Bad news for outlaws wins the Coretta Scott King Award

'Tis the season for award announcements, and I am happy to tell you that Bad News for Outlaws: The remarkable life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal won the 2010 Coretta Scott King award. The book would make a great title for children studying the real Wild West and Black History Month. Here is my review:

Bad news for outlaws: The remarkable life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshall

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

Nonfiction Picture Book

Ages 8 to 10

Lerner, 2009, 0822567644

Bass Reeves was born into slavery in Arkansas in 1838, and he grew up on a plantation in Texas where he took care of the animals, fetched water, and learned how to become a crack shot. Bass was such a favorite with his master, Colonel George Reeves, that his master took Bass with him into battle when the Civil War broke out. During an argument, Bass struck his master, and knowing that this was a death sentence for a slave, Bass ran away to live with Native Americans in Indian Territory.

   When the Civil War was over and he was free, Bass settled down, got married, and he and his wife had children. Bass was happy living in Indian Territory but then the area “became a haven for the West’s most notorious outlaws.” Judge Isaac C. Parker was sent to the territory, and he hired two hundred deputy marshals to help bring law and order back to the land. Bass was one of these deputy marshals, and he took his job very seriously, bringing in the outlaws he was sent to catch without resorting to undue violence. He was incorruptible, determined, and “as honest as the day was long.”

   In this fascinating picture book, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson beautifully tells the story of one of the West’s unsung heroes. Unlike many Wild West legends, this story is true. With gripping accounts of Bass Reeves’ exploits, the author keeps the reader engaged right to the last page.

Here is some information about the author and the illustrator:

About the Author:

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson is the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books for children, including Almost to Freedom, which received 2004 Coretta Scott King Illustration Honor Award. In addition to writing books, she has also been a teacher, newspaper reporter, bookseller, and school librarian. She lives in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

About the Artist:

R. Gregory Christie is an award-winning illustrator of many picture books, including Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth and The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children, for both of which he won Coretta Scott King Illustration Honor Award. His work has also appeared in The New Yorker and on music CD covers. He lives in New York City.

You might also like to visit the website that Lerner Publishing created for the book. Here you will find an author's note, background information, a discussion guide, a podcast with the illustrator, and much more.

Please consider purchasing the book through this blog.

Finalists for the 2009 Cybils

The finalists for the 2009 Cybil awards are now online on the Cybils blog. Don't know what the Cybils are? Here is a brief description from the Cybils blog:

About The Cybils Awards

Our purpose is two-fold:

• Reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators, let’s not forget them) whose books combine the highest literary merit and "kid appeal." What’s that mean? If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussel sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious.
• Foster a sense of community among bloggers who write about children’s and YA literature, highlight our best reviewers (and shamelessly promote their blogs) and provide a forum for the similarly obsessed.

We wouldn’t be a real awards if we didn’t have a whole bunch of complicated rules in tortured lawyerese. So maybe we’re not a real awards, because there aren’t any lawyers and only two rules:

1. You (and you can be anybody, even you) may nominate any book published in the contest year in English;
2. Only one book per category. We have ways of checking this, so play nice. Nominations open Oct. 1 and close Oct. 15.

After that, here’s what happens:

• We place all the authors names into a hat and pass our magic wand over it. After the rabbit pops out, we eat him and announce the winner, whom we have selected at random;
• Not really! Just testing you. We have panelists in each category who eat the rabbit. No, er, they read the books. They have until January 1 for that, which we hope and pray will be enough time. On Jan. 1 we’ll post the finalists;
• From Jan. 1 to mid-February, a second group of judges will read all the finalists and pick the winners, which we’ll announce on Valentine’s Day.

See? Easy. And no actual rabbits will be harmed in the process.

Take a look at the lists of finalists. There are some wonderful books here. I have not read all of them - as yet - but of the ones I have read these are the ones I would vote for:

Easy reader: Houndsley and Catina Plink and Plunk

Fantasy/Science Fiction: The Carbon Diaries

Fiction Picture Books: All the world

Graphic Novels: The storm in the barn

Mid Grade Fiction: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Nonfiction Picture Books: Keep on! The story of Matthew Henson

Nonfiction Middle Grade and Young Adult: Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

Poetry: The Monsterologist: A memoir in Rhyme

Summertime - a glorious time to read

For many of us June is the first real month of summer. Schools are closed, pools are open, and vacations begin. We pull out our summer clothes and put away shoes in favor of flip-flops and sandals. This is also a time when many of us, especially children, do a lot of reading. Children go to the library and sign up for summer reading challenges. They go to the bookstore and spend a wonderful time figuring out what to read next. Just to get you in the summer mood Through the Looking Glass Book Review has a summer books feature. On this page you will find a list of book titles all of which explore summer days in some way or another.

You will find that Eloise is going on a vacation, and there is the story of two little boys who go on a summer trip which is "the best week ever." You will find a book which explores the sounds of summer - Summer Beat - and in Mayfly you will go on a summer vacation with a family that spends wonderful days staying in a cottage by a lake.

For readers who like something a little more fantastical there is Summer Story by Jill Barklem. In this book readers will get to see a summer wedding between two very charming little country mice. The illustrations in this book are wonderfully detailed and utterly delightful.

I hope you enjoy this feature and do let me know if you have a favorite summer book.

Award Winning Children's Books

I just finished reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C O'Brien - for the third or fourth time - and I was struck, once again, by how wonderful this title is. Every month Through the Looking Glass Book Review features one award winning title and I am having a terrific time reading my way through lists of Newbery winning and honor titles, Caldecott winning and honor titles, E.B. White winners, Kate Greenaway winners, Golden Kite winners, and more. You can see what I have reviewed so far on the TTLG Award Winning Titles page. You will, at the bottom of this page, also find links to the relevant pages on the Internet where you can find out more about these awards.

Many of you may not know this but the daughter of Robert C. O'Brien wrote two additional books about the Rats of Nimh. I am in the process of reading these and will add my reviews to the Through the Looking Glass website soon.

If you don't know which books to buy for the children in your life and don't have the time to look through lots of reviews, choose the award winning books. You can't really go wrong if you do, and you will be giving children some of the best children's literature there is. You will also be giving them such timeless characters as Dr. Dolittle, Charlotte, Ramona, Olivia, Little Bear, and many others.