Youths4Peace

Coretta Scott King
Award Books

2005 Coretta Scott King Awards

Author Medal Award

Morrison, Toni.   Remember: The Journey to School Integration.   Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004, 2005.  ISBN:  1415539634.

Utilizing a wonderful selection of pictures, Toni Morrison shares her recollections of the shift that took place from segregation to integration in school education during the time of the Civil Rights Movement.   Gr. 3 to 5.

Author Honor Awards

Moses, Shelia P.  The Legend of Buddy Bush.  Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2004.  ISBN: 0689858396.

Based on the story the author’s grandmother had told her over and over as a little girl, Buddy Bush was a real person who even made international news in the London Times. Told through the eyes of a twelve-year-old girl, Pattie Mae shares her experiences about her beloved Uncle Buddy and his unfortunate encounter with the law.  Gr. 6 to 8.

Flake, Sharon G.   Who Am I Without Him? Short Stories about Girls and the Boys in Their Lives.  Jump At the Sun/Hyperion Book for Children, 2004.  ISBN:  0786806931.

Focused on how teenagers handle adolescent love, these ten short stories are filled with teenage emotions as girls deal with guys, and guys with girls in this overall struggle to find self-worth.  Gr. 9 to 12.

Nelson, Marilyn.  Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem.  Front Street, 2004. ISBN: 1932425128.

Inspired by the events of September 11, 2001 at the Twin Towers in New York City, New York, this book was written in the form of poetry with accompanying historical pictures, to commemorate Fortune’s life. Fortune was a slave whose bones were preserved by his master, who was a doctor, for the purpose of studying the human skeleton. On display in the Mattatuck Museum in Connecticut, many wondered whose bones were they, until 1996 when community members decided to research it.  Gr. 6 to 8.

Illustrator Medal Award

Shange, Ntozake.  Illustrated by Kadir A. Nelson.   Ellington Was Not a Street.   Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004. ISBN: 0938317660.

Reflected through the eyes of a child, this story portrays life in the Duke Ellington home, introducing notable people of that time period. The back page includes lyrics to Mood Indigo. (Also available on video with Ellington’s Mood Indigo in the background.)  Gr. K to 2.

Illustrator Honor Awards

Holiday, Billie and Arthur Herzog Jr.  Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.   God Bless the Child.  Amistad/HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2004. ISBN: 0060287977.

If it weren’t for the lyrics to the song written as the printed text, God Bless the Child would be considered a wordless picture book. Remarkably and beautifully illustrating the industrious aspect of the African-American culture during the Great Migration of the 1920s, along with the accompanying voice of Billie Holiday, this book and CD set offers to children, preschool and up, an opportunity to build an appreciation for a different perspective on life during that time period.  Preschool to 3.

Hamilton, Virginia. Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.  The People Could Fly: The Picture Book. Knopf, 2004. ISBN: 0375824057.

A powerfully moving tale, this is a stand-alone picture book taken from her collection of 24 American black folktales. With new illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon in dedication and remembrance of Virginia Hamilton, The People Could Fly tells the story of slavery and those who were able to “fly away” into freedom.  Gr. 3 to 5.

2004

2006