About Virginia Hamilton
This awards program has been instrumental in spotlighting the best work created by African American authors and illustrators. The awards provide assurance to teachers, librarians, and parents that the awarded books have been carefully read and evaluated for literary quality and for the insight they provide into the African American experience.
The award winners send a strong message of the depth of experiences in African American culture. They often highlight the resilience of young people and how much all readers can learn from and be inspired by African American history and culture.
Certainly the range of topics has greatly expanded over the past 40 years. Subject matter and stories are more sophisticated, something that is also reflected in the field of children's publishing as a whole.
From Dave Rosenthal's April 2009 Baltimore Sun interview with Deborah Taylor, chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Award, 2007-2009.
This Curriculum Resource Center was created by TeachingBooks.net with the support of the Coretta Scott King Book Award 40th Anniversary Public Awareness Campaign Committee. Special thanks to the committee and the co-chairs Andrea Davis Pinkney and Deborah Taylor. Thanks to Satia Orange and Isaac Tufvesson at the American Library Association's Office for Literacy and Outreach Services.
Thanks to Kathleen T. Horning at the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for her valuable time and assistance.
And at TeachingBooks.net, this extensive Curriculum Resource Center could never have happened without the dedication and exceptional work of Aarick Beher, Carin Bringelson, Brian Casey, John H. Moore, and Danika Morphew-Tarbuck.
Blah blah blah.
Ashley Bryan
Jerry Pinkney