I got the news via Zoom late Thursday night. It’s hard to keep a secret that long.
The award honors books that emody the disability experience for children and youth. Lots of us worked on the book–Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, Nabi Ali, and the Sourcebooks team. We’re grateful to the American Library Association for shining a spotlight on our book.
The other honoree was Itzhak: A Boy who Loved Violin by Tracy Newman and Abigail Halpin. The winner was I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith.
All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel, illustrated by Nabi Ali. Sourcebooks: 2020.
I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith. Neal Porter Books: 2020.
Itzhak: A Boy who Loved Violin by Tracy Newman, illustrated by Abigail Halpin. Abrams: 2020.
Crip Camp is a movie made by the Obamas’ new production company about the history of the disability rights movement. It tells the story from the point of view of the teenagers who grew up to be important activists. Raw language means it’s adult viewing. I loved watching it! Trailer here and the movie is available on Netflix.
Next Tuesday my book All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything comes out. I’m excited to share with kids and adults the story of how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) came about. Lucky for me, the brilliant social studies teacher Jenna Pontius Vandenberg volunteered to pull together an educator’s guide for the book.
I’ve done my own educator’s guides before, and it was a good learning experience for me to understand how teachers might approach a text. But when Jenna sent me her educator’s guide for this book, I was completely blown away by the breadth and depth of the suggestions she has for how teachers can engage students.
One nagging problem of writing biography is that, while the book is about an individual, the individual lived in a web of relationships. Jenna addresses that problem with an activity she suggests of having students research other people who were important in getting the ADA passed. And appropriately, since the point is that change happens when groups coalesce around an issue, she sets this up as a group activity.
Another problem of writing about history for kids is connecting it to today’s world. Jenna found great ways to connect the story I tell to their own world. She invites students to analyze a speech Barack Obama gave about the ADA. And she pushes them to think critically with a set of worksheets where students examine a real-life problem and write about how laws like the ADA could solve the problem.
The Common Core linked Educator’s Guide is available for free here on my website and on Sourcebook’s website.
If you think you are going to buy All the Way to the Top, I’d appreciate your pre-ordering it. Pre-orders matter a lot in the publishing world! And I always appreciate people posting reviews on commerce sites and social media.
All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel, illustrated by Nabi Ali (Sourcebooks: 2020).
I love inventive picture book rhymes, snappy refrains, and fantastical figurative language as much as anyone, but sometimes a story works best just simply told. In this book, Thompson tells us the story of a disabled Ghanaian man beautifully but without any bells and whistles. It’s unadorned storytelling:
“In Ghana, West Africa, a baby boy was born: Two bright eyes blinked in the light, two healthy lungs let out a powerful cry, two tiny fists opened and closed, but only one strong leg kicked.”
So begins the moving story of a disabled boy who fights to convince the people around him that “being disabled does not mean being unable.”
The “Author’s Note” at the end gives an update on what the title character is doing these days (and you can follow his blog here), but even without the back matter the story is uplifting and inspiring, a story well-told.
Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson, illustrated by Sean Qualls. Schwartz & Wade: 2015.
