Tag Archives: awards

TWO LEE & LOW BOOKS TAKE HOME PURA BELPRÉ AWARDS AT THE 2023 AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S YOUTH MEDIA AWARDS

New York, NY (January 31, 2023) — The American Library Association (ALA) announced the following Pura Belpré awards for two titles published by LEE & LOW BOOKS INC.: Where Wonder Grows illustrated by Adriana M. Garcia as the 2023 Pura Belpré Youth Illustration Award winner, and Still Dreaming / Seguimos soñando illustrated by Magdalena Mora as a 2023 Pura Belpré Youth Illustration Honor Book.

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2022 Best of of the Year and Starred Review Titles

Lee & Low Books is hanging shining starred reviews on these books and wrapping up our best of the year titles with a bow! As 2022 comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to celebrate the achievements of the year.

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Announcing the 2018 Winners of the Sonia Lynn Sadler Award for Children’s Book Illustrations

Sonia Lynn Sadler Award winners
Award winners Gordon C. James and Daria Peoples-Riley hold their awards, together with Sonia Lynn Sadler’s parents and author Jen Cullerton Johnson.

Children’s book illustrators Gordon C. James  and Daria Peoples-Riley recently received the Sonia Lynn Sadler Awards during Salisbury University’s 17th annual Children’s and Young Adult Literature Festival. Continue reading

Apply for the Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff Creative Outreach Grant for Teachers and Librarians

Since many of our readers are librarians and educators with a passion for diverse books, we’re reposting information on this special grant that may be of interest:

The Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Youth is now accepting applications for the Annual Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff Creative Outreach Grants for Teachers and Librarians.

Each year, the Conference offers two grants up to $1,000 each for projects to develop new classroom or library programs that raise awareness of multicultural literature among young people; particularly, but not exclusively, through the works of Virginia Hamilton. Continue reading

The Origins of the Coretta Scott King Award

guest bloggerIn this guest post, Dr. Henrietta M. Smith, Professor Emerita and the first African-American professor at the University of South Florida, School of Information shares her memories of how the Coretta Scott King Award began:

The news of the damage sustained by the boardwalk in Atlantic City during Hurricane Sandy brought back memories of where the Coretta Scott King Award started. This writer’s mind went back to an earlier time, to an American Library Association annual meeting in Atlantic City. "Never since the inception of the Newbery Medal..."The year was 1969. Two librarians walking through the exhibit hall stopped by a booth where a poster of the late Martin Luther King Jr. was on display. This was the start of a genial conversation that evolved into the observation that never since the inception of the Newbery Medal in 1922 and the Caldecott Medal in 1938 had any award committee recognized the work of a person of color.

John Carroll, a publisher from a small company in New York, overheard the conversation. It was reported that he said, rather matter of factly, “Then why don’t you ladies establish your own award?” The seed was planted. Before the conference ended, in an informal meeting on the boardwalk in Atlantic City under the leadership of Glyndon Greer and Mabel McKissick, the idea of a award for African American authors was shared with a group of African American librarians, including Augusta Baker, Charlemae Rollins, Ella Mae Yates, and Virginia Lacy Jones, to name a few. At this seaside gathering, the struggle for recognition began.

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Hurricane update: New Visions Award deadline extension

If you’ve been stuck at home from the hurricane and spending your time polishing your young adult novel, good news: due to Hurricane Sandy, we will be extending the deadline for our first annual New Visions Award. Entries should now be postmarked by November 14.

The New Visions Award will be given to a middle grade or young adult science fiction, fantasy, or mystery manuscript by a writer of color who has not previously had a middle grade or young adult novel published. See the full submissions requirements and guidelines.

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