Eleanora E. Tate

Eleanora E. Tate

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Photo By Zack E. Hamlett, III

Eleanora E. Tate wrote her first short story when she was in third grade, and she's been writing ever since. Her books celebrate neighborhoods and communities, and the children and families who live there. She is a 1999 Zora Neale Hurston Award recipient, the highest award given by the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. for her work in the oral tradition, and the 2000 Dr. Annette Lewis Phinazee Award honoree from North Carolina Central University's School of Library and Information Services for promoting quality African American children's literature. Her newest book is The Minstrel's Melody, published in March 2001, a Pleasant Company American Girl "History Mysteries" book. Set in Missouri in 1904, its heroine Orphelia Bruce is determined to become a professional musician against her family's wishes. Her journey takes her on the road with a traveling minstrel show to the 1904 World's Fair! Along the way she finds secrets from her family's troubled past.

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Ms. Tate's first biography, African American Musicians, published in June 2000, is a collection of biographical profiles of legendary and lesser known Black artists from the past 200 years. It is a 2000 "Parents Choice Recommended Award" winner. She is also the author of Don't Split the Pole: Tales of Down-Home Folk Wisdom, a collection of short stories that take place mostly in North Carolina; Retold African Myths; The Secret of Gumbo Grove, a Parents’ Choice Gold Seal Award winner, and its sister books A Blessing in Disguise, an American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists," and Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!, a 1990 Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies and a Child Study Book Committee "Children’s Book of the Year". The Secret of Gumbo Grove and Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.! are also Audio Books from Recorded Books, Inc.

Front Porch Stories at the One-Room School, Ms. Tate's popular read-aloud (a "Pick of the Lists" and a North Carolina Children's Junior Book Award nominee), and its sister book Just an Overnight Guest are also set in northeast Missouri, where the author was born. Originally published in 1980, Just an Overnight Guest returned in 1997 as a reprint publication from Just Us Books, Inc. Made into an award-winning film in 1983, it was shown on PBS’s Wonderworks Series and Nickelodeon.

Ms. Tate’s short stories and essays have appeared in American Girl, Scholastic Story works, and Goldfinch magazines; in the teenage anthology Lost and Found; in the family anthology In Praise of Our Fathers and Our Mothers: A Black Family Treasury by Outstanding Authors and Artists (Just Us Books, Inc.); in the Spring 1998 Children's Literature Issue of African American Review; and in Book Links Magazine, published by the American Library Association. She also wrote the foreword for "Gullah Gullah Island" TV star Ron Daise's picturebook Lil Muddy Waters.

The adventures of Ms. Tate’s heroines and heroes find permanent places on classroom and library shelves and on numerous recommended reading lists. A 1981 Bread Loaf Fellow, Ms. Tate speaks widely on children’s literature in schools, libraries and on college campuses. She was a featured speaker at the 1995 Whole Language Umbrella in Windsor, Ontario Canada, and at the 1996 Fifth Regional Caribbean Conference, IRA, in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Ms. Tate was graduated from Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, majoring in journalism (news editorial). She was news editor for the African American weekly Iowa Bystander Newspaper, and a reporter for the Des Moines (Iowa) Register and Tribune newspapers. She is a member of the Concerned Citizens Operation Reach-Out Organization, North Carolina Writers’ Network, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. The 1991-92 national president of the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc., Ms. Tate and her husband, noted photographer Zack E. Hamlett, III, currently live in Durham, North Carolina.

Celeste's Harlem Renaissance
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Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers (April 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316523941

When Celeste Lassiter Massey must travel to Harlem to live with her actress Aunt Valentina, she's not thrilled at all to leave her friends, home and Poppa in comfortable Raleigh, North Carolina for New York's 1921 fast life.

While Celeste absorbs the grit and glamour of Aunt Valentina's lifestyle and the excitement of the Harlem Renaissance, she constantly wonders and worries about Poppa, her friends, and even her cranky Aunt Society (her Raleigh live-in aunt-in-charge) back home.

Talk about dangers, hard work, and romance! What about that fine, bald-headed boy Big Willie from Eagle Rock, NC that she meets on the train to Harlem? Will she ever see him again?

And what about Miss D (Miz Ripsey Dillahunt), a Gullah lady from the islands around Charleston, SC, who helps Celeste understand Aunti Val? And what about Miss D's looney 8-year-old granddaughter Gertie, who thinks folks get tapeworms from drinking milk?

Will Celeste ever see North Carolina again? And will she ever have to deal with ole Aunt Society again???

The Minstrel's Melody
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Format: Paperback, 160pp.
ISBN: 1584853107
Publisher: Pleasant Company Publications
Pub. Date: March 2001
Recommend Age Range: 12 and up

In 1904, twelve-year-old Orphelia follows her dream by running away from home to join an all-black minstrel show headed for the Saint Louis World's Fair, and learns about her family's troubled past in the process.

Click to buy this book African American Musicians
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Format: Hardcover, 170pp.
Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated
Pub. Date: June 2000

Presents biographical profiles of African Americans, both legendary and less well-known, who have made significant contributions to music in the United States over the past 200 years.

The Secret of Gumbo Grove
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Publisher: Yearling (Random House Children's Books)
Date Published: November 1996
Format: Trade Paper

While helping restore the cemetery of the old Baptist church, eleven-year-old Raisin solves the mystery surrounding the founding of her home town and gains pride in her family's past.

Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr!
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Publisher: Yearling (Random House Children's Books)
Date Published: March 1998
Format: Trade Paper

The children of Gumbo Grove Elementary School discover the contributions of many famous Afro-Americans during Black History Month.

Don't Split the Pole; Tales of Down-Home Folk Wisdom
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Cornelius Van Wright (Illustrator)
Publisher: Yearling (Random House Children's Books)
Date Published: January 1999
Format: Trade Cloth

A celebration of storytelling and folk wisdom, this collection illustrates the often hilarious and inspiring truth behind such anecdotes as "A hard head makes a soft behind" and "What goes around comes around."

A Blessing in Disguise
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Publisher: BDD Books for Young Readers
Date Published: April 1996
Format: Trade Paper

Life in "itsy bitsy countrified do-nothing" Deacon's Neck is plain boring to 12-year-old Zambia Brown. Living with Aunt Limo, Uncle Lamar, and nerdy cousin Aretha is all church, chores, and chump change. When Zambia's father, Vernon "Snake" LaRange, opens a hot new nightclub down the road, the neighborhood is up in arms, but Zambia has visions of living large now that Snake is nearby. Ages 9-12.

Front Porch Stories; At the One-Room School
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Eric Velasquez, Illustrator
Publisher: Yearling (Random House Children's Books)
Date Published: November 1993
Format: Trade Paper

Twelve-year-old Margie and her younger cousin Ethel forget their boredom when Margie's father entertains them with stories about his boyhood, people and events in their small Missouri town's past.