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Oscar Nominee The Breadwinner (Based On The Jane Addams Book) Echoes A Broader Shift To Cultural Diversity In Film #JACBA Newsletter 02March2018

How Two Nominees for Best Animated Feature Found the Right Sound

Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie put her producing muscle behind The Breadwinner, Irish filmmaker Nora Twomey’s adaptation of Deborah Ellis’s 2000 best-selling young-adult novel about an 11-year-old Afghan girl. The film is voiced almost entirely by relatively unknown Afghan actors….

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The Heaven Shop by Deborah Ellis 2005 Awardee

The Breadwinner Trilogy, three books by Deborah Ellis 2004 Awardee

Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis 2003 Awardee


Drawing Black History: 4 Children’s Book Illustrators Show Us How

Maria Russo: And the author is Cynthia Levinson, who is a fantastic historian for children. She writes for children, but I learn from her books. Every one of them teaches me, too.

Also features Vanessa Brantley-Newton, Bryan Collier, Carole Boston Weatehrford, and R. Gregory Christie.

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We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson 2013 Awardee

We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song written by Debbie Levy, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton 2014 Awardee

Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. written by Doreen Rappaport with artwork by Bryan Collier 2002 Awardee

The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie 2016 Awardee

Birmingham, 1963 by Carole Boston Weatherford 2008 Awardee


Children’s authors to bring windows and mirrors to 10th annual book festival

“There’s mirrors and windows,” author Margarita Engle says. “Children might see themselves in my books and that would be a mirror. Other children might look at my books and learn about other people and other cultures. That would be a window.”

For Cynthia Levinson, she has strayed away from the typical picture book. Instead, she has written a number of political books, including “Fault Lines in the Constitution.” Levinson also gives interactive presentations and workshops for children.

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Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal by Margarita Engle 2015 Awardee

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle 2009 Awardee

We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson 2013 Awardee


Roundup of children’s books

Re: Twelve Days in May: Freedom Ride 1961 By Larry Dane Brimner

Terrorism is not new in America. That’s the big takeaway from this sobering day-by-day account about how 13 civil rights activists travel south to challenge illegal segregation on the buses that cross interstate lines and at bus stations too.

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We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin by Larry Dane Brimner 2008 Awardee

Birmingham Sunday by Larry Dane Brimner 2011 Awardee


In New Novels for Kids, Dangerous Journeys and Hockey Madness

Curtis’s ninth novel is among his most suspenseful, an adventure story about a white sharecropper’s son in antebellum South Carolina…

Raised in poverty, ignorance and racism, Charlie develops his own moral compass – and becomes brave enough to act on it.

Also features Cynthia Kadohata.

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Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis 2008 Awardee

The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis 1996 Awardee

Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata 2007 Awardee

The Jane Addams Children’s Book Award annually recognizes children’s books of literary and aesthetic excellence that effectively engage children in thinking about peace, social justice, global community, and equity for all people.

Read more about the 2017 Awards.

Jane Addams Peace Association