The Weekly 411 (1/31/25)
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| © Mary Jane Lange |
Jan. 31, 2025 vol. 5
The Weekly 411 gathers all the links added to Kidlit411 each week. To receive this post by email, sign up for our email updates. Are you on Facebook? Join our Kidlit411 group for conversations and camaraderie. We can also be found on Bluesky. This week's illustration is by Mary Jane Lange.
About the Book: In the middle of the great Pacific Ocean is a little island. Her name is Kanaloa Kaho‘olawe. Discover the story of an island sacred to Native Hawaiians. Beginning with her birth in a volcanic eruption, Kahoʻolawe thrives surrounded by animals on land and in the sea. When Polynesian voyageurs arrive and begin to raise their families there, the island is happy. As the years pass, invasive goats devastate the ecosystem, and during World War II and the decades that follow, the US military claims the island for target practice. Kahoʻolawe is hurt. Yet activists never give up on the island, and they finally succeed in reclaiming her. Kaho‘olawe endures.
About the Author: Kamalani Hurley is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) writer from Honolulu. She grew up in the working-class urban neighborhood of Pālama and is a proud graduate of the Kamehameha Schools. Kamalani’s stories are rooted in her Indigenous community, and they invite readers to explore the islands’ rich cultural traditions. An avid reader and gardener, she lives in Hawaiʻi with her husband, their daughters and grandkids, two beach-loving dogs, and a very large extended family. Visit her online at www.kamalanihurley.com.
About the Illustrator: Harinani Orem is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) artist born and raised in Honolulu. Story building, both personal and cultural, has been an important element in her life and work. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a Master of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in New York. As a printmaker and illustrator, she focuses on the myths, legends, and traditions of Hawaiʻi. While working on this book, she had the opportunity to spend several days as a volunteer on Kahoʻolawe, and she channeled her experience of the island’s unique beauty and spiritual energy into her illustrations. Find more of her work at www.harinani.org.
We are pleased to host a giveaway of the picture book, We Sing From the Heart, by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Victor Bizar Gomez (Red Comet Press 2024). Enter to win a copy via the Rafflecopter below.
About the Book: A compelling account of Simon Tam's fight for free speech that ended with a landmark Supreme Court decision. Music is a way to transcend cultures and divides. Simon Tam used his band's name, The Slants®, to make a powerful statement that racist insults could no longer be hurtful to Asian Americans. But then the U.S. Trade and Patent Office tries to stop him. In his eight-year battle to win trademark protection, Simon would go all the way to the Supreme Court in a landmark case to rout out structural racism in our government systems. Mia Wenjen takes us back to Simon's early days and the formation of the band, to the long battle to claim the name they chose to use. We learn of his motivations and the years-long struggle that leads ultimately to the Supreme Court of the United States. Told using lyrics from the band's hit song about their trademark fight, this compelling story will keep readers riveted until the dramatic ending. We Sing from the Heart gives background and context to the significance of Simon's quest, not just for him and his band, but for free speech rights for us all.
About the Author: Mia Wenjen blogs at PragmaticMom.com. She is also the co-creator and president of nonprofit, Read Your World. Her newest picture books, We Sing From the Heart (Red Comet Press), is an Orbis Pictus Recommended Book for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, a California Eureka Non-Fiction Award Honor Book, and a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection. Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World (Barefoot Books, 2023) won a number of awards and was on several longlists, including a Junior Library Guild Gold selection and 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist. Her debut picture book, Sumo Joe (Lee and Low, 2019) was selected as a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year. She released picture book Boxer Baby Battles Bedtime (Eifrig Publishing) in 2024. To learn more, follow her @pragmaticmom on social media.
About the Illustrator: Victor Bizar Gomez is an Mexican-American illustrator and painter. He uses the art of illustration to help communicate the perspectives that are not often considered. His work involves mixing urban city iconography, dreamlike surrealism, stylized figures, and social consciousness to create interesting visuals and narratives. Gomez graduated from Pacific Northwest College of Art with a BFA in Illustration in 2018.
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These books look so inspiring. Can't wait to read them!
ReplyDeleteBoth of these new picture books look amazing!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read these beautiful books.
ReplyDelete