Antiracism Storytime

I'm so happy to share two amazing books for kids in an Antiracism Storytime hosted by HudCo, a beautiful co-working space in Dobbs Ferry.

Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky

Intersectionallies by Latoya Council, Carolyn Choi, & Chelsea Johnson, illustrated by @seilsmith .

These books provide parents useful tools and vocabulary for talking about current events, and raising good citizens. Thoughtful yet playful text and vibrant illustrations will keep it an engaging experience for all ages. I hope that these books inspire us to have brave talks with our kids and to have faith that all the work we are doing now around the country is going to make the world a more just place for all. 

As I mention in the video, these books are available through Picture Book’s ecommerce site Bookshop.org, but I also suggest you consider buying them from an independent black-owned bookstore.

Books to Support Antiracism

From the conception of Picture Book, it has been a core value to ensure that I am promoting books by and with representation of people of color. I think it is incredibly important for us all to engage with stories about people of color that don’t have to do with race to remind us all that race isn’t the only story to a person’s life. However, it has become increasingly clear that is not enough at all, and we also need books that deal directly with racism to fight it. As a white woman, I am trying to do the work specifically with Layla F. Saad’s Me and White Supremacy and Ibram X Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist. You can find my full list of recommendations for printed books on antiracism for all ages here and a full list of audiobooks on antiracism here and several highlighted below. Many books are currently backordered, so if you are feeling the urgency of the moment I strongly recommend you get your audiobooks with the libro.fm platform.

Books for Kids

Books for Teens

Books For Adults

Complete list available here

Audiobooks

Complete list available here

Black & BIPOC-owned Independent Bookstores

While we are promoting books on antiracism, I think it is important to also promote BIPOC-owned independent bookstores who have been doing this good work all along. Please take a look at the list below of great bookstores you can follow on instagram and support with your purchases too.

The Lit Bar, Bronx, NY
@thelitbar

Word Up Community Bookshop, Washington Heights, NYC
@wordupbooks

Cafe con Libros, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY
@cafeconlibros_bk

Marcus Books, Oakland, CA -the oldest Black-owned bookstore in the country
@marcus.books

Fulton Street Books, Tulsa, OK
@fultonstreet918

Eye See Me, University City, Missouri
@eyeseeme_bookstore

Uncle Bobbies Coffee & Books, Philadelphia, PA
@unclebobbies

The Key Bookstore, Online
@keybookstore

Mahogany Books, Washington, DC
@mahoganybooks

Semicolon Bookstore, Chicago, IL
@semicolonchi

Harrietts Bookshop, Philadelphia, PA
@harrietts_bookshop

Ashay By The Bay, Vallejo, CA
@ashaybythebay

A more extensive list of black-owned bookstores can be found here but you need to verify individually that each one is still open.

Spread Love with Books

Did you know that February 14th is not just Valentine’s Day, but also International Book Giving Day? It’s a perfect time to spread love with books. Some extra lovey books from Picture Book are below to give you some inspiration. Click on the covers for more information.

Black History Month: Art Books

In celebration of Black History Month, check out the below selection of art books on important black visual artists. The artists represented here, predominantly contemporary, are a small fraction of the many great black American artists, but I hope this can help inspire us all to diversify our bookshelves or to remind us of our favorites if we are already well-versed. Click on the book covers to learn more.

Artists Included

Derrick Adams - Dawoud Bey - Mark Bradford - Nick Cave - Robert Colescott - LaToya Ruby Frazier - Ellen Gallagher - Sam Gilliam - Adler Guerrier - David Hammons - Jenny C. Jones - Deana Lawson - Kerry James Marshall - Julie Mehretu - Gordon Parks - Adrian Piper - Martin Puryear - Betye Saar - Lorna Simpson - Alma Thomas - Mickalene Thomas - Kara Walker - Carrie Mae Weems

Brain Benefits of Reading to your Preschool Child

This is your child's brain on books: Scans show benefit of reading vs. screen time

by Sandee LaMotte, CNN
January 16, 2020

“Taking away screens and reading to our children during the formative years of birth to age 5 boosts brain development. We all know that's true, but now science can convince us with startling images.

This is the brain of a preschooler who is often read to by a caregiver.

The red areas in this scan show a growth…”

Full article here:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/16/health/child-brain-reading-books-wellness/index.html

New Year, New You with Audiobooks

New Year, New You

The New Year, New You playlist has recommendations from Picture Book on great audiobooks to help you accomplish all your goals for 2020. Want to be better to the planet? Have more energy? Be more mindful? Want to make the world a better place? We got you.

Quit Like a Woman
The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol
By Holly Whitaker
Narrated by Holly Whitaker / 10 hours 7 minutes

Everyday Ubuntu
Living Better Together, the African Way
By Mungi Ngomane
Narrated by Nontombi Naomi Tutu / 5 hours 59 minutes

24/6
The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week
By Tiffany Shlain
Narrated by Tiffany Shlain / 4 hours 55 minutes

Brain Wash
Detox Your Mind for Clearer Thinking, Deeper Relationships, and Lasting Happiness
By David Perlmutter, Austin Perlmutter & Kristin Loberg
Narrated by Peter Ganim / 7 hours 17 minutes

Radical Kindness
The Life-Changing Power of Giving and Receiving
By Angela Santomero
Narrated by Angela Santomero & Michael David Axtell / 3 hours 23 minutes

How to Be an Antiracist
By Ibram X. Kendi
Narrated by Ibram X. Kendi / 10 hours 43 minutes

How to Give Up Plastic
A Guide to Changing the World, One Plastic Bottle at a Time
By Will McCallum
Narrated by Jonathan Cowley / 4 hours 21 minutes

Big Magic
Creative Living Beyond Fear
By Elizabeth Gilbert
Narrated by Elizabeth Gilbert / 5 hours 5 minutes

Summer Listening Challenge

Picture Book and Libro.fm are partnering up to present the Summer Listening Challenge! Listen to 20 hours of Libro.fm audiobooks while you are enjoying your summer. When you complete the challenge you get a free audiobook, exclusive discounts, and a chance to win the grand prize: free audiobooks for a year!

Here is how it works:

Sign up for a free Libro.fm membership to be eligible for the contest, and they will send you your printable log so you can track your listening

Start listening to the many audiobooks available through Libro.fm. Check out some of our recommendations below!

Once you've listened to more than 20 hours of audiobooks, upload your listening log here and get your rewards.

Rewards are:

• 20% discount on all Libro.fm audiobooks through the end of the year

• Entry for the grand prize, free audiobooks for a year!

For extra credit, tag your favorite bookstore @picturebookny in a post using hashtag #SummerListeningChallenge when you recommend an audiobook on social media.

Dangers of Buying Books from Amazon

A new article in the New York Times by David Streitfeld discusses some of the problems with Amazon’s book business. Many sellers are offering counterfeit books through the platform with little to no oversight from Amazon, including counterfeit copies of important medical textbooks that are poorly printed and could cause grave confusion on top of robbing the author of royalties.

“A book takes a year or more to write,” said Andrew Hunt of the Pragmatic Bookshelf, a North Carolina publisher of computer books that had at least one of its titles stolen. “But to steal the book and upload it to Amazon takes only a minute. As the expression goes, there’s a low cost of entry.”

And when someone buys a counterfeit, Mr. Hunt added, the real author may get cheated but Amazon still makes a sale. “You could ask, What’s their incentive to do something?” he said.

Yet another reason to buy your books locally from an independent bookstore that cares about quality, authenticity, and supports authors.

Article Here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/23/technology/amazon-domination-bookstore-books.html

Women's Prize for Fiction 2019

The Women’s Prize for Fiction is the UK’s most prestigious annual book award celebrating & honoring women’s fiction. Founded in 1996, the Prize was set up to celebrate originality, accessibility & excellence in writing by women and to connect world-class writers with readers everywhere.

The winner will be announced on June 5, so there is still time to read the books on the shortlist (announced on April 29) or the full longlist (announced March 4) if you are feeling ambitious! You can also see a playlist of all of these available in audiobook format here if you want to listen.

THE SHORTLIST

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Milkman by Anna Burns

Ordinary People by Diana Evans

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Circe by Madeline Miller

THE LONGLIST

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

The Pisces by Melissa Broder

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Milkman by Anna Burns

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Ordinary People by Diana Evans

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

Circe by Madeline Miller

Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice L. McFadden

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

Normal People by Sally Rooney

COMING SOON

Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton
Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
Bottled Goods by Sophie van Llewyn

#ReadMoreWomen

This Women’s History Month is a good reminder to #ReadMoreWomen and Picture Book has prepared a selection of new fiction by female writers below to help you pick out your next book. All of the below books are available (or shortly available) as audiobooks through our partner Libro.fm where you can find the full playlist.

Vacuum in the Dark: A Novel
By Jen Beagin
Narrated by Jayme Mattler / 8 hours 15 minutes

The Immortalists
By Chloe Benjamin

Audiobook narrated by Maggie Hoffman /  11 hours 29 minutes, #21 in Bestselling Audiobooks

Evening in Paradise: More Stories
By Lucia Berlin
Narrated by Kyla Garcia / 9 hours 2 minutes

Milkman
By Anna Burns
Narrated by Bríd Brennan / 14 hours 11 minutes
2018 Man Booker Prize Winner

The New Me: A Novel
By Halle Butler
Narrated by Halle Butler / 4 hours 7 minutes

Queenie
By Candice Carty-Williams
Narrated by Shvorne Marks / 9 hours 45 minutes

If, Then: A Novel
By Kate Hope Day
Narrated by Rebecca Lowman / 8 hours 31 minutes

Some Trick: Thirteen Stories
By Helen DeWitt
Narrated by Tim Campbell, Emily Sutton-Smith, James Langton & Karen Cass
6 hours 11 minutes

The Witch Elm: A Novel
By Tana French
Narrated by Paul Nugent / 22 hours 6 minutes
#2 in Bestselling Mystery & Thriller Audiobooks

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
By Anissa Gray
Narrated by January LaVoy, Adenrele Ojo, Bahni Turpin & Dominic Hoffman
9 hours 55 minutes

The Great Alone: A Novel
By Kristin Hannah
Narrated by Julia Whelan / 15 hours 1 minute

An American Marriage: A Novel
By Tayari Jones
Narrated by Sean Crisden & Eisa Davis / 8 hours 59 minutes
#8 in Bestselling Fiction & Literature Audiobooks

Pachinko
By Min Jin Lee
Narrated by Allison Hiroto / 18 hours 15 minutes
National Book Award Finalist

Everything Here Is Beautiful
By Mira T. Lee
Narrated by Cassandra Campbell & Various
13 hours 17 minutes

Lost Children Archive: A Novel
By Valeria Luiselli
Narrated by Valeria Luiselli, Kivlighan de Montebello, William DeMeritt & Maia Enrigue Luiselli
11 hours 16 minutes

Severance: A Novel
By Ling Ma
Narrated by Nancy Wu / 9 hours 53 minutes
#2 in Bestselling Science Fiction Audiobooks

Bowlaway: A Novel
By Elizabeth McCracken
Narrated by Kate Reading / 12 hours 52 minutes

Gingerbread: A Novel
By Helen Oyeyemi
Narrated by Helen Oyeyemi / 7 hours 28 minutes

Normal People: A Novel
By Sally Rooney
Narrated by Aoife McMahon / 7 hours 34 minutes
Longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction

A Woman Is No Man: A Novel
By Etaf Rum
Narrated by Ariana Delawari, Dahlia Salem & Susan Nezami
10 hours 15 minutes

The Island of Sea Women: A Novel
By Lisa See
Narrated by Jennifer Lim /  13 hours 22 minutes

Anything Is Possible: A Novel
By Elizabeth Strout
Narrated by Kimberly Farr / 8 hours 28 minutes

The Dreamers: A Novel
By Karen Thompson Walker
Narrated by Cassandra Campbell / 10 hours 28 minutes

The Female Persuasion: A Novel
By Meg Wolitzer
Narrated by Rebecca Lowman / 14 hours 48 minutes

Audiobooks from Picture Book

Picture Book is proud to partner with Libro.fm to provide digital audiobooks to our community! You can feel good about buying your audiobooks through Libro.fm since they support local bookstores and invest in your local community. We offer over 100,000 audiobooks via the Libro.fm premium platform which they built with love from scratch. Proceeds from audiobooks purchased through Libro.fm are shared with your local bookstore. Your community sees 25% more money when you shop locally rather than at a national chain. More of your tax dollars are also reinvested into your community.

The 24th Annual Audie Awards were held earlier this month and you can follow the links below to purchase the winning audiobooks:

AUDIE AWARD WINNERS

Audiobook of the Year
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, narrated by Bahni Turpin (Macmillan Audio)

Autobiography/Memoir
Educated by Tara Westover, narrated by Julia Whelan (Penguin Random House Audio)

Best Female Narrator
Educated by Tara Westover, narrated by Julia Whelan (Penguin Random House Audio)

Best Male Narrator
Watchers by Dean Koontz, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini (Brilliance Publishing)

Business/Personal Development
How to Be Heard by Julian Treasure, narrated by Julian Treasure (Blackstone Publishing)

Fantasy
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, narrated by Lisa Flanagan (Penguin Random House Audio)

Fiction
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, narrated by Richard Armitage (Harper Audio)

History/Biography
Darkest Hour by Anthony McCarten, narrated by John Lee (HarperAudio)

Humor
The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, written and narrated by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally (Penguin Random House Audio)

Middle Grade
Sunny by Jason Reynolds, narrated by Guy Lockard (Simon & Schuster Audio)

Multi-voiced Performance
Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham, narrated by Pyeng Threadgill and Luke Slattery (Hachette Audio)

Mystery
The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George, narrated by Simon Vance (Penguin Random House Audio)

Narration by Author or Authors
The Secret of Nightingale Wood, written and narrated by Lucy Strange (Scholastic Audio)

Nonfiction
The Perfectionists by Simon Winchester, narrated by Simon Winchester (HarperAudio)

Original Work
Spin by Harvey Edelman and Neil Fishman, adapted for audio by David B. Coe, narrated by Jim Dale, Barrett Leddy, Lisa Livesay, Nicola Barber, Khristine Hvam, Nick Sullivan, John Brady, and Johnny Heller (HarperAudio)

Short Stories/Collections
Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires, narrated by Adenrele Ojo (HighBridge Audio, a division of Recorded Books)

Thriller/Suspense
Crimson Lake by Candice Fox, narrated by Euan Morton (Macmillan Audio)

Young Adult
Sadie by Courtney Summers, narrated by Dan Bittner, Rebecca Soler, Gabra Zackman, and Fred Berman (Macmillan Audio)

Congratulations to all the winners!

MORE RECOMMENDATIONS

Some of my recent favorites:

Merchants of Truth by Jill Abramson

The Source of Self-Regard Toni Morrison (though c'mon, don't you want that pink cover with gold lettering on your shelf too???)

Looking forward to reading:

Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond & Adam Horovitz (features an impressive cast of narrators!)

How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr

So Here’s the Thing by Alyssa Mastromonaco & Lauren Oyler

Radical Kindness by Angela Santomero

Best Photo Books of 2018

Teju Cole’s article in the New York Times on the best photography books of 2018 included several books featured on Picture Book’s website, including Deana Lawson’s Aperture monograph. Teju Cole is a novelist, a photographer and the New York Times Magazine’s photography critic. He teaches at Harvard. Find the article here and scroll down for links to books.

Deana Lawson: An Aperture Monograph, with texts by Zadie Smith and Arthur Jafa, Aperture, 2018

Sun Gardens: Cyanotypes by Anna Atkins by Larry J. Schaaf with contributions by Joshua Chuang, Emily Waltz, & Mike Ware, Prestel/New York Public Library, 2018

The Wild Robot Box Set

The Wild Robot Hardcover Gift Set (Hardcover)
By Peter Brown 
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2018

List Price: 34.00*

* Individual store prices may vary.

Dive into the complete New York Times bestselling series The Wild Robot with this
beautiful hardcover gift set.

Can a robot survive in the wilderness?

When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island.
She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is--but she knows she needs to survive.

From bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Peter Brown comes a heartwarming and
action-packed series about what happens when nature and technology collide. This gorgeous box set includes The Wild Robot and The Wild Robot Escapes.