Well, this is exciting! Oprah’s Book Club just released its 2010 Kids’ Reading List, full of books recommended by the American Library Association—and our very own Tofu Quilt makes an appearance!
Category Archives: Awards
Announcing Tu Books!
We have some very exciting news to share: we have acquired Tu Publishing, an independent press focusing on diverse fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults! Founded by Stacy Whitman last fall to address the need for more books featuring diverse characters and inspired by non-Western cultures, Tu is becoming Tu Books, an imprint of LEE & LOW. Several manuscripts are already in the works, with hopes of releasing the first books under the new imprint next year.
Gracias • Thanks wins a Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor!
Gracias • Thanks by Pat Mora, illustrated by John Parra, has been awarded Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor!
Happy 100th Birthday, Bank Street Children’s Book Committee!
This morning, we went up to the Bank Street College of Education for the announcement of their Best Children’s Books of the year list—and to celebrate, with cake, the centennial of the Children’s Book Committee.
Every year for the last one hundred years, The Children’s Book Committee—then of Child Study Association of America, now of the Bank Street College of Education—has recommended books that are good for children. They read thousands of books, they share books with children and ask for their opinions, and then they make recommendations to 
teachers, librarians, and parents. They have good taste—they included Alicia Afterimage, Bird, Honda, Horse Song, No Mush Today, and Seven Miles to Freedom on their list of the best books published in 2008—and they love books.
What a Starred Review looks like from my desk
We have a bell on the wall in the office. It’s the good-news bell; whenever we get a starred review, an award, or a really big order, the bell is rung, the staff gathers around it, and the news is announced to the office.
Jason, as publisher, is the first to know when we get starred reviews: the relevant journal emails him the news. My first inkling comes when Jason sidles up to Hannah’s desk—right next to mine—and mutters something along the lines of, “Check your email. I forwarded something from Booklist.” After a pause long enough for the email to download and open, Hannah says, “oooh!” She then gets up and walks in the direction of the bell, Jason following surreptitiously two steps behind. That’s the point at which I know I’d better slip my feet into my shoes—I tend to kick them off under my desk—and get ready to gather around the bell for the good news.
¡Gracias por la estrella! Thanks for the starred review!
Woot! GRACIAS • THANKS by Pat Mora is our second book this fall to get a starred review from Kirkus (a review journal certainly not known for dishing them out freely). Since it’s running later than our other fall titles, this is the first review we’ve gotten in, so we were all pretty excited this morning to read this:
Seeing Stars
Just got word that The East-West House, Christy Hale’s biography of Isamu Noguchi, earned a star from the not-easily-impressed Kirkus Reviews! Thanks, Kirkus!
The review says, “Hale’s striking illustrations and the book’s elegant look are an homage to the Japanese landscape.” Can’t resist posting two of my favorites:
Boys Read I and I Bob Marley
And they like it!
A great review of I and I Bob Marley was written by John Martin on the Boys Read blog, plus some nice words from I and I Bob Marley illustrator, Jesse Joshua Watson.
June’s Top 10 Bestsellers
You know you’re jealous of all the people who bought these awesome books — and you know what to do about that, don’t you?
June’s Top 10 Books on leeandlow.com
A Starred Review for Bob
I and I Bob Marley received a starred review from Booklist magazine. The review calls I and I “[A] rare, soulful tribute.”