Click on event name for more information

Black History Month~ Canada

African American History Month~ USA

National African American Read-in~  USA

National Year of Reading~ Australia

National Storytelling Week~ ongoing until Feb 4, United Kingdom

Kolkata Book Fair~ ongoing until Feb 6, Kolkata, India

Japanese Children’s Literature: A History from the International Library of Children’s Literature Collections~ ongoing until Feb 12, Tokyo, Japan

Celebrating 20 years of Philippine Children’s Book Illustration Exhibit~ ongoing until Feb 26, Manila, Philippines

Taipei Book Fair~ Feb 1 -6, Taipei, Taiwan

28 Days Later: A Black History Celebration of Children’s and YA Lit~ Feb 1 – 29, USA

Children’s Literature Symposium: The Same Text but Different: Variants in Children’s Media~ Feb 3 – 4, Sarasota, FL, USA

Pratham Book Events at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival~ Feb 4 – 12, Mumbai, India

2012 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour~ Feb 5 – 10

Seminar : Illustrating Children’s books in the Folk Art Traditions of India~ Feb 8, Mumbai, India

MA Children’s Book Illustration Exhibit~ Feb 8 – 15, London, United Kingdom

The Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children (AWIC) Presents an International Conference on Book Therapy~ Feb 9 – 11, New Delhi, India

Imagine Children’s Festival~ Feb 10 – 26, London, United Kingdom

Writer-in-Residence Launch: Meet Sarah Ellis~ Feb 11, Toronto, ON, Canada

47th ACELT Conference: Reading Ourselves, Reading the World~ Feb 11, Manila, Philippines

International Book Giving Day~ Feb 14

2011 Cybils (the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards) Winners Announced~ Feb 14

First Nations Public Library Week~ Feb 14 – 19, Province of Ontario, Canada

Chapter & Verse’s (A Book Club for Adults Discussing Children’s Lit) Discussion of ALA/ALSC Award Winners Feb 15, USA

Sun Gallery’s Twenty-third Annual Children’s Book Illustrator Exhibit~ Feb 15 -  Apr 7, Hayward, CA, USA

SCBWI Caribbean Book Chat Via Skype~ Feb 16

All In! Young Writers Media Festival~ Feb 18 – 19, Singapore

International Mother Language Day~ Feb 21

Centre for Youth Literature’s 21st Birthday Celebration~ Feb 21 -  22, Melbourne, Australia

Cooperative Children’s Book Centre Webinar~ Feb 22, USA

Words Take Wing: Honoring Diversity in Children’s Literature~ Feb 23, Davis, CA, USA

Exhibit at the Vilnius Book Fair – Iliustrarium: Children’s Book Illustrations in Modern Lithuania~ Feb 23 – 26, Vilnius, Lithuania

Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable Presents Serendipity 2012: Year of the Dragon: Asian Themes for Young Canadian Readers. Speakers include PaperTigers (!!), Allen Say, Paul Yee and Lisa Yee~ Feb 24 – 25, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Indianapolis Youth Literature Conference~ Feb 25, Indianapolis, IN, USA

20th Annual Hubbs Children’s Literature Conference~ Feb 25, St. Paul, MN, USA

Biennial ISSCL Conference: Is féidir linn! [Yes we can!]: Politics and Ideology in Children’s Literature~ Feb 25 – 26, Dublin, Ireland

Freedom to Read Week~ Feb 26 – Mar 3, Canada

MA Children’s Book Illustration Exhibit~ Feb 29 – Mar 15, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books Exhibition: Secret Gardens~ ongoing until Mar 3, Toronto, ON, Canada

Look! the Art of Australian Picture Books Today~ ongoing until Mar 4, Brisbane, Australia

Growing up Asian in America Contest~ submissions accepted until Mar 12, San Francisco, CA, USA

Ilustarte: 5th International Biennial Exhibition of Children’s Books Illustration ~ ongoing until Apr 8, Lisbon, Portugal

Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award 2013~ submissions accepted until Dec 31, 2012, Great Britain

Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre Exhibits and Programs~ Fremantle, Australia

Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art Exhibits~ Riddells Creek, Australia

Books Illustrated Events and Exhibitions~ Middle Park, Australia

Tulika Books Author and Illustrator Events~ India

International Library of Children’s Literature Events~ Tokyo, Japan

International Youth Library Exhibits~ Munich, Germany

Newcastle University Programme of Talks on Children’s Books for 2011-2012~ Newcastle, United Kingdom

Seven Stories (the National Home of Children’s Books in Britain) Events~ Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Discover Children’s Story Centre~ London, United Kingdom

Events Sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress~ USA

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art~ Amherst, MA, USA

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibits~ Abilene, TX, USA

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Events

The Brown Bookshelf  has just announced the authors and illustrators who will be spotlighted during their fifth annual 28 Days Later initiative, a celebration of veteran and emerging children’s authors of color. The event will take place during the month of February and coincides with Black History Month in Canada and the USA. For those interested in books by and about people of color, The Brown Bookshelf is a fabulous resource and you’ll want to check in daily during 28 Days Later to see the treats they have in store!

David Arkin, text and illustrations, with introduction by Pete Seeger and musical score by Earl Robinson
Black and White: A song that is a story about freedom to go to school together
New Street Communications, 2011.

Ages 6-10

With an introduction by the beloved Pete Seeger, New Street Communications in Providence, Rhode Island, has reissued David Arkin’s also beloved 1966 illustrated text and music for the award-winning song, Black and White. Arkin, father of actor Alan Arkin, co-wrote the song with Earl Robinson in 1956 to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown vs. the Board of Education, which outlawed segregation in American public schools. The song was a top-ten hit for the U.K. reggae group Greyhound in 1971 and reached the top of the U.S. charts in a 1972 version by Three Dog Night. The reissue of Arkin’s book is a slender unpaginated volume that treats each lyric line to its own black-and-white (naturally) illustration. Beginning with “the ink is black, the page is white,” the lyrics contrast, and bring together, black and white in simple images relevant to all school children.

“The world is black
The world is white
It turns by day
And it turns by night
It turns so each and everyone
Can take his station in the sun!”

Charcoal drawings accompanying the lyrics feature such images as black and white children, the nine judges with their black robes and white hair, the white chalk on the black board. At the end of the book, Robinson’s score is printed with the complete lyrics in verse form.

Along with Pete Seeger’s introduction, the front matter includes an explanation “About this book and the people who made it” (with the unfortunate grammatical error: “by he and …”). The beneficiary of all royalties on this publication, the Central Asia Institute, is also described briefly. CAI is the non-profit organization that funds Greg Mortenson‘s (Three Cups of Tea) admirable work to create schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Black and White is a moving and appropriate tribute to that work. Parents and teachers who know the song will be delighted to introduce it to their children and students through this inspiring little book, and it will doubtless win new fans among adults as well.

Charlotte Richardson
May 2011

In celebration of Black History Month, I have had a chance to read some fine children’s books like Viola Desmond Won’t be Budged, as well as participate in local events like Mondo Clarke! which has been showcasing the works of African Canadian writer, George Elliot Clarke.  It’s been a time of real discovery for me, and I have been enjoying every minute of it!  Today for Books at Bedtime, I’m doing another post on a children’s book about Black Canadian history.  Working for Freedom by Rona Arato (Napoleon Publishing, 2008) is the story of Josiah Henson, a former slave, born in Maryland in about 1789.  Josiah’s family stays together on a Maryland plantation until Josiah is five.  When his father witnesses his wife being attacked by the white overseer, he tears him off of her and throws him to the ground.   For touching a white man, Josiah’s father is punished with a severe whipping of a hundred lashes and has his right ear cut off.  Thereafter, he is sold to a cotton plantation in Alabama.  This is the young Josiah’s introduction to the cruelty and injustice of his lot in life as a slave.  Josiah’s mother, however, imparts him with a gift that would carry him through all the difficult circumstances of his life — the gift of faith.   It is while under the rough ownership of Isaac Riley — a man Josiah describes as “vulgar in his habits, unprincipled and cruel in his general deportment and immoral”  — that Josiah becomes a Christian and begins preaching to other slaves.  After many trials, Josiah eventually leaves the  heartless Riley and escapes to Canada, where he builds a new society for black refugees like himself in a community he helped found in southern Ontario called appropriately enough, Dawn.

Reading this book (based in part on Josiah Henson’s autobiography) to my daughter was an interesting experience.  She was completely fascinated and taken in by the story — but she was also horrified.  This book pulls no punches when describing the cruel and torturous lives of slaves in the southern U.S.   There are illustrations and pictures of slaves being beaten and in bondage.  Hearing Josiah’s story clearly left an impact — occasionally a very troubling one — on my daughter.  Despite this, however, she continued wanting to hear the story night after night.  I too, was engrossed in the tale.  Josiah Henson was a truly inspiring figure and is rightly celebrated as such; Working for Freedom was a book well worth discovering this month!

February is Black History Month in Canada so I trundled off to the library to find some good books on the topic.  The librarian showed me a new book they had just received for their collection: Viola Desmond Won’t be Budged by Jody Nyasha Warner and Richard Rudnicki (Groundwood Books, 2010)  This book tells a little known story of a black woman, Viola Desmond, in 1946 who refused to move out of her seat on the main floor of a movie theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia to the balcony where, as the usher tells her, “your people have to sit.”   Viola, however, does not budge.  Eventually she is arrested by the police, put in jail over night, and fined twenty dollars for her resistance.   Clearly, Viola’s act of defiance  was in reaction to racist treatment, but the people of the time somehow could not articulate this second-class treatment of her as such.  Viola was jailed and fined, ostensibly, for not paying the higher ticket price for sitting on the main floor, even though she offered to pay the extra one cent in tax required for such a privilege.  When the black community of Nova Scotia rallied around Viola to appeal her conviction, the case was thrown out of court on a procedural technicality.  The battle was not won; however, the point was made.

When I read this book to my daughter, the moment the theatre usher says to Viola  “You people have to sit in the upstairs section,”  she sensed something was wrong, but had trouble articulating it.   Finally, she said “It’s racism, isn’t it?”  stumbling a little over the R-word.  She could hardly believe that Viola had to go to jail and be fined twenty dollars (which at the time would have been a significant amount to pay,) for not going upstairs to the balcony.   As obvious as the racist treatment was in the situation, the word ‘racism’ somehow just didn’t seem to come up in the text or in the story — it was like the white elephant in the room.  Racial segregation, did in fact, exist in Nova Scotia, but no one wanted to acknowledge it in this situation but Viola herself, by refusing to budge.  And that was what made her rather singular much like Rosa Parks in the U.S.

This is a story Canadians need to know about themselves.  I’m glad to have read it to my daughter whose eyes were opened to the history and experience of black Canadians in Nova Scotia.

February has arrived and with it Black History Month in Canada and African American History Month in the USA. To see some of the celebrations planned in the USA click here and in Canada click here. In honor of the month, many websites and bloggers are highlighting the richness of children’s literature that focuses on Africa, African Americans, African Canadians and the African diaspora. Here’s a small sample of what’s being offered:

The Brown Bookshelf has launched 28 Days Later, a month-long showcase of the best in picture books, middle grade and young adult novels written and illustrated by African Americans.

Margo Tenenbaum’s blog The Fourth Musketeer specializes in historical fiction for children and teens, and throughout the month of February will focus on reviewing African American titles.

Reading Rockets.Org has just updated it’s Black History Month section where you’ll discover great online resources for the classroom and for family discussions. I’ve just spent the morning watching the video interviews with award-winning writers and illustrators.

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre has compiled a list of Canadian books that are recommended reads for Black History Month.

Check out School Library Journal‘s Places in the Heart: Celebrating Black History Month article in which top children’s authors were asked to choose their favorite children’s book about the black experience. Rick Margolis says “The title could be for kids of any age—from a picture book or graphic novel to a chapter book or collection of poems. We told them it could be new or old, fiction or nonfiction. The only requirement? It had to be a book that they truly loved—and, of course, it couldn’t be one of their own.”  Grace Lin, Mitali Perkins, Cynthia Kadohata,  Pam Muñoz Ryan, Pat Mora and others share their answers here,

If there is a website or blog that you’ve come across we would love to know about it. Please share it with us and our readers by leaving a comment.

To remind people that Black History is worth teaching all year long, Lee & Low is having a end-of-Black-History-Month book giveaway. For a chance to win one of three sets of six fantastic books, you must enter the contest by midnight of February 28th. So hurry up! There are four ways to enter, and the more actions you take, the better your chances of winning! Head on over to Lee & Low’s blog now for the details, and good luck!

11am-5:30pm
National Museum of American History
Washington, D.C., USA

Bring the whole family to the Smithsonian’s Black History Month Family Day Celebration. The day includes performances of an award-winning interactive theatrical presentation Join the Student Sit-Ins; a musical program, Sing for Freedom, which explores the central role of freedom songs in the civil rights movement; a puppet show by Schroeder Cherry, Can You Spell Harlem?; arts and crafts activities; and an “interactive bulletin board” that allows visitors to share their thoughts on the civil rights challenges still faced in the US.

This event is free and open to the public. No reservations required. For more information click here.

This is the first feature event of the 2010 Smithsonian Heritage Month family-day series, titled “Tapestry of Cultural Rhythms.” The series explores the dynamism of cultural expression. The Black History Month feature event is also part of the fiftieth-anniversary commemorations of the Greensboro sit-in at the National Museum of American History.

Today, in honor of Black History Month, the Spirit of PaperTigers (whose news has been spreading far) make way for the spirit of Coretta Scott King.

In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards (established in honor of Coretta Scott King’s legacy to increase the presence and appreciation of African-American writers and illustrators in the book community), last year TeachingBooks.net launched the Coretta Scott King Book Award Curriculum Resource Center, “a free, multimedia, online database for educators and families, featuring more than 250 original recordings with the award-winning authors and illustrators, and hundreds of lesson plans” (including material on Jerry Pinkney’s work—he’s the only artist to date to win the award five times).

We encourage you to explore these resources and seek out the fantastic books they highlight. Doing so would make for a wonderful way of honoring Black History Month. And since we are talking about going deeper, beyond the “festivals & heroes” surface of the occasion, here’s a little piece of trivia for you: Did you know that Coretta Scott King initially didn’t like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? She thought he was too short. But, luckily, she knew better than to let first impressions get in the way of better judgement. Amen to that!

(Click on event name for more information)

African American History Month~ USA

National African American Read-in~  USA

Black History Month~ Canada

February Literacy Workshops for Parents, Teachers and Writers with Daphne Lee~ Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

National Storytelling Week~ ongoing until Feb 6, United Kingdom

Kolkata Book Fair~ ongoing until Feb 7, Kolkata, India

“Tea with Chachaji” A Musical Production based on Chachaji’s Cup by Uma Krishnaswami~ ongoing until Feb 11, New York, NY, USA

Stories from Childhood: Lin Hai-yin’s Children’s Literature Book Exhibition and Activity Series~ ongoing until Mar 1, Tainan City, Taiwan

2009 Bologna Illustrators Exhibition of Children’s Books~ ongoing until Mar 1, Seoul, Korea

Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books Presents: Journey to Adventure~ ongoing until Mar 6, Toronto, ON, Canada

Entries Accepted for the Growing Up Asian in America Contest~ ongoing until Mar 10, San Francisco, CA, USA

The Making of the Word Witch: The Poetic & Illustrative Magic of Margaret Mahy & David Elliot~ ongoing until  Mar 14, Ashburton, New Zealand

21st Annual Children’s Book Illustrators Exhibit~ ongoing until Apr 3, Hayward, CA, USA

Mother Goose in an Air-Ship: McLoughlin Bros. 19th Century Children’s Books from the Liman Collection~ ongoing until Apr 18,  Amherst, MA, USA

Heart and Soul: Art from Coretta Scott King Award Books, 2006–2009~ ongoing until Apr 18, Chicago, IL, USA

From The Tiger Who Came to Tea to Mog and Pink Rabbit; A Judith Kerr Retrospective~ ongoing until May, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Leo Lee Arts Centre Presents Renowned Canadian Author Deb Ellis~ Feb 1 – 2, Hong Kong

Association of Jewish Libraries Presents the 2010 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour~ Feb 1 – 5

Book Signing Event with Paula Young Shelton author of Child of the Civil Rights Movement~ Feb 2, Washington, D.C., USA

Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable Presents Authorfest 2010~ Feb 2, Vancouver, BC, Canada

International Conference on Children’s Libraries – Building a Book Culture~ Feb 4 – 6, New Delhi, India

New York Public Library Exhibit: 2010 Caldecott Winner Jerry Pinkney’s African-American Journey to Freedom~ Feb 5 – Apr 18, New York City, NY, USA

SCBWI Workshop: Picture Books – The Perils, Pitfall and Promise~ Feb 6, Ventura, CA, USA

8th Annual Orion School Author and Illustrator Festival~ Feb 6, Redwood City, CA, USA

Imagine 2010: Children’s Literature Festival~ Feb 6 – Mar 2, London, United Kingdom

Seven Stories Presents Taffy Thomas, First Laureate for Storytelling~ Feb 6, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Words on Wheels~ Feb 12 – 17, New Zealand

Kids ♥ Authors Day~ Feb 14

First Nations Public Library Week~ Feb 15 – 20, Province of Ontario, Canada

SCBWI’s Annual Golden Gate Conference At Asilomar~ Feb 19 – 21, Pacific Grove, CA, USA

Freedom to Read Week~ Feb 21 – 27, Canada

Northern Ireland Booktrust Conference: The Gift of Books – Inspiring a Lifelong Love of Reading~ Feb 22, Antrim, Ireland

Exhibition of Joy Mallari’s Artwork From the Book Doll Eyes~ Feb 25, Makati City, Philippines

International Conference on Children’s Literature in Language Education~ Feb 25 – 27, Hildesheim, Germany

Latvian Book Fair~ Feb 25 – 28, Riga, Latvia

Hubbs Children’s Literature Conference~ Feb 27, Saint Paul, MN, USA

Joy Cowley Writing Workshop: Writing from the Heart~ Feb 27 – 28, Auckland, New Zealand

Bath Literature Festival~ Feb 27 – Mar 7, Bath, United Kingdom