<<For future collection development, what children's (5th-8th grade)
African American authors would you recommend?>>
If I may, let me suggest a look at Jacqueline Turner Banks, if she is not
already represented in your collection. (Disclosure: Jackie is a friend of
mine, having met several years ago via a local mystery writers/readers
group. She has also written an adult mystery novel, Maid in the Shade.) I
have just read one of her children's books, A Day for Vincent Chin and Me
(Houghton Mifflin, 2001). She has written three other books for the same
age group (The New One, Project Wheels, and Egg-Drop Blues), some nominated
for awards in a number of states, but not yet in California, as far as I
know. A Day for Vincent Chin and Me is a story of young friends (6th
graders) coping with racism and an uncomfortably public parental stand
against it. The story was inspired by the 1982 racist murder of a
Chinese-American man named Vincent Chin and by the Asian community's
response to it. In the book, Jackie explains that background briefly and
effectively. At the same time as the young people face that problem, they
are *creatively* addressing the problem of drivers speeding on their street
(I think that pouring cement for a home-made speed bump is creative), and
those threads intertwine through the book. The book carries a message, but
it is also an entertaining story.
Ken
--------------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth W. Umbach, Ph.D.
Research-Writing-Editing-Consulting
Ken@umbachconsulting.com
http://www.umbachconsulting.com
6966 Sunrise Blvd., #263
Citrus Heights, CA 95610
916-733-2159 -- voice
Also see my http://www.capitolweasel.com
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