The Children’s Book Guild of Washington, DC
A learning and sharing community for
DC-area children’s literature professionals since 1945
SPEAKER SERIES
January 2024 program
Andrea Beatriz Arango
January 18, 2024
7 p.m.
Zoom Program
The next meeting will be January 18, 2024. This is an evening virtual meeting with Andrea Beatrez Arango, whose book "Iveliz Explains It All" was a 2023 Newbery Honor book. More details (and registration) will come later. Happy holiday season!
Pat Scales
Summary by Betsy Kraft
Guild members got an inside look at book banning at the November Guild meeting when Pat Scales shared stories and data of the recent rise of challenges of books for young people. Scales, a First Amendment advocate, is the former chair of ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee, and has appeared nationally as a spokeswoman for freedom from censorship. She has also authored two books on the subject: Books under Fire and Teaching Banned Books.
Books featuring LBGTQ characters were top of the 2022 challenged list with those about people of color coming in second. Other topics on the rise were those portraying kids engaged in rights and activism. Scales said the banning of books began in the eighties, mostly directed at Judy Bloom’s body of work. But the rise of social media has rapidly accelerated the trend and grown with parent groups like Moms for Liberty and other like-minded groups and laws like Florida’s Don’t Say Gay.
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Scales pointed with hope to teens themselves who have created teen banned book clubs and even brought legal cases saying the banning of books violates their civil rights. She pointed to the ridiculous extremes of the movement with the challenging of Mark Brown’s picture book, Arthur's Birthday, in which a girl brings a gift suggesting they play Spin the Bottle.
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In advice to writers, she said just keep writing good books. And to those who wish to become engaged in the fight against banned or challenged books she says stay aware of what’s happening and help spread the word.
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School Library Journal columns by Pat Scales
November program
October Program
Amina Luqman-Dawson
Summary by Fred Bowen
I write sports books so I hope everyone will forgive me if I use a baseball phrase.
With her first book, Freewater, author Amina Luqman-Dawson “knocks it out of the park.” The book follows the adventures of Homer, an enslaved boy who escapes to the wilderness – The Great Dismal Swamp – to live among escaped Blacks and some who have never known slavery. Freewater won the 2023 Newbery medal as well as the Coretta Scott King award.
Not bad for what Luqman-Dawson calls her “baby book” meaning her first real book.
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Long-time librarian and Guild member, Edie Ching, interviewed Luqman-Dawson at the October in-person (!) meeting of the Children’s Book Guild of Washington D.C.
Luqman-Dawson was a policy professional who worked for several non-profits and moonlighted by writing op-ed columns as well magazine articles and travel pieces. All along, Luqman-Dawson nurtured the dream of writing a book. She only shared that dream with her husband.
Some parts of Freewater were easy. Luqman-Dawson said the story “exploded in my mind” and she saw [the character of Homer] “clearly in my mind.”
Other parts were not so easy. Luqman-Dawson told the Guild she went through ten to fifteen drafts and at one crucial juncture when she felt stuck, benefitted from a mentorship with We Need Diverse Books.
Luqman-Dawson also benefitted from a sensitive editor – Alexandra Hightower - who helped her pull out more from certain characters but who knew when to leave certain parts of the book alone. Hightower was the first African-American to edit a Newbery winner.
In the end, Luqman-Dawson produced a page turner and a rollicking adventure that has impressed readers and critics alike. Edie Ching said that she has read the book four or five times and still sees themes and details she had not seen before.
Luqman-Dawson is working on a second book based on one of the many characters in Freewater. Expect another home run.
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2023 Nonfiction Award Event
Don Brown Wins CBG 2023 Nonfiction Award
By Betsy Kraft
The chair of this year’s Nonfiction Award Selection Committee was Tammar Stein (now living in Singapore); committee members included Kathie Meizner, Yukari Matsuyama and Edie Ching. Abby Nolan chaired the award event at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D. C.
Don Brown loved comics as a kid. Among his favorites were Prince Valiant, Pogo, Superman --even Mary Worth. Later he copied the style of cartoonist Bill Mauldin who drew images of two GI Joes on the battlefield during World War II. It was decades before Brown, this year’s Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award winner, became the widely popular author/illustrator of more than forty children’s books.
Brown feels history has been pushed aside in primary and secondary schools. So, he began to create stories showing both known facts but also their broader implications in the country and the world. When reading history, he looks for the actual events, but then “stays on for the story.” Read the rest of the story here.
2023 Children’s Book Guild
Youth Literacy Awards
At this year’s Nonfiction Award celebration, the Guild presented its 9th annual Youth Literacy awards to Twinbrook Elementary School (Montgomery County, MD), Langdon Elementary and Charles Hart Middle Schools and School Without Walls (Washington, D.C.), and Summer Fun Stuff/Do Kind Works (Montgomery County, MD/Washington, D.C.). Each winning school or organization received a $500 gift certificate to First Book.
FIND US ON SOCIAL
The Children’s Book Guild of Washington, DC, is committed to the fight for racial justice and support for Black lives. Please click on the links above for information on organizations to support, and readings to help educate and inspire positive change.