Ninth Ward (Coretta Scott King Author Honor Title)

If you have a kid who loves stories about animals and mermaids, give them Bayou Magic, by Jewell Parker Rhodes! It’s 10 year old Maddy’s turn to have a summer in Bayou Bon Temps with her grandmother; it will be her first time away from home in the city. Her four big sisters, who have each […]

Some books introduce us to characters who are different from us, allowing us to see the world from a new perspective. But for children in the process of figuring out who they are, and who they want to be, it is just as important to also read stories about characters they can relate to, and see themselves in. The desire to read […]

Jewell Parker Rhodes is a children’s book writer of uncommon compassion, whose diverse books introduce historical and cultural moments to children through the powerful lens of story. In her Louisiana Girls trilogy, she wrote about the fallout of the Gulf Oil spill within a tale of family lore, Deep South living, and African mermaids (Bayou Magic); about […]

Jewell Parker Rhodes is one of the best middle grade writers there is when it comes to tackling tough, heartbreaking history with compassion and hope. The history she writes about includes the very recent past—things that have happened during the lifetimes of young readers that their own children will be reading about in school down […]