Kelly Starling Lyons :: For Readers

Virtual Book Club

For the past few years, I’ve facilitated book clubs for girls. We’ve read dozens of picture books that celebrate literary treasures by black children’s book creators of today and the past. Sometimes, I get emails from parents, community group leaders and teachers asking me to recommend good books about kids of color. Below, I posted our reading list for the 2010-2011 school year. If you don't see a month listed, that means we have a field trip scheduled instead.

The book selections are grouped by age range – lower elementary and upper elementary. Please join us in reading these titles and saluting the wonderful authors and illustrators who created them. If you enjoy a particular selection, please post a review on Amazon.com. Your feedback may help keep a good book in print.

Also, to find more great reads, please check out The Brown Bookshelf, a site created by a team of authors and illustrators dedicated to raising awareness of African-American children’s literature. I'm honored to be part of that group. I created a few Listmania lists below that offer more wonderful books to consider sharing with young people you love too.

Finally, I just started a new service, children's book club consulting. Would you like to start a book club for kids that introduces them to children’s books by black authors and illustrators, but you don’t know where to begin? I can help. We’ll discuss themes, reading level, mission and then I’ll create a year-long reading list for your club complete with fun extension activities and links to reviews, discussion guides (if available) and author and illustrator web sites. If you're interested, contact me at email@kellystarlinglyons.com.

Here’s to celebrating children’s literature every day.

Happy Reading!

Kelly