"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

Some past winners and honorees include Maya Angelou for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Random House, 1971); Shirley Chisholm for Unbought and Unbossed (Houghton Mifflin, 1970); Pearl Bailey for Duey's Tale (Harcourt, 1975); Ossie Davis for Escape to Freedom: A Play About Young Frederick Douglass (Viking, 1979); and Sidney Poitier for This Life (Knopf, 1981).

2004 Winners

The American Library Association's Coretta Scott King Task Force Award Jury announced the following choices this past January.

The 2004 Coretta Scott King Awards for outstanding books for children and young adults:

Angela Johnson, author of The First Pair Last Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Ashley Bryan, illustrator and author of Beautiful Blackbird, Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award:

Hope Anita Smith, author of The Way a Door Closes. (illustrated by Shane W. Evans) Henry Holt and Company.

The Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award: Elbrite Brown, illustrator of My Family Plays Music, published by Holiday House. ([he book's author is Judy Cox.)

King Author Honor Books:

Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States by Patricia C. and Fredrick L. McKissack, published by Scholastic Press.

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson, published by G.R Putnams's Sons/Penguin Young Readers Group.

The Battle of Jericho by Sharon M. Draper published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

King Illustrator Honor Books:

Almost to Freedom illustrated by Colin Bootman, written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and published by Carolrhoda Books, a division of Lerner Publishing Group.

Thunder Rose, illustrated by Kadir Nelson written by Jerdine Nolen and published by Silver Whistle, an imprint of Harcourt, Inc.

The 2004 Coretta Scott King Task Force Award Jury: Chrystal Carr Jeter, Cleveland Public Library. Jury Chair; Deborah Burns, Chicago Public Library, Bessie Coleman Branch; Patty Carleton, St. Louis Public Library; Darwin L. Henderson, University of Cincinnati (Ohio); Veronica L. C. Stevenson Moudamane, The Danbury (Conn.) Library; Loretta Dowell, San Francisco Public Library, Fisher Children's Center; Idella A. Washington, New Orleans Public Schools, Benjamin Franklin Senior High School.

Elizabeth Atkins is a journalist and novelist who lives in Detroit.