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!

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.

Thanks to Writing with a Broken Tusk for pointing the way to this interview with writer Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, part of the Brown Bookshelf‘s 28 Days Later celebrations of children’s literature for Black History Month.

28 Days Later is nearly over for this year but you can still catch the last couple of writers hot off their bounce into the Kidslitosphere – and continue to enjoy the fruits of The Brown Bookshelf’s labor of love until next year (you are going to do it again next year, aren’t you?)… So check out the other 27 writers and illustrators highlighted. Click on the poster to see who they are and follow the links to read their interviews…

Yesterday Cynthia Leitich Smith celebrated the 10th anniversary of her wonderful “Children’s and YA Literature Resources” website (congratulations, Cynthia!). Now I wonder… how come we were the ones to get a gift?

In honor of “Book Blogger Appreciation Week” (Sep 15-19) Cynthia decided to highlight blogs that “focus on underrepresented perspectives in the field of youth literature.” PaperTigers has made her short list, and now we find ourselves in the very good company of Mitali’s Fire Escape, The Brown Bookshelf and other great blogs. Thank you, Cynthia! Please know that your contributions as a writer, blogger and promoter of good literature are much appreciated too—this week and always!

There’s often a ritual involved in getting families into the holiday spirit: tree trimming and baking treats for some; candle lighting and telling family stories by the fireplace for others… A family I know, for instance, gathers around the tree on Christmas to hear the Christmas Eve chapter of Wind in the Willows, “Dulce Domum.”

For many families storytelling plays an important role in adding extra meaning and warmth to the holidays, whether they read books together; have a tradition of book giving; or listen to the stories of older relatives and how they celebrated the holidays as a child, way back when. In addition to helping kids understand the real meaning of the holidays, stories from books and/or from family members and friends provide a way for children to learn that different people celebrate different holidays, and that one same holiday can be celebrated differently in different families and cultures (did you know that Ecuadorians’ tradition of welcoming the new year involves making a scarecrow?…I, for one, didn’t, until recently.)

A meaningful glimpse of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa traditions can be gleaned from the following children’s books: in The Legend of the Ponsettia, Tomie de Paola retells the Mexican legend of how the ponsettia flower came to be, through the story of a little girl who fears she won’t have a gift for baby Jesus in time for the Christmas parade; in Angela Shelf Medearis’ Seven Spools of Thread seven brothers highlight the seven principles of Kwanzaa in the process of making gold out of spools of thread; in Linda Glaser’s The Borrowed Hanukkah Latkes, a young girl devises a clever way to make her old, lonely neighbor join in her family’s Hanukkah’s celebrations, in spite of his numerous refusals. And for those of us enjoying cold, dark nights under the covers, Anna Grossnickle Hines’ Winter Lights: A Season in Poems and Quilts helps us warm up by bringing the brightness and meaning of Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa’s lights to life.

About.com offers good tips on how to wade our way through all the 2007 holiday titles on display in libraries and bookstores everywhere. The Brown Bookshelf has a great list called “Booked for The Holidays.” And for a snapshot of a few children’s book authors and illustrators’ memories of holidays past, follow me… And let the merriment begin!