The American Library Association has announced the winner of the Coretta Scott King Book Award, just in time for Black History Month, which is celebrated during the month of February. This award is presented annually to a black author and a black illustrator for an outstanding, inspirational, and educational contribution to literature for children and young people published during the previous year. The award-winning book is We Are the Ship: the Story of Negro League Baseball, written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. This book also won the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, which honors the author of the most distinguished informational book published in English during the previous year.Kadir Nelson's paintings have been exhibited throughout the world, and he is the author of many books for children. In fact, two of his paintings will be featured on 2009 commemorative U.S. postal stamps.
We Are the Ship: the Story of Negro League Baseball, is filled with Kadir Nelson's full-color paintings of legendary African American baseball heroes, such as Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. The stories of the gifted athletes and the racial discrimination they endured is chronicled, from the beginning of the Negro Leagues in the 1920s through the 1940s when Jackie Robinson "crossed over" to major league baseball.
You'll find We Are the Ship: the Story of Negro League Baseball, as well as other books about famous African Americans, in the Black History Month display in Youth Services.
posted by jtb
