Mark Jonathan Harris is an American documentary filmmaker, writer, and educator known for his award-winning work in the documentary genre. Over the course of his career, Harris has earned three Academy Awards and numerous accolades for his contributions to filmmaking and education. He served as a Distinguished Professor and Head of Advanced Documentary Production at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he taught from 1983 until his retirement in 2023. Harris is also an accomplished author, having written five children's novels and a collection of short stories.
Joy Nozomi Kogawa is a Canadian poet and novelist of Japanese descent.
Robin McMaugh Klein is an Australian author of books for children. She was born in Kempsey, New South Wales, Australia, and now resides near Melbourne.
Tom Feelings was an artist, cartoonist, children's book illustrator, author, teacher, and activist. He focused on the African-American experience in his work. His most famous book is The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo (1995).
The Slave Dancer is a historical novel written by Paula Fox and published in 1973. It tells the story of a boy called Jessie Bollier who witnessed first-hand the savagery of the Atlantic slave trade. The book not only includes a historical account, but it also touches upon the emotional conflicts felt by those involved in transporting the slaves from Africa to other parts of the world. It tells the story of a thirteen-year-old boy, Jessie Bollier, who is put in a position which allows him to see the African slave trade in person. Jessie is captured from his New Orleans home and brought to an American ship. There he is forced to play the fife in order to keep the other slaves dancing, and thus strong when they arrive at their destination. The book received the Newbery Medal in 1974.
Julius Bernard Lester was an American writer of books for children and adults and an academic who taught for 32 years (1971–2003) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Lester was also a civil rights activist, a photographer, and a musician who recorded two albums of folk music and original songs.
Virginia Esther Hamilton was an American children's books author. She wrote 41 books, including M. C. Higgins, the Great (1974), for which she won the U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Newbery Medal in 1975. Her works were celebrated for exploring the African-American experience, what she called "Liberation Literature."
A Gathering of Days; A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32 (1979) is a historical novel by Joan Blos that won the 1980 National Book Award for Children's Books (hardcover) and the 1980 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature.
Jerry Pinkney was an American illustrator and writer of children's literature. Pinkney illustrated over 100 books since 1964, including picture books, nonfiction titles and novels. Pinkney's works addressed diverse themes and were usually done in watercolors.
The Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award was a literary award given annually to recognize a Canadian children's book. The award was given to a book written in English by a citizen or permanent resident of Canada and published in Canada during the preceding year.
The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was an American literary award conferred on several books by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education annually from 1958 to 1979. Award-winning books were deemed to "belong on the same shelf" as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, having enough of the qualities of his work.
Alison Jean Lester is an Australian author and illustrator who has published over 25 children's picture books and two young adult novels; The Quickstand Pony and The Snow Pony. In 2005 Lester won the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Picture Book of the Year for her children's book, Are We There Yet?: A Journey around Australia. Her books have been published worldwide.
Underground to Canada is an historical novel for young readers by Barbara Smucker. It was first published in Canada in 1977 and published in the United States the following year as Runaway to Freedom: A Story of the Underground Railway. Based partially on a true story, the novel is set in the United States and Canada in the years leading up to the American Civil War and depicts the hard lives of slaves in the American South and the people who helped them escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad. The novel is studied in many Canadian schools.
Erik Christian Haugaard was a Danish-born American writer, best known for children's books and for his translations of the works of Hans Christian Andersen.
Julius Lester’s When Dad Killed Mom (2001) tells, through two-first person narrative voices, the story of siblings, Jeremy age 12 and Jenna age 14, coping with the traumatic events of their mother’s murder at the alleged hands of their college psychologist father. In alternating chapters, the story unfolds, revealing that each sibling has insight into the possible motivation for the act. As the narrative unfolds, the siblings struggle to maintain order amidst their new lives. Grappling with the emotional, physical, sexual and social paradigms that resulted from their mother’s death and father’s imprisonment, Lester weaves a narrative that provides insight into the children’s new lived reality.
The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit is a 1987 Children's book by Julius Lester and illustrator Jerry Pinkney. It is a retelling of the American Br'er Rabbit tales.
Sam and the Tigers: A New Telling of Little Black Sambo is a 1996 Children's picture book by Julius Lester and illustrator Jerry Pinkney. It is a retelling of the classic story by Helen Bannerman and is about a young boy, Sam, who outwits a group of hungry tigers.
Black Cowboy, Wild Horses: A True Story is a 1998 children's picture book by Julius Lester and illustrator Jerry Pinkney. It is about an ex-slave and Black cowboy, Bob Lemmons, who, by himself, wrangles a herd of wild horses to a corral.
The Old African is a 2005 book by Julius Lester and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. It is based on an incident at Igbo Landing and is about Jaja, a slave who leads a group of plantation slaves back to Africa by walking into the ocean.
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is an American children's and young adult book author. In 2016, her children's book The War That Saved My Life received the Newbery Honor Award and was named to the Bank Street Children's Book Committee's Best Books of the Year List with an "Outstanding Merit" distinction and won the Committee's Josette Frank Award for fiction.
