Monthly Archives: May 2018

CSK Book Donation Grant

Meet the 2018 Coretta Scott King Book Awards Donation Grant Recipients

Pop-Up Learning Center
Uni Project, NYC

Founded to honor Coretta Scott King’s humanitarian work, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards has for nearly 50 years drawn attention to “outstanding books for young adults and children by African American authors and illustrators that reflect the African American experience.” Each year the awards jury receives hundreds of books and over 100 unique titles for consideration for this prestigious prize. The Coretta Scott King Book Awards Donation Grant Committee reviews grant applications and ensures submissions will directly benefit young people. Selected organizations receive books, including a complete set of the winning titles, once the CSK Book Awards Jury deliberations have concluded.

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards Donation Grant Committee is delighted to showcase three grant recipients for 2018:

Art Aids Art (Khayelitsha, South Africa)

Art Aids Art is a US nonprofit that established the eKhaya eKasi Art and Education Center ten years ago in Khayelitsha, South Africa. They opened a Multicultural Children’s Library in the township with help from a previous Coretta Scott King Awards Donation Grant. Materials in the library are translated by staff into the local language, isiXhosa, and are used to support community engagement and literacy and cultural instruction for children and adults. The Center offers after-school care, life skills instruction, reproductive health programs, homework support, and visual and performing arts classes. The books received from the 2018 grant will support continued instruction, independent reading, and the organization’s community-wide celebration of its 10th anniversary.

Athens Housing Authority, University of Georgia College of Education & Parkview Community (Athens, GA)

The Athens Housing Authority, University of Georgia College of Education, and Parkview Community in Athens, GA collaborated to add the books they received from the grant to a community library for Parkview residents. The new books will support workshops and tutoring related to the arts, storytelling, dramatic play, and community activism. The library will focus on individual, family, and community literacy development while also bringing together residents and leveraging historical memory and knowledge from community members.

Uni Project (New York, NY)

Traveling Learning Center
Uni Project, NYC

For the past seven years, the Uni Project in New York, NY, has built pop-up learning centers in “book deserts” in New York. Loaded with books, materials on STEAM subjects, and more, these custom outdoor learning centers are very attractive to children. Joined by a cart featuring new titles received from this year’s grant, offerings such as author readings, reviews written by members of the public, book discussions, and other participatory schemes will enable the books to reach a broad audience as they (and the ideas they inspire) will travel throughout New York City neighborhoods.

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are presented by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Community of the American Library Association’s Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT). In 2019, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. Applications for the 2019 Coretta Scott King Book Award Donation Grant will be available in the fall of 2018. Please review the criteria, consider applying in the fall of 2018, and encourage other eligible organizations to apply!

Elisa Gall is the Youth Collection Development Librarian at Deerfield (Illinois) Public Library and Chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Donation Grant Committee.

A former school librarian, Laura Simeon is the Young Adult Editor at Kirkus Reviews. She is a member of the CSK Book Awards Donation Grant Committee.

Personal Reflections

CSK Titles: Combating the Single Narrative of the Black Experience

I am currently pursuing my doctoral degree in Educational Leadership and I had been going back in forth in my mind on what my dissertation focus would be.  But, finally, I just gave in to what is most dear to my heart—books that mirror the lives of black and brown children; and CSK plays a significant role in pushing such titles to the forefront.  So now, the working title of my dissertation is:  “Avoiding the Single Story: University Professionals Explore Narratives of the Black Experience through Coretta Scott King Book Award Titles.”  I have selected four CSK titles for university faculty and/or leaders to read over the course of the fall semester via a virtual book club: Piecing Me Together, We Are the Ship, Crown, and The Crossover.  I wanted to choose titles that told varied narratives of the black experience.

I will never forget my experience as a little black girl perusing through books in the public library in search of titles that mirrored people, places, and experiences familiar to me.  Allow me to briefly take a stroll down memory lane to recall some of the friends I have met through CSK titles like Cassie, from Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. Her ability to maintain her spunky personality and witty nature all while dealing with racism and social ills made me feel like we were best friends.  My heart ached for Gayle from Rita Williams-Garcia’s Like Sisters on the Homefront as she went through the trials and tribulations of being a teen mom. And I was terrified for Steve as he stood trial in a world that only saw him as a villain and not as the young, black teen or human he was, but instead, as a monster (Could art be imitating life today?)—an unforgettable character from the late, great Walter Dean Myers’ novel, Monster.  I could go on, and on.

I am honored, and I view it as a service to my community, to serve on the Coretta Scott King Book Awards jury. I know how important it is for little black and brown children to see themselves, their culture, their neighborhoods, and their language in literature.  But it is equally important for little white boys and girls to see that there are many stories that contribute to the black experience and that having only one narrative of the black experience is what contributes to unfair and inaccurate narratives that lead to stereotyping of black people, prejudice, and racial profiling—all of which we are witnessing in today’s political climate.   Through my research, I will challenge university faculty and leaders to open up their hearts and their bookshelves to not only this year’s winners but to go back and read previous CSK award-winning titles, in order to expose themselves to the plethora of narratives that contribute to the black experience. Libraries may transform lives, but the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles have the power to modify your spirit and to change your heart.  I’ll be sure to report my findings to the blog next year.  See you all in NOLA and happy reading!

LaKeshia Darden is a 2017-2019 member of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Jury.  She is the Curriculum Materials/Media Librarian at  Campbell University.

Past Events and Important People

CSK Well Represented at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

The University of Southern California (USC) was the site of the 23rd Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Well over 150,000 people attended the two-day event, April 21 – 22, which consisted of conversations with award-winning authors, journalists, celebrities, chefs, artists, and musicians. Coretta Scott King (CSK) Book Awards was well represented with CSK Winner and Honor awardees Renée Watson and Jason Reynolds, respectively, as featured speakers at the event.

Dr. Claudette S. McLinn in Conversation with 2017 CSK Honor Winner Jason Reynolds at Bovard Auditorium, USC.

Jason Reynolds,  2018 CSK Honor Author Award winner for  Long Way Down, was a featured speaker interviewed on Saturday by CSK Chair Dr. Claudette S. McLinn, who is also Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature. Reynolds revealed the various aspects of his writing, including why he writes, the reasons for the various themes of his books, the purpose of his open-ended endings, and more. It was an informative as well as lively conversation. Long Way Down was also the 2018 winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature, awarded the previous evening.

Secrets and Discovery Panel members (from left): Brandy Colbert, Robin Benway, Dr. McLinn, Renée Watson, and Abdi Nazemian.

Dr. McLinn was also the moderator of the Sunday panel discussion. Renée Watson, the author of the 2018 CSK Author Award-winning book Piecing Me Together, was a member of the panel discussion titled “Secrets and Self Discovery” with members: Brandy Colbert, author of Little & Lion; Robin Benway, author of Far From the Tree; and Abdi Nazemian, author of The Authentics. The authors were allowed to summarize their books and explain how each related to the session theme. Many thought-provoking questions were raised from the audience, which made it a very energized discussion.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books was a high-energy literary experience filled with many author presentations, vendor booths, stage performances, and storytelling. Looking forward to next year!

Dr. Claudette McLinn is Chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee.  She is the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature.