Kathy Crutcher, Founder of Shout Mouse Press To Speak at the Guild's March 21st Membership Meeting
On March 21, Kathy Crutcher, Founder of Shout Mouse Press (
www.shoutmousepress.org), and a panel of SMP young authors will talk about their work "changing the story" through writing and publishing books by marginalized youth. This intimate conversation will shine a light on the "story behind the story" for each of their celebrated books, while highlighting principles for effective engagement with youth writers. Shout Mouse asks: Who can be an author? Whose story matters? Who benefits from hearing the stories of those whose voices go unheard? Our answers: Anyone. Everyone. All of us.
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Shout Mouse Press is a nonprofit writing and publishing program dedicated to amplifying unheard voices. They coach writers from marginalized communities to tell their own stories and, as published authors, to act as leaders and agents of change. Shout Mouse Press authors include incarcerated, at-risk, immigrant, and otherwise marginalized teens; their books include original children’s books, novels, comics, and memoir and poetry collections. Shout Mouse Press is building a catalog of these mission-driven books to expand empathy, affirm the vulnerable, and increase understanding of unheard perspectives.
Featured Books:
- · Voces Sin Fronteras: Bilingual graphic memoir collection by Latinx youth immigrants of LAYC
- · The Day Tajon Got Shot: Collaborative novel about police violence by teen girls from Beacon House in NE DC
- · Ballou Story Project Series: Memoirs by students from Ballou High School in SE DC
- · Reach Children's Book Series: Illustrated children's books by teen tutors of Reach Incorporated
Two years in a row, Shout Mouse titles earned a Top Prize in the national "In the Margins" Book Awards, which celebrate books that engage marginalized youth: Voces Sin Fronteras, Top Nonfiction Prize (2019), The Day Tajon Got Shot, Top Fiction Prize (2018).
See details about the meeting.
Congratulations!
A cornucopia of honors for Guild members during this award season – with Meg Medina winning the 2019 Newbery Medal for Merci Suarez Changes Gears. Erica S. Perl’s All Three Stooges won the 2018 National Jewish Book Award and a Sydney Taylor Honor. Jacqueline Jules’s Light the Menorah is a 2019 Sydney Taylor Notable Book. Minh Lê won the Asian/Pacific American Picture Book Award for Drawn Together, illustrated by Dan Santat. Maria Salvadore received the 2019 Association of Library Services Distinguished Service Award and Mary Amato received the 2019 William G. Wilson Maryland Author Award from the Maryland Library Association.
Carole Boston Weatherford
2019 Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award Winner
The Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C., has selected Carole Boston Weatherford as its 2019 Nonfiction Award Winner. The award, given annually since 1977, honors authors or illustrators whose total work has contributed significantly to the quality of nonfiction for children.
Weatherford’s books introduce individuals and subjects through careful research, often using different poetic styles to engage young readers. While some of her books tell the stories of famous figures such as Lena Horne and Billie Holiday, she also brings lesser known people such as photographer Gordon Parks and race car driver Wendell Scott to a wider audience. Though she writes on many topics, Weatherford’s work often showcases the breadth and depth of African-American history, from the 1700’s to the present day.
Weatherford has won numerous honors for her individual books. Freedom in Congo Square won a Charlotte Zolotow Award for best picture book text. Weatherford also won a Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor for Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement and the 2018 Walter Dean Myers Award for Schomberg: The Man Who Built a Library.
Nonfiction Award Committee member Cecilia Cackley was particularly impressed by the text in Weatherford’s picture books. “Whether she is writing in rhyming poetry, free verse or rhythmic prose, she has great respect for the child audience and doesn’t talk down to the reader, even when writing about difficult topics.”
Weatherford will be honored at a Children’s Book Guild Award Luncheon on May 11, 2019, at Clyde’s Restaurant of Gallery Place, 707 7th St. N.W., Washington, D.C. Tickets are $36. RSVP and pay. Download Event Flyer.
