What an honor to be interviewed for a podcast also featuring author Pat Mora and author-illustrator Don Tate by Professional Book Nerds.
Peek from my segment:
“It [writing for kids] was a heart decision, not a head decision and part of that heart decision wasn’t just about my work.
Continue Reading Podcast: Pat Mora, Cynthia Leitich Smith & Don Tate »
El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), commonly known as Día, is a celebration every day of children, families, and reading that culminates yearly on April 30. The celebration emphasizes the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Patricia C. McKissack, honored children’s author from Chesterfield, dies at 72 by Jane Henderson
from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Peek: “…’I think my mother died of a broken heart.’ Fredrick McKissack Jr. said his mother and father were ‘best friends and partners.’”
Before becoming an author,
Hena Khan, a well-published picture book author makes her novelist debut with Amina’s Voice (Salaam Reads, March 2017). From the promotional copy:
A Pakistani-American Muslim girl struggles to stay true to her family’s vibrant culture while simultaneously blending in at school after tragedy strikes her community.
Co-founders Gauri Manglik & Sadaf Siddique
KitaabWorld is a new online bookseller focusing exclusively on South Asian and diverse children’s
titles. I interviewed founder Gauri Manglik about their unique niche, how the business got started and their Counter Islamophobia Through Stories campaign.
KitaabWorld is a great resource for finding children’s books with South Asian connections.
N. Griffin is the author of Smashie McPerter and the Mystery of the Missing Goop, illustrated by Kate Hindley (Candlewick, 2016). The cheerful middle grade mystery is the second in a series featuring a diverse pair of clever student detectives.
What do you love most about the creative life/being an author?
Continue Reading Author Interview: N. Griffin on Creativity, Mysteries and Writing a Series »
Compiled by Gayleen Rabakukk
Check out these videos from debut author Angie Thomas on The Hate U Give (Balzer + Bray/Harper Collins, 2017). Peek: “I was inspired to write the novel in 2010, right after the Oscar Grant case…I wanted a way to find hope and I wanted to show the human side of all these cases.
Continue Reading Author Videos: Angie Thomas on The Hate U Give »
Check out the new book trailer for Allegedly (HarperCollins, 2017) by Tiffany D. Jackson. From the promotional copy:
Orange Is the New Black meets Walter Dean Myer’s Monster (HarperCollins, 1999) in this gritty, twisty, and haunting debut by Tiffany D.
Continue Reading Book Trailer: Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson »
I recently returned to live in the Washington D.C. area after a three-year stint living in Durban, South Africa.
Why Durban, you ask? Most people do. That is definitely a story I will be writing one day – so you’ll have to stay tuned for that one.
My first picture book,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Carole Lindstrom on Writing on Two Continents »
Lamar Giles’ last Cynsations visit was in 2014 as a debut author.
Since then, he’s had two novels named Edgar Award finalists by the Mystery Writers of America and helped found We Need Diverse Books.
He serves as senior vice president of fundraising for the non-profit organization dedicated to putting more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all children.
