Coretta Scott King Book Award Persephoni Moore

CORETTA SCOTT KING  The Coretta Scott King Award was created to recognize and honor great African American authors, illustrators, and books in literature.  This award was named after Coretta Scott King due to her efforts in working for peace and civil rights.

GRANTING BODY  The Coretta Scott King Award is presented by the Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange (EMIERT), a round table of the American Library Association (ALA).

SELECTION CRITERIA  Book must portray an African American experience  Must be written for a youth audience  Must be written or illustrated by an African American author and be the authors original work.  Book must be published in the United States  Special attention will be given to books whose titles motivate readers to develop there own behaviors while comprehending their responsibilities.

ELIGIBILITY  The author and the illustrator must live in the United States.  The book must be published in the year before the year the award is given. For example, a book that was published in 2011 would be eligible for next year’s 2012 award.  Only finished books will be accepted for the award.

“ MIRACLE’S BOYS” BY JACQUELINE WOODSON 2001 CORETTA SCOTT KING AWARD WINNER

“MIRACLE’S BOYS”  “Miracle’s Boys” is about three brothers, Ty’ree, 21, Lafayette, 12, and Charlie, 15, who are now on their own after their mother has died from insulin shock. Ty’ree, their legal guardian, and Lafayette have been doing fine without Charlie, who has been locked up for three years at Rahway Home for Boys for armed robbery. Throughout the story Ty’ree and Lafayette try to help Charlie through his troublemaking, anger, and grief as they all get through the passing of their mother.

Jacqueline Woodson The author of “Miracle’s Boys”, was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1963 but she and her brother moved back and forth from South Carolina to New York. The first book that Woodson has written was titled “Last Summer with Maizon”. She has won the Coretta Scott King Award for Miracle’s Boys in 2001 and has been honored for the Newberry Award for her titles “After Tupac and D. Foster”, “Show Way”, and “Feathers”. Woodson is an openly lesbian woman with her partner she has known since she was a young girl. They have two children together, a daughter named Toshi Georgianna, after her godmother, and a son name Jackson- Leroi. She is currently living in Brooklyn, New York.