi­bi­tion in June, and both Sean and I are both expect­ing to be able to attend.
Recip­i­ents are select­ed in three cat­e­gories: birth through grade school (age 0–8), mid­dle grade (age 9–13) and teens (age 14–18). Emmanuel’s Dream won the award for young chil­dren, which was the very first award to be announced in the entire pro­gram. Next up was Fish in a Tree, which won a mid­dle-grade award. This only added to my excite­ment, as it was writ­ten by my friend and agency sis­ter Lyn­da Mul­laly Hunt!
Schneider Award flowersThank you to all of the mem­bers of the 2016 Schnei­der Fam­i­ly Book Award com­mit­tee, includ­ing Alyson Beech­er (com­mit­tee chair), Nan­cy L. Bau­mann, Bet­sy Fras­er, Beth McGuire, Elsworth Rock­e­feller, Joan­na Tam­plin, Car­o­line Ward, and Jill Gar­cia! I’m espe­cial­ly grate­ful to Kather­ine Schnei­der and the Schnei­der fam­i­ly for spon­sor­ing this impor­tant award. It is such a huge hon­or to receive it, and I hope it will help the book find its way into the hands of more kids who need to hear its mes­sage. Thank you also to my fan­tas­tic agent, Ammi-Joan Paque­tte, for believ­ing in this sto­ry; to Sean Qualls, for illus­trat­ing it so beau­ti­ful­ly; and to every­one at Schwartz & Wade/Random House for all of their hard work and ded­i­ca­tion, which made it into the book it is today. And look, they even sent me some gor­geous flow­ers to celebrate!
Notables SealOn the heels of the Schnei­der Fam­i­ly Award, it was also announced that Emmanuel’s Dream was includ­ed on the ALA ALSC’s Notable Chil­dren’s Books list. Each year a com­mit­tee of the Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Ser­vice to Chil­dren (ALSC) iden­ti­fies the best of the best in chil­dren’s books. Accord­ing to the Nota­bles Cri­te­ria, “notable” is defined as: Wor­thy of note or notice, impor­tant, dis­tin­guished, out­stand­ing. As applied to chil­dren’s books, notable should be thought to include books of espe­cial­ly com­mend­able qual­i­ty, books that exhib­it ven­ture­some cre­ativ­i­ty, and books of fic­tion, infor­ma­tion, poet­ry and pic­tures for all age lev­els (birth through age 14) that reflect and encour­age chil­dren’s inter­ests in exem­plary ways. It’s an incred­i­ble hon­or to see Emmanuel’s Dream on that list of amaz­ing books! Thank you, ALSC!
 

Two more awards for Be a Changemaker!

Be a Changemaker cover

Be a Changemaker cover
Be a Change­mak­er was recent­ly award­ed two more pres­ti­gious awards:
Moonbeam AwardFirst, it was rec­og­nized last month with a Moon­beam Award! These awards were cre­at­ed “to bring increased recog­ni­tion to exem­plary children’s books and their cre­ators, and to sup­port child­hood lit­er­a­cy and life-long read­ing.”  You can see the full list of win­ners here. Be a Change­mak­er was select­ed as a Gold Award win­ner in the Mind-Body-Spir­it/­Self-Esteem cat­e­go­ry. They even sent a gor­geous (and seri­ous­ly heavy) medal to wear around my neck!

Burgess Award seal
And, just today I found out it has also been award­ed a 2015 Gelett Burgess Award, too! The Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award “high­lights excel­lence in fam­i­ly-friend­ly books cov­er­ing the broad expanse of a child’s exis­tence, help­ing them grow social­ly, emo­tion­al­ly, eth­i­cal­ly, intel­lec­tu­al­ly, and phys­i­cal­ly.” Be a Change­mak­er was select­ed as the win­ner in the Lifestyle cat­e­go­ry for “Help­ing Oth­ers & Phil­an­thropy.” Look how pretty!
Burgess Award Be a Changemaker display

Eureka! Nonfiction Honor Award for Emmanuel’s Dream

EMMANUEL'S DREAM cover

EMMANUEL'S DREAM cover
I’m thrilled to announce that Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Sto­ry of Emmanuel Ofo­su Yeboah has been select­ed to receive a 2015 Eure­ka! Hon­or Book Award from the Cal­i­for­nia Read­ing Asso­ci­a­tion.
The Cal­i­for­nia Read­ing Asso­ci­a­tion has estab­lished this award to cel­e­brate and hon­or non­fic­tion children’s books. The Eure­ka! Non­fic­tion Children’s Book Award will assist teach­ers, librar­i­ans, and par­ents in iden­ti­fy­ing out­stand­ing non­fic­tion books for their stu­dents and children.
And, it means a shiny new stick­er for the cover! 🙂
Eureka Honor AwardEmmanuel’s Dream is in some excel­lent com­pa­ny, too! Click here for the full list of win­ners. I guar­an­tee you find some great non­fic­tion for kids (which means it’s great for adults, too!).

Be a Changemaker wins COVR Book of the Year!

BaC at COVR awards-DSC_5012-2Each year the Coali­tion of Vision­ary Resources gives Vision­ary Awards to win­ners select­ed from the best prod­ucts in the Mind/Body/Spirit mar­ket­place. The 18th Annu­al Vision­ary Awards were announced at the INATS Awards Ban­quet on June 27, 2015.BaC at COVR awards-DSC_4627
I’m beyond thrilled to share that Be a Change­mak­er: How to Start Some­thing that Mat­ters was select­ed not only as the Best Chil­dren’s and Teen’s Book, but it was also named COV­R’s Book of the Year!

BaC COVR BotY

 

Whit­ney Dif­f­endor­fer, Mar­ket­ing Direc­tor at Beyond Words, with the award

NEWSLETTER
SIGN-UP