"American Dream" classics for kids: the American Library Association's Coretta Scott King Awards, now celebrating its 35th year, set a standard for African American literature for children

Black Issues Book Review, March-April, 2004 by Elizabeth Atkins

It crowns the jewels of African American literature for children and young adults, and rightly so: named for one of the world's most regal women with the most noble of causes, the Coretta Scott King Award (CSK) will be presented in June for the 35th year by the prestigious American Library Association (ALA) at its annual conference in Orlando, Florida. Three new works by black authors and illustrators will be honored (see "2004 Winners," facing page). Those books and writers will thus be designated as the must-have, must-know literary gems for bookstores, libraries and book buyers.

"With the award, the books become more desirable," says John Mason, director of Library and Educational Marketing at Scholastic Inc., Trade Book Group. "Many bookstores and libraries automatically stock the winning books and the honor books."

That means the award is doing exactly what its founders set out to do back in 1969: to get recognition where recognition was long, long overdue. Now the gala Coretta Scott King Awards breakfast--drawing 600-plus librarians, publishing industry heavyweights, book buyers, authors and children--is the dazzling result of the disturbing dialogue back in the day among black and white librarians over the fact that no black authors or illustrators had won the sterling Newbery and Caldecott Medals the highest honors for children's books. This multiracial group of librarians were determined to start their own honors and name it after the wife of the revered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to honor works that promote their vision of the American Dream.

"The award is a tremendous force that honors people who were neglected because of conscious and unconscious racism," says Arnold Adoff, an author whose late wife, Virginia Hamilton, won more CSK Awards than any other author--for books such as The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales (Knopf, October 1985).

"The award serves a purpose, showing the multibillion-dollar publishing establishment that they have to be true to tire image of America and what American literature really is," says Adoff whose 1982 book All the Colors of the Race (Lothrop) was honored for its illustrations by John Steptoe.

"The ALA's stamp of approval creates a sales spurt and keeps books in print for a long time," says Diane Foote, former marketing director at New York's Holiday House. The company published two books that received the Coretta Scott King Award for illustrator James E. Ransome's 1995 The Creation, based on the lames Weldon Johnson poem; and for illustrator Terea Shaffer's 1994 The Singing Man: Adapted From a West African Folktale (written by Angela Shelf Medearis).

"The CSK Award also helps white parents who are trying to diversify- their children's reading, by distinguishing the best books by African Americans," says Foote, who edits the ALA's Book Links magazine. "And the books that win these awards have a chance at becoming classics."

E.B. Lewis, who won the CSK Award last year for his illustrations in Talkin' About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman by Nikki Grimes (Orchard Books, November 2002), says the honor needs to get more mainstream attention.

"When someone wins the Caldecott and Newbery Awards,' he says, "the next day they're interviewed on national TV. Thai doesn't happen with the Coretta Scott King Award?"

A glass ceiling within the book industry" seems impenetrable at times, says Scholastic's Mason. "But some bookstores, and I think they're so wrong, they say 'We don't get much demand for those titles,' meaning 'Our readers are mostly white and aren't looking for books with people of color;" he adds. "But it's a vicious cycle because if they don't see the books, they don't buy the books. The Coretta Scott King Award has done a huge service to overcoming that perception, but there's more work to he done."

"The CSK Award is opening doors for those who are writing our history, our tales, our stories," says Henrietta Smith, professor emeritus at the University of South Florida's library school. "And it gives our children a chance to say, 'Look what we can do!'

Smith says she visited a school once and showed an Ashley Bryan book on Christmas carols. "A little boy said, 'Look at that brown baby Jesus! That could be me!' For these children to open a book and see themselves, it's just wonderful."

How the CSK Jury Picks Winners

A seven-member awards jury picked this year's winners from more than 200 nominations during the ALA's midwinter conference in San Diego, in January. Jury Chair Chrystal Carr Jeter says anyone can nominate a book (it's typically done by publishers)--Biographies, fiction, historical perspectives, personal reflections are all eligible, as long as the work is written or illustrated by an African American; published in the U.S. the year preceding the award; and portrays the past, present or future black experience in ways that promote Mrs. King's courage and determination in continuing Dr. King's work for peace and world unity.

The prize? A framed citation and a set of encyclopedias. Satia Marshall Orange, director of the ALA's Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, says authors also win $1,000 from Johnson Publications and illustrators get $1,000 from Book Wholesalers, Inc. A handful of additional authors and illustrators also receive honors or honorable mention. The CSK Award program also gives out the John Steptoe Award for New Talent to one author and one illustrator.