Jane Addams Children's Book Awards
DATE: Saturday, April 24
A big congratulations to the winners and honor books chosen at the 2010 Jane Addams Children's Book Award!
Winner, books for younger children:
Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan
Written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter, Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing. Nasreen's parents are gone, her father taken one night by soldiers, her mother lost on her search to find them. Now living with only her grandmother, Nasreen is silent with trauma. Whispers about a forbidden school reach her grandmother who, with stealth, bravery and hope, brings Nasreen to the secret school hidden in the home of an equally-brave woman, a teacher of girls. Framed stylized paintings in hues that symbolically reflect the path of Nasreen's healing extend the story told in the plain, heartfelt voice of her grandmother. The power of education and resistance stand out in this all-too-true contemporary tale of the human toll exacted by war and the opposition of women.
Winner, books for older children:
Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don't You Grow Weary
By Elizabeth Partridge, Viking Children's Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group. A breathtaking tribute to the courageous, passionate African-American children who demanded voting rights through nonviolent action in the historic 1963 March from Selma to Montgomery. Riveting chronology, stunning photographs, and telling details from oral history interviews recreate the children's anger, terror, solidarity and purpose moment-by-moment. This palpable sense of immediacy crystallizes the commitment of young people who acted on behalf of human rights when they were most frightened and "the end" was unclear and out of sight. Vital and forceful, this testament to the power of youth and collective nonviolent action inspires activism by delving deeply into the heart of a pivotal moment in the history of youth and civil rights in the United States.
Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney
You and Me and Home Sweet Home by George Ella Lyon and Stephanie Anderson
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone
Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose
The Legacy of Jane Addams through Children’s Books
The stories honored by the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award (JACBA) since 1953 are stories of people much like Addams encountered in Chicago and around the world. Susan C. Griffith, Chair, 2010 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Committee, describes the legacy of Jane Addams and the history of the Award. She will also review books that won the Award in its first two decades and more recent JACBA novels, picture books and biographies that bring today’s young readers stories of resilient children and inspiring leaders absorbed in struggles for human rights and social justice worldwide.
This program will be followed by a private tour of the Hull-House Museum, led by Education Coordinator Lisa Junkin.