Tag Archives: book awards

Lee & Low Books Announces the 2021 New Visions Award Winner

New Visions Award seal

New York, NY—Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books, is thrilled to announce the results of its ninth annual New Visions Award for new authors of color. This year, Nicki Jay has won the New Visions Award for her manuscript, The Marassa: Birth*Life*Death Book I.

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Lee & Low Books Announces the 2021 New Visions Award Winner and Honor

New Visions Award sealNew York, NY—Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books, is thrilled to announce the results of its eighth annual New Visions Award writing contest. Established to increase the number of authors of color writing for children and teens, the New Visions Award is given to a middle grade or young adult manuscript by a new author of color or Indigenous/Native author. Winners receive a cash prize and publishing contract with Lee & Low Books. This year, Tiffany Golden has won the New Visions Award for her manuscript, Rikki and Rai: The Everyday and Sometimes Epic Adventures of the Tucker Sisters. The honor goes to Ana Rodriguez Ellickson for Roman the Renegade. Continue reading

Congratulations to NAACP Image Award Winner She Was the First!

We’re so excited to share that She Was the First!: The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm by Katheryn Russell-Brown and illustrated by Eric Velasquez is the 52nd Annual NAACP Image Award Winner in the Outstanding Literature Work – Children’s category!

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Lee & Low Books’ Top Awarded Titles of 2019

It’s already the end of the year! A time to look back on the accomplishments and achievements earned in 2019. We have a lot to celebrate including the new titles that hit the shelves this year as well as the new authors who are putting their voices and stories to the forefront. For this blog post, we wanted to take the time to recognize some of our top-awarded  titles of the year! Continue reading

2016 APALA Literary Award Announced

We are thrilled to share that two LEE & LOW titles have been selected for the 2016 Literature Award given by the Asian Pacific Juna's Jar coverAmerican Library Association (APALA). Congratulations to Juna’s Jar, winner in the Picture Book category, and Ink and Ashes, honor in the Young Adult category!

Here’s the full list of winners from APALA’s press release: Continue reading

Diversity in Children’s Literature and the Legacy of Pura Belpré

13089CT01.tifSnapshot_20140113Marilisa Jimenez-Garcia, research associate at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, CUNY, graduated from the University of Florida with a PhD in English, specializing in American literature/studies, nationalism, and children’s and young adult literature. Marilisa is also a National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) Cultivating New Voices Among Scholar of Color Fellow. She is currently working on a manuscript on U.S. Empire, Puerto Rico, and American children’s culture. She is the recipient of the Puerto Rican Studies Association Dissertation Award 2012 and the University of Florida’s Dolores Auzenne Dissertation Award. Her scholarly work appears in publications such as Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education and CENTRO Journal. She has also published reviews in International Research in Children’s Literature and Latino Studies. Continue reading

Where can I find great diverse children’s books?

Recently The New York Times paired articles by Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher Myers, discussing the lack of representation of people of color in children’s literature. Those excellent articles—which pointed out that in the long history of children’s literature we haven’t made much progress—caught the attention of best-selling author Jennifer Weiner, who started the #colormyshelf hashtag on Twitter asking for suggestions of diverse books that she could go purchase for her daughter. What a wonderful way to bring attention to what parents can do!

Just because diverse books don’t always show up front and center in bookstores doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Here’s a list of places to find great diverse books for young readers. Buy them, read them, recommend them. Showing demand for diverse books is one of the best ways to encourage the publication of more of them!

1. PublishersSeveral small publishers (us included) focus on diverse books. They’re a great place to start, and you can usually buy books from them directly, order them through an online retailer like Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or ask your local bookstore to order them (which also displays a demand for diverse titles):

Lee & Low Books (diverse books for young readers featuring a range of cultures)Rainbow Stew image
Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low (diverse middle grade and young adult speculative fiction)
Children’s Book Press, an imprint of Lee & Low (bilingual English/Spanish picture books)

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