photo credit: Kikelomo Amusa-Shonubi
to the online home of Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, author of titles including OPERATION SISTERHOOD (Crown/Random House); MAKEDA MAKES A BIRTHDAY TREAT (Balzer and Bray/HarperCollins); IT DOESN’T TAKE A GENIUS (Six Foot Press); SAVING EARTH: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future (FSG/Macmillan); 8TH GRADE SUPERZERO (Scholastic); TWO NAOMIS and NAOMIS TOO (Balzer & Bray/HarperCollins), with Audrey Vernick; SOMEDAY IS NOW: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins (Quarto Kids); and ABOVE AND BEYOND: NASA’S JOURNEY TO TOMORROW (Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan).
Reviews for YOU’RE BREAKING MY HEART
BOOK LAUNCH EVENT IN NYC! Much gratitude to Laura Pegram and KWELI JOURNAL for hosting a beautiful celebration for the release of YOU’RE BREAKING MY HEART at Ballet Hispanico! There was friendship, dance from artists Mia Bermudez and Rodney Hamilton, and talk of love, loss, and the power of memory with the wonderful Renée Watson.
REVIEWS for YOU’RE BREAKING MY HEART
“A highly original tale exploring grief and weaving together the realistic and fantastical.” —Kirkus
“A darkly atmospheric love letter to siblinghood in this speculative foray into processing grief, guilt, and shame.” —Publishers Weekly
“Powerful and moving.”
—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“Raw, intense, and utterly unique exploration of grief and guilt.”
—Booklist
MAKEDA NEWS:
Thrilled that MAKEDA MAKES A BIRTHDAY TREAT was named a “Best of the Best” by the Chicago Public Library! Available at your local bookshop or online now.
MAKEDA MAKES A BIRTHDAY TREAT is here!!
“This cheerful celebration of ethnic food, storytelling, and diverse experience also explores concepts of bravery, identity, sharing, and open-mindedness.”
— BOOKLIST on MAKEDA MAKES A BIRTHDAY TREAT
Want to do something about book challenges and bans? Excellent list of resources, curated by We Need Diverse Books.
So grateful and thrilled to see MAE MAKES A WAY on the 2023 RISE Feminist Book List , along with such wonderful titles!
BEST OF THE YEAR! Honoured to see THE SUN DOES SHINE on the Best of the Year Lists from School Library Journal and the Chicago Public Library! Thank you to all who read and shared.
OPERATION SISTERHOOD in the NY Times!
The lovely school and library team at Random House has created a fun and dynamic educator’s guide for OPERATION SISTERHOOD along with two beautiful book buddies! It’s available for download here.
Podcast Chats: It was such a pleasure to chat with Black Women Stitch icon Lisa Woolfork on Stitch Please, the warm and insightful Danielle M. Smith on GOOD NEWS, the wonderful Loraine Ballard Morrill on the iHeart Radio Philadelphia Community Podcast, the incredible book advocate and author Charnaie Gordon on Here Wee Read, educator extraordinaire Gary R. Gray, Jr. on It’s Personal, and the hilarious Jedlie on Reading With Your Kids!
OUT NOW: A School Library Journal and Chicago Public Library BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR with starred reviews from Booklist and School Library Journal! THE SUN DOES SHINE: An Innocent Man, A Wrongful Conviction, and the Long Path to Justice (Young Readers Edition), with Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin. It was an incredible honour to work on the adaptation of this memoir by Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin. Mr. Hinton spoke about his message to young people on CBS THIS MORNING, and we both shared on the adaptation process with Betsy Bird at School Library Journal.
Audiofile chats Operation Sisterhood!
So honoured to get to talk about MAE MAKES A WAY along with Donna Limerick, Ms. Reeves daughter, on Reading With Your Kids!
Proud member of The Brown Bookshelf.
Say my name, over at the wonderful Teaching Books.
I’m a big fan of AALBC.com, and am honoured to share “The Magic of Just Being” over there — please check it out!
My middle grade novel OPERATION SISTERHOOD is starting of 2022 in style and great company as an INDIENEXT pick! Thank you so much to Mystery To Me books and all the independent booksellers working incredibly hard to share our stories with readers.
cover art: Brittney Bond. cover design: Katrina Damkoehler
SAVING EARTH is a Junior Library Guild Selection!
MAE MAKES A WAY: The True Story of Mae Reeves, Hat and History Maker, in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture is out now. The NY Times called MAE ‘a fine introduction to a determined trailblazer!’ Audio preview (read by yours truly) available!
Thank you Kirkus! IT DOESN’T TAKE A GENIUS named as one of the Best of 2021!
For more about me, check out this interview with the Children’s Media Association and my page at AALBC.
Find me on Instagram .
Literary Agent: Marietta Zacker.
TV/Film: Mary Pender, United Talent Agency (UTA)
Hope this web site finds you well. ;)
And as always, I’m wishing you much bookjoy!
Brooklyn Love!
At the African American Children’s Book Fair with Books Through My Eyes’ Kennedi.
At the 30th Annual African American Children’s Book Fair in Philadelphia