When I first heard Maggie Tokuda-Hall talk about her book based on her grandparents, I knew I had to have it for my own library. It's a true story about how love can miraculously be found under the most trying of circumstances. Take note of the armed guard in the tower outside the window of … Continue reading Love in the Library – Perfect Picture Book Friday
On the half-title page, we are treated to a quote from Nina Simone: "When I die...I'm gonnna know that I left something for [my people] to build on. That is my reward." This biography elegantly shows the progression of a woman bent on making a living through her music, to a woman bent on fighting … Continue reading Nina: A Story of Nina Simone – Perfect Picture Book Friday
This week, I'm pleased to present a fabulous new book that takes aim at bias. Those binoculars are a metaphor folks. As adults, we tend to walk around with our perception goggles rigged for bias, possibly through parental conditioning coupled with mass media that insidiously (and often blatantly) establishes and then reinforces cultural, racial, and … Continue reading No Bears Allowed – Perfect Picture Book Friday
In 2015, I sat in a darkened auditorium in a hotel in Los Angeles, wanting to throw up. I had word poisoning. What was the source? The messenger's message. In that dark room, Shannon Hale, a keynote speaker at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Conference, was turning the spotlight on gender bias. … Continue reading Who Are You? Gender Bias – #KidLitWomen
There's an ongoing discussion in the kid lit world about why boys don't want to read "girl books," meaning books that star female protagonists or feature fairies or princesses on the cover or in the title. Is this "preference" intrinsic, or are they steered away from such interests, starting at a very young age? Shannon … Continue reading Reading Gender Into It – Children’s Books and Beyond
Jilanne Hoffmann 