Over on a Mountain has received an honorable mention from the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards in the Picture Books Five & Younger category. The Purple Dragonfly is the latest recognition for author-illustrator duo, Marianne Berkes and Jill Dubin, who won an Indie Book Award and a Mom’s Choice Gold Award for Over on a Mountain earlier this year.
A full list of Purple Dragonfly award winners can be found here. Congrats Jill and Marianne!
Ahead of the release of Welcome Home, Bear, Il Sung Na will be attending ALA 2015 in San Francisco. He will do a book signing on June 28th from 1 to 2 pm at Random House Children’s Books, Booth #3001.
Welcome Home, Bear by Il Sung Na is due to be released July 07, 2015.
Lucie Crovatto was selected for a 2015 Applied Arts Award in Illustration, for her “Simple Pleasures” gift package that showcases Crovatto’s style.
The Applied Arts Magazine selects submissions in several categories including Illustration and Design, and it is “one of the industry’s most prestigious recognitions of creative excellence.”
View Lucie Crovatto’s submission and the other winners here.
The Rat by Elise Gravel was selected for the Prix des Premières Lectures Coup de pouce Clé, in France, and The Fly was selected for the Science in Society Children’s Book Award. The two books are part of Gravel’s Disgusting Critters series.
The Prix des Premières Lectures Coup de pouce Clé is chosen by over 10,000 children every year, and the aim of the award is to promote the love of books to children in a fun and educational way.
The Science in Society Children’s Book Award is presented annually from the Canadian Science Writers’ Association, and The Fly was selected based on its “initiative, originality, scientific accuracy, clarity of interpretation and value in promoting a better understanding of science by the public.”
Elizabeth Zunon will have a booth at local Albany craft fair, Art on Lark, Saturday, June 6th, where she’ll be selling prints from her books, copies of her books, along with jewelry and purses from her line “Miami Slice.” Visit the Facebook event page for more details.
This month, Elizabeth will also be the featured speaker at the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York’s Literacy Volunteer Thank You Event on June 16th.
The LA Times includedPoems in the Attic, written by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon, on its list “30 Summer Books that Kids Will Gobble Up.” The book is due out June 10th. Check out the full list here for all your summer beach reading needs.
Lend A Hand, written by John Frank and illustrated by London Ladd, recently received two great reviews from The Horn Book Guide and Minervareads.com.
The Horn Book wrote:
“In each free-verse poem, a child narrator recalls acting generously. Coupled with expansive, freeze-the-moment acrylic, colored-pencil, and pastel illustrations, frequent line breaks invite readers to move slowly through each poem and linger in the moments of kindness. Ladd’s art particularizes the diverse array of narrators, themes, and settings.”
The book was featured on the MinervaReads website as part of an article on poetry books for kids. Read the article “Poetry: It doesn’t have to be boring” here.
Poems in the Attic received yet another wonderful review, this time from Publishers Weekly. They wrote, “Fully in step with Grimes’s empathic writing, Zunon’s (One Plastic Bag) warmly painted collages carry readers from the waterways of Virginia to a German castle atop a hill, highlighting the powerful emotional ties between the girl and her elders, as well as her mother’s adventurous spirit.”
Read the full review here.
Check out this fantastic interview with Elizabeth Zunon, conducted by the Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington D.C. Elizabeth discusses her dual identities as an African and an American, and how that influences her as a writer and artist.
Not My Girl, written by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton and illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard, received an Honorable Mention from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. The awards honor books published by independent houses. Congrats to Gabrielle, Christy, Margaret, and all involved at Annick Press!
Not My Girl was also selected as a Best Multicultural Book of 2015 by CSMCL and an Outstanding International Book by USBBY.