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MCL - Coretta Scott King Awards - John Steptoe Award for New Talent

Created on March 3, 2022, 2:02 pm

Last Updated April 5, 2022, 12:38 pm

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values. The John Steptoe New Talent Award is established to affirm new talent and to offer visibility to excellence in writing and/or illustration which otherwise might be formally unacknowledged within a given year within the structure of the two awards given annually by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee.

Author

Description

Moth, who lost her family in an accident, and Sani, who is battling ongoing depression, take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors, which helps them move forward in surprising, powerful and unforgettable ways.

2) The me I choose to be

Author

Tarpley, Natasha Anastasia

Description

"An uplifting story about self-confidence and a child's limitless potential"--

Author

Series

Legendborn volume 1

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

Description

"To discover the truth behind her mother's mysterious death, a teen girl infiltrates a magical secret society claiming to be the descendants of King Arthur and his knights"--

4) Genesis begins again

Author

Williams, Alicia

Description

Thirteen-year-old Genesis tries again and again to lighten her black skin, thinking it is the root of her family's troubles, before discovering reasons to love herself as is.

5) What is given from the heart

Author

Description

Despite their own poverty since Daddy died, Mama tells nine-year-old James Otis they need to help Sarah, whose family lost everything in a fire.

6) Monday's not coming

Author

Jackson, Tiffany D

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, Playaway/Launchpad

Description

When her friend Monday Charles goes missing and Monday's mother refuses to give her a straight answer, Claudia digs into her disappearance.

7) Thank you, Omu!

Author

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle, Playaway Wonderbook

Description

When the aroma of Omu's homemade stew fills the air, her neighbors arrive, one by one, for a taste until all is gone except for her generous spirit.

8) The stars beneath our feet

Author

Moore, David Barclay

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eBook, Kindle

Description

Unable to celebrate the holidays in the wake of his older brother's death in a gang-related shooting, Lolly Rachpaul struggles to avoid being forced into a gang himself while constructing a fantastically creative LEGO city at the Harlem community center.

9) Mama Africa!: how Miriam Makeba spread hope with her song

Author

Erskine, Kathryn

Description

A harrowing picture biography of civil-rights activist and Grammy Award-winning South African singer Miriam Makeba.

10) The sun is also a star

Author

Series

Thorndike Press large print mini-collections

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print, Playaway/Launchpad

Description

Natasha, whose family is hours away from being deported, and Daniel, a first generation Korean American who strives to live up to his parents' expectations, unexpectedly fall in love and must determine which path they will choose in order to be together.

Author

Smith, Ronald L

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

In 1930s Alabama, twelve-year-old Hoodoo Hatcher is the only member of his family who seems unable to practice folk magic, but when a mysterious man called the Stranger puts the entire town at risk from his black magic, Hoodoo must learn to conjure to defeat him.

12) Voice of freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, spirit of the civil rights movement

Author

Weatherford, Carole Boston

Description

Presents a collage-illustrated treasury of poems and spirituals inspired by the life and work of civil rights advocate Fannie Lou Hamer.

13) When I was the greatest

Author

Reynolds, Jason

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

Description

Ali lives in Bed-Stuy, a Brooklyn neighborhood known for guns and drugs, but he and his sister, Jazz, and their neighbors, Needles and Noodles, stay out of trouble until they go to the wrong party, where one gets badly hurt and another leaves with a target on his back.

14) When the beat was born: DJ Kool Herc and the creation of hip hop

Author

Hill, Laban Carrick

Description

Before there was hip hop, there was DJ Kool Herc. On a hot day at the end of summer in 1973 Cindy Campbell threw a back-to-school party at a park in the South Bronx. Her brother, Clive Campbell, spun the records. He had a new way of playing the music to make the breaks the musical interludes between verses longer for dancing. He called himself DJ Kool Herc and this is When the Beat Was Born. From his childhood in Jamaica to his youth in the Bronx,...

15) Zora and me

Author

Series

Zora and me volume 1

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eBook, Kindle

Description

A fictionalized account of Zora Neale Hurston's childhood with her best friend Carrie, in Eatonville, Florida, as they learn about life, death, and the differences between truth, lies, and pretending. Includes an annotated bibliography of the works of Zora Neale Hurston, a short biography of the author, and information about Eatonville, Florida.

16) Seeds of change: planting a path to peace

Author

Johnson, Jen Cullerton

Description

"A biography of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmentalist Wangari Maathai, a female scientist who made a stand in the face of opposition to women's rights and her own Greenbelt Movement, an effort to restore Kenya's ecosystem by planting millions of trees"--Provided by publisher.

17) The rock and the river

Author

Description

In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.

18) Bird

Author

Description

Bird, an artistic young African American boy, expresses himself through drawing as he struggles to understand his older brother's drug addiction and death, while a family friend, Uncle Son, provides guidance and understanding.

19) Brendan Buckley's universe and everything in it

Author

Frazier, Sundee T

Description

Brendan Buckley, a biracial ten-year-old, applies his scientific problem-solving ability and newfound interest in rocks and minerals to connect with his white grandfather, the president of Puyallup Rock Club, and to learn why he and Brendan's mother are estranged.

20) Standing Against the Wind

Author

Formats:

Description

Patrice Williams was happy living in Georgia with her grandmother, who called her "cocoa grandbaby." Then her mother lured her to Chicago and ended up in jail. Now Patrice lives with her Auntie Mae, and her new nickname is "Puffy" – thanks to her giant poof of hair. But Patrice's hair isn't the only reason she sticks out: she cares about her grades and strives for the best. That's why Monty Freeman, another eighth grader who lives in the

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