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John Steptoe Award for New Talent

Created on October 27, 2023, 10:48 am

Last Updated February 26, 2024, 12:18 pm

The 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 Task Force. These books affirm new talent and offer visibility to excellence in writing or illustration at the beginning of a career as a published book creator. The criteria for eligibility will be the same as those for the Coretta Scott King writing and illustration awards, with the exception that the winner(s)' published works cannot exceed three in number.

1) We could fly

Author

Giddens, Rhiannon

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

"At a sparrow's urging, a young girl feels a mysterious trembling in her arms, a lightness in her feet, a longing to be free. Her mother tells her that her Granny Liza experienced the same, as did many of their people before her. Perhaps it's time, Mama says, to slip the bonds of earth and join the journey started long ago. To hold each other tight and rise. Drawing on lyrics from the song "We Could Fly" by Rhiannon Giddens and Dirk Powell, which...

2) There goes the neighborhood

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"In order to stop the destructive forces of gentrification, three best friends use social media to create a fake gang and get justice for their South L.A. community"-- Rhea and her friends Zeke and Malachi are South L.A. born and raised. The old neighborhood is fading away, and more white people are flocking to this little urban paradise for its cheap rent, transforming the place they call home. When an eviction notice from a greedy landlord threatens...

3) 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.

4) The rock and the river

Author

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle, Spoken CD

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.

5) 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.

6) Brendan Buckley's universe and everything in it

Author

Frazier, Sundee T

Series

Brendan Buckley

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

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.

7) Standing against the wind

Author

Description

As she tries to escape her poor Chicago neighborhood by winning a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, shy and studious eighth-grader Patrice discovers that she has more options in life than she previously realized.

8) Missy Violet & me

Author

Hathaway, Barbara

Description

During the early 1900s, eleven-year-old Viney spends her summer working for the local midwife and learns firsthand about birth, death, and "catchin' babies."

9) Jazzy Miz Mozetta

Author

Roberts, Brenda C

Description

On a beautiful evening, Miz Mozetta puts on her red dress and blue shoes and dances the jitterbug just like she did many years before.

10) My family plays music

Author

Series

Description

A musical family with talents for playing a variety of instruments enjoys getting together to celebrate.

Author

McDonald, Janet

Description

Afraid that she will have no where to go when her welfare checks are stopped, nineteen-year-old high school dropout Aisha tries to figure out how she can support herself and her two young children in New York City.

12) The moon ring

Author

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

One hot night, Maxine goes on a wild adventure thanks to the magic of the blue moon.

13) Freedom summer

Author

Formats:

Description

In 1964, Joe is pleased that a new law will allow his best friend John Henry, who is colored, to share the town pool and other public places with him, but he is dismayed to find that prejudice still exists. John Henry swims better than anyone I know. He crawls like a catfish, blows bubbles like a swamp monster, but he doesn't swim in the town pool with me. He's not allowed. Joe and John Henry are a lot alike. They both like shooting marbles, they...

14) The skin I'm in

Author

Flake, Sharon G

Series

The skin I'm in novels volume 1

Description

"Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like." --

15) The piano man

Author

Chocolate, Deborah M. Newton

Description

A young Afro-American girl recalls the life story of her grandfather who performed in vaudeville and played piano for the silent movies.

16) Another way to dance

Author

Southgate, Martha

Description

While spending the summer at the School of American Ballet in New York City, fourteen-year-old Vicki Harris must come to terms with the reality of her parents' divorce, her crush on Mikhail Baryshnikov, and the impact of being an African American on her future as a dancer.

17) Tears of a tiger

Author

Draper, Sharon M

Series

Hazelwood High trilogy volume 1

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

The death of high school basketball star Rob Washington in an automobile accident affects the lives of his close friend Andy, who was driving the car, and many others in the school.

18) We deserve monuments

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

When seventeen-year-old Avery moves to rural Georgia to live with her ailing grandmother, she encounters decade-old family secrets and a mystery surrounding the town's racist past. Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she's uprooted from her life in DC and forced to Bardell, Georgia, and into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery's mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival...

19) Choosing brave: how Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till sparked the civil rights movement

Author

Description

"The story of the mother of Emmett Till, and how she channeled grief over her son's death into a call to action for the civil rights movement"--Provided by publisher.

Author

Formats:

Book, Playaway Audiobook

Description

Moth, who lost her family in an accident, feels alone and uprooted, but when she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots, she finds a kindred spirit, and together they embark on a road trip that connects them to the ghosts of their ancestors.