NAACP Image Awards Winners and Nominees
In 2020, the NAACP celebrates the 51st anniversary of Image Awards. There are 5 titles nominated in eight literature categories; Biography/Autobiography, Children, Debut Author, Fiction,
Instructional, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Youth/Teens
39 Image Award Winning and Nominated Books for 2013
Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
Interventions: A Life in War and Peace
by Kofi Annan
Publication Date: Sep 04, 2012
List Price: $36.00
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781594204203
Imprint: Penguin Press
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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No one ever came closer to being the voice of “we the peoples” and no one paid a higher price for it. The world still needs such a voice, but the next person who tries to fill that role will want to reflect long and hard on the lessons of this candid, courageous, and unsparing memoir."" --Michael Ignatieff, The New York Review of Books
Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2001, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke to a world still reeling from the terrorist attacks of September 11. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” proclaimed Annan, “we have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire. If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better, and we see further we will realize that humanity is indivisible. New threats make no distinction between races, nations, or regions.” Yet within only a few years the world was more divided than ever polarized by the American invasion of Iraq, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the escalating civil wars in Africa, and the rising influence of China.
Interventions: A Life in War and Peace is the story of Annan’s remarkable time at the center of the world stage. After forty years of service at the United Nations, Annan shares here his unique experiences during the terrorist attacks of September 11; the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan; the war between Israel, Hizbollah, and Lebanon; the brutal conflicts of Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia; and the geopolitical transformations following the end of the Cold War. With eloquence and unprecedented candor, Interventions finally reveals Annan’s unique role and unparalleled perspective on decades of global politics.
The first sub-Saharan African to hold the position of Secretary-General, Annan has led an extraordinary life in his own right. His idealism and personal politics were forged in the Ghanaian independence movement of his adolescence, when all of Africa seemed to be rising as one to demand self-determination. Schooled in Africa, Europe, and the United States, Annan ultimately joined the United Nations in Geneva at the lowest professional level in the still young organization. Annan rose rapidly through the ranks and was by the end of the Cold War prominently placed in the dramatically changing department of peacekeeping operations. His stories of Presidents Clinton and Bush, dictators like Saddam Hussein and Robert Mugabe, and public figures of all stripes contrast powerfully with Annan’s descriptions of the courage and decency of ordinary people everywhere struggling for a new and better world. Showing the successes of the United Nations, Annan also reveals the organization’s missed opportunities and ongoing challenges inaction in the Rwanda genocide, continuing violence between Israelis and Palestinians, and the endurance of endemic poverty. Yet Annan’s great strength in this book is his ability to embed these tragedies within the context of global politics, demonstrating how, time and again, the nations of the world have retreated from the UN’s founding purpose. From the pinnacle of global politics, Annan made it his purpose to put the individual at the center of every mission for peace and prosperity.
A personal biography of global statecraft, Annan’s Interventions is as much a memoir as a guide to world order past, present, and future.
Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
The One: The Life and Music of James Brown
by RJ Smith
Publication Date: Mar 15, 2012
List Price: $27.50
Format: Hardcover, 464 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781592406579
Imprint: Gotham
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities
by Will Allen
Publication Date: May 10, 2012
List Price: $26.00
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781592407101
Imprint: Gotham
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count Of Monte Cristo
by Tom Reiss
Publication Date: Sep 18, 2012
List Price: $27.00
Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780307382467
Imprint: Crown
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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Read a Description of The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count Of Monte Cristo
Here is the remarkable true story of the real Count of Monte Cristo a stunning feat of historical sleuthing that brings to life the forgotten hero who inspired such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
The real-life protagonist of The Black Count, General Alex Dumas, is a man almost unknown today yet with a story that is strikingly familiar, because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used it to create some of the best loved heroes of literature.
Yet, hidden behind these swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: the real hero was the son of a black slave — who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time.
Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas was briefly sold into bondage but made his way to Paris where he was schooled as a sword-fighting member of the French aristocracy. Enlisting as a private, he rose to command armies at the height of the Revolution, in an audacious campaign across Europe and the Middle East until he met an implacable enemy he could not defeat.
The Black Count is simultaneously a riveting adventure story, a lushly textured evocation of 18th-century France, and a window into the modern world’s first multi-racial society. But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son.
Winner - Children
What Color Is My World?: The Lost History Of African-American Inventors
by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld
Publication Date: Jan 03, 2012
List Price: $17.99
Format: Hardcover, 44 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
Target Age Group: Picture Book
ISBN13: 9780763645649
Imprint: Candlewick Press
Publisher: Walker Books
Parent Company: Walker Books
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, basketball legend and the NBA's all-time leading scorer, champions a lineup of little-known African-American inventors in this lively, kid-friendly book.
Did you know that James West’s technology is in the microphone of your cell phone? Or that Fred Jones invented the refrigerated truck that makes supermarkets possible? That Dr. Percy Julian synthesized cortisone from soy, easing the pain for countless people? These are just some of the black inventors and innovators scoring big points in this dynamic look at several unsung heroes who shared a desire to improve people’s lives. Offering profiles with fast facts on flaps and framed by a funny contemporary story featuring feisty twins, this book pays tribute to the minds behind the gamma electric cell and the Super Soaker, improvements to traffic lights, open heart surgery, and more — inventors whose ingenuity and perseverance against great odds made our world safer, better, and brighter.
“I was motivated by the fact that the history books I had when I was in grade school, especially if African-Americans were mentioned, it was only in relation to aspects of slavery and the civil rights movement. There’s so much more to the story. It’ s my attempt to fill in some of the blanks.” —Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Nominee - Children
In the Land of Milk and Honey
by Joyce Carol Thomas
Publication Date: Sep 18, 2012
List Price: $16.99
Format: Hardcover, 32 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Picture Book
ISBN13: 9780060253837
Imprint: Amistad
Publisher: HarperCollins
Parent Company: News Corporation
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Nominee - Children
Harlem’s Little Blackbird
by Renée Watson, Illustrated by Christian Robinson
Publication Date: Oct 23, 2012
List Price: $17.99
Format: Hardcover, 40 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
Target Age Group: Picture Book
ISBN13: 9780375869730
Imprint: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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Zora and Langston. Billie and Bessie. Eubie and Duke. If the Harlem Renaissance had a court, they were its kings and queens. But there were other, lesser known individuals whose contributions were just as impactful, such as Florence Mills. Born to parents who were former-slaves Florence knew early on that she loved to sing. And that people really responded to her sweet, bird-like voice. Her dancing and singing catapulted her all the way to the stages of 1920s Broadway where she inspired songs and even entire plays! Yet with all this success, she knew firsthand how bigotry shaped her world. And when she was offered the role of a lifetime from Ziegfeld himself, she chose to support all-black musicals instead.
Fans of When Marian Sang and Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa will jump at the chance to discover another talented performer whose voice transcended and transformed the circumstances society placed on her.
Nominee - Children
Fifty Cents And A Dream: Young Booker T. Washington
by Jabari Asim
- A Top 10 Book in the “Children’s Books from the 21st Century” Category
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Publication Date: Dec 04, 2012
List Price: $16.99
Format: Hardcover, 48 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
Target Age Group: Picture Book
ISBN13: 9780316086578
Imprint: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Parent Company: Hachette Livre
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Read a Description of Fifty Cents And A Dream: Young Booker T. Washington
Booker dreamed
of making friends with words,
setting free the secrets
that lived in books.
Born into slavery, young Booker T. Washington could only dream of learning to read and write. After emancipation, Booker began a five-hundred-mile journey, mostly on foot, to Hampton Institute, taking his first of many steps towards a college degree. When he arrived, he had just fifty cents in his pocket and a dream about to come true. The young slave who once waited outside of the schoolhouse would one day become a legendary educator of freedmen.
Award-winning artist Bryan Collier captures the hardship and the spirit of one of the most inspiring figures in American history, bringing to life Booker T. Washington’s journey to learn, to read, and to realize a dream.
Nominee - Children
Indigo Blume And The Garden City
by Kwame Alexander
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Publication Date: Sep 01, 2012
List Price: Unavailable
Format: Paperback, 28 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Picture Book
ISBN13: 9781888018981
Imprint: Word of Mouth Books/Capital BookFest
Publisher: Word of Mouth Books/Capital BookFest
Parent Company: Word of Mouth Books/Capital BookFest
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Indigo Blume and the Garden City received a 2013 NAACP Image Award Nomination for Outstanding Children’s Literature. Indigo Blume is a nine-year old girl who lives in the fictional city of Garden City. She decides to enter a "Go Green" contest, even though her friends won’t help her with her big idea: A Rooftop Garden. In the end, she is successful at cleaning up her community and building a garden with climbing beans so tall they almost touch the stars. A "Green" glossary is included, as well as a Read Aloud CD with a special song written and performed by SPEECH of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT.
Winner - Debut Author
Nikki G: A Portrait of Nikki Giovanni in Her Own Words
by Darryl L. Lacy
Publication Date: Jun 26, 2012
List Price: $9.95
Format: Paperback, 64 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781475930801
Imprint: iUniverse
Publisher: Author Solutions
Parent Company: Najafi Companies
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Nominee - Debut Author
A Cupboard Full of Coats: A Novel
by Yvvette Edwards
Publication Date: Jul 31, 2012
List Price: $14.99
Format: Paperback, 272 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780062183736
Imprint: Amistad
Publisher: HarperCollins
Parent Company: News Corporation
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Nominee - Debut Author
Antebellum a Novel
by R Kayeen Thomas
Unavailable for Sale
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Publication Date: Jun 26, 2012
List Price: Unavailable
Format: Hardcover
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781620906903
Imprint: Strebor Books
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: CBS Corporation
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A thought-provoking novel about African-American culture seen through the eyes of a famous rapper who is transported to the days of slavery and forced to experience it firsthand.
A thought-provoking novel about African-American culture seen through the eyes of a famous rapper who is transported to the days of slavery and forced to experience it firsthand.
When Da Nigga is sent back in time, he finds himself a slave forced to live the life of his ancestors. A rapper in current time, Da Nigga must confront the reality of the African-American experience as slavery challenges everything he holds dear from his fellow rappers and their lyrics, to the executives and their motives.
Antebellum is the hard-hitting, gritty story of Da Nigga. From rap superstar to broken slave and back, Antebellum will have readers on the edge of their seats and keep them talking long after they put it down.
Nominee - Debut Author
Congo: Spirit of Darkness (Volume 1)
by Mayi Ngwala and Allain Ngwala
Publication Date: Oct 30, 2012
List Price: $12.99
Format: Paperback, 346 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780984666300
Imprint: Genet Press
Publisher: Genet Press
Parent Company: Genet Press
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Nominee - Debut Author
The Sister Accord: 51 Ways to Love Your Sister
by Sonia Jackson Myles
Publication Date: Jan 27, 2012
List Price: $24.99
Format: Paperback, 135 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780615530079
Imprint: Sister Accord
Publisher: Sister Accord
Parent Company: Sister Accord LLC
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. This beautiful and engaging book is the product of the vision and life purpose of Sonia Jackson Myles, Daughter, Mother, Sister, Friend, Corporate Executive, Mentor, and Author of The Sister Accord, The Promise That Will Transform Your Life!? The Sister Accord is a resolution for girls and women to inspire them to have positive, loving relationships with each other.
Winner - Fiction
The Reverend’ss Wife (Reverend Curtis Black #9)
by Kimberla Lawson Roby
- A Top 10 Book in the “Fiction Books of the 21st Century” Category
- 8 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2012 Winner African American Literary Awards Show
Publication Date: May 01, 2012
List Price: $24.99
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780446572477
Imprint: Grand Central Publishing
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Parent Company: Hachette Livre
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Kimberla Lawson Roby’s Thoughts on Concluding Her Reverend Curtis Black Series, July 2018 After 15 Books
From New York Times best-selling author Kimberla Lawson Roby comes the ninth installment in her award-winning Reverend Curtis Black series. It's been months since Reverend Curtis learned that his wife Charlotte had affairs with two different men, and for now, he continues to be cordial and respectful to her. But he's also made it clear that once their son Matthew graduates high school, he will be filing for divorce.
Charlotte, on the other hand, continues to do everything possible to make amends in hopes of saving their marriage. Unfortunately, Curtis is ready to move on and is being propositioned by a woman who desperately wants to become the next Mrs. Curtis Black. When the situation heads down a path that is frighteningly shocking, could it be the final blow to this once blessed union?
Nominee - Fiction
The Secret She Kept
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The Secret She Kept
by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
Unavailable for Sale
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Publication Date: Jan 01, 2012
List Price: Unavailable
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781620901724
Imprint: Gallery Books
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: CBS Corporation
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Nominee - Fiction
Silent Cry (Zane Presents)
by Dwayne D. Birch
Unavailable for Sale
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Publication Date: Jan 01, 2012
List Price: Unavailable
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781620907214
Imprint: Strebor Books
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: CBS Corporation
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Nominee - Fiction
Destiny’s Divas: A Novel
by Victoria Christopher Murray
Publication Date: Jun 05, 2012
List Price: $15.00
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781451650464
Imprint: Touchstone
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: CBS Corporation
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THEY CAN TALK THE TALK, BUT CAN THEY WALK THE WALK?
Sierra, Raine, and Liza are Destiny’s Divas, a fresh, new gospel group whose unique blend of singing and testifying has gained them fans across the country. They tell the world about how good God has been to them, but off-stage, each is living a life totally opposite to what she preaches—and each is harboring a secret that could ruin them all.
Twenty-something Sierra Dixon speaks about the joy of being single and celibate, though she is anything but, drifting from one relationship to another. Although she stresses the importance of unconditional love within the family, Raine Omari has hit her breaking point with her mother-in-law and is ready to take drastic steps. And when Liza Washington discovers that her pastor-husband is in the middle of a scandal that could bring down more than just their ministry, she knows she must do something to stop him. One fateful evening their secrets are exposed, and one diva commits an act that could land her in prison for the rest of her life. Each has motive—who will crack?
Nominee - Fiction
A Wish and a Prayer: A Blessings Novel (Blessings Series)
by Beverly Jenkins
Publication Date: Apr 10, 2012
List Price: $13.99
Format: Paperback, 320 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780061990809
Imprint: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publisher: HarperCollins
Parent Company: News Corporation
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Winner - Instructional
Health First!: The Black Woman’s Wellness Guide
by Eleanor Hinton Hoytt and Hilary Beard
Publication Date: Feb 01, 2012
List Price: $27.95
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781401936952
Imprint: SmileyBooks
Publisher: Hay House
Parent Company: Hay House
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Today, as Black women face an unprecedented health crisis, denial and self-neglect are no longer viable options. This groundbreaking volume is rooted in the pioneering work of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, the nation’s only nonprofit organization devoted to advancing the health and wellness of Black women and girls. It offers a core health philosophy too long denied Black women based on putting your health first.
Health First! explores Black women’s most critical health challenges, connecting the dots through honest discussions with experts and the uncensored stories of real women from adolescence through
elderhood. The focus is on prevention and awareness, across generations and circumstances from candid conversations about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS to frank explorations of Black women’s Top 10 Health Risks, including cancer, obesity, and violence.
No matter what your age or health status, this unprecedented health reference will become a trusted ally as you seek accessible and relevant information to help you navigate your most pressing health needs. In an age of uncertainty, it’s time to take control and truly discover the vitality, power, and joy that can be yours when you learn how to put your health first.
Nominee - Instructional
12 Ways to Put Money in Your Pocket Every Month Without a Part-Time Job, the Skinny Book That Makes Your Wallet Fat
by Jennifer S. Matthews
Publication Date: Nov 23, 2009
List Price: $19.95
Format: Paperback, 90 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780615338255
Imprint: The Pickett-Fennell Group
Publisher: The Pickett-Fennell Group
Parent Company: The Pickett-Fennell Group
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Nominee - Instructional
Formula 50: A 6-Week Workout and Nutrition Plan That Will Transform Your Life
by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson
Publication Date: Dec 27, 2012
List Price: $30.00
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781583335024
Imprint: Avery
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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Survival is a recurring theme of 50 Cent’s lyrics, and his life. That’s why, with obesity rates soaring and fitness levels declining, he wants to give everyone an all-access pass to his premium plan for lifelong fitness. In Formula 50, the mega-successful entertainer and entrepreneur unleashes the power of metabolic resistance training (MRT), the key ingredient that has helped him achieve the famously buff physique that makes his music videos sizzle.
Through MRT, 50 Cent’s fitness plan breaks down the barriers between traditional weight training and cardio workouts, accelerating fat loss while building muscle and improving overall fitness. Designed for a six-week rollout for total mind-body transformation, the Formula 50 regimen builds willpower while it builds physical power. In addition to motivation, nutrition is another key element; readers will discover the unique dietary combinations that fuel 50 Cent’s workouts. Coauthored with Jeff O
Connell, health journalist and editor-in-chief at Bodybuilding.com (the world’s largest fitness website), the book delivers a payoff that goes beyond six-pack abs and flab-free pecs: This is a fitness plan that boosts energy, endurance, flexibility, and mobility. The result is a body you
ve always dreamed of and the mindset to attain the rest of your dreams.
Nominee - Instructional
It’s Complicated (But It Doesn’t Have to Be): A Modern Guide to Finding and Keeping Love
by Paul Carrick Brunson
Publication Date: Oct 11, 2012
List Price: $22.50
Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781592407699
Imprint: Avery
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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is a breath of fresh air in the dating guide category, offering a message of eternal optimism from a man who believes in true love and practices what he preaches.
Nominee - Instructional
The No Excuse Guide To Success: No Matter What Your Boss--Or Life--Throws At You
by Jim Smith
Publication Date: Jun 22, 2012
List Price: $14.99
Format: Paperback
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781601632128
Imprint: Career Press
Publisher: Career Press
Parent Company: Career Press
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Winner - Nonfiction
The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court
by Jeffrey Toobin
Publication Date: Sep 18, 2012
List Price: $28.95
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780385527200
Imprint: Doubleday
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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This ideological war will crescendo during the 2011-2012 term, in which several landmark cases are on the Court’s docket most crucially, a challenge to Obama’s controversial health-care legislation. With four new justices joining the Court in just five years, including Obama’s appointees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, this is a dramatically and historically different Supreme Court, playing for the highest of stakes.
No one is better positioned to chronicle this dramatic tale than Jeffrey Toobin, whose prize-winning bestseller The Nine laid bare the inner workings and conflicts of the Court in meticulous and entertaining detail. As the nation prepares to vote for President in 2012, the future of the Supreme Court will also be on the ballot.
Nominee - Nonfiction
Fraternity: In 1968, a visionary priest recruited 20 black men to the College of the Holy Cross and changed their lives and the course of history.
by Diane Brady
Publication Date: Jan 03, 2012
List Price: $25.00
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780385524742
Imprint: Spiegel & Grau
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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The Plain Dealer The inspiring true story of a group of young men whose lives were changed by a visionary mentor
On April 4, 1968, the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., shocked the nation. Later that month, the Reverend John Brooks, a professor of theology at the College of the Holy Cross who shared Dr. King’s dream of an integrated society, drove up and down the East Coast searching for African American high school students to recruit to the school, young men he felt had the potential to succeed if given an opportunity. Among the twenty students he had a hand in recruiting that year were Clarence Thomas, the future Supreme Court justice; Edward P. Jones, who would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for literature; and Theodore Wells, who would become one of the nation’s most successful defense attorneys. Many of the others went on to become stars in their fields as well.
In Fraternity, Diane Brady follows five of the men through their college years. Not only did the future president of Holy Cross convince the young men to attend the school, he also obtained full scholarships to support them, and then mentored, defended, coached, and befriended them through an often challenging four years of college, pushing them to reach for goals that would sustain them as adults.
Would these young men have become the leaders they are today without Father Brooks’s involvement? Fraternity is a triumphant testament to the power of education and mentorship, and a compelling argument for the difference one person can make in the lives of others.
Nominee - Nonfiction
Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation
by Deborah Davis
Publication Date: May 08, 2012
List Price: $26.00
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781439169810
Imprint: Atria Books
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: CBS Corporation
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Civil War American history and politics, and onto the lives of two dynamic men whose experiences and philosophies connect in unexpected ways. Deborah Davis also introduces dozens of other fascinating figures who have previously occupied the margins and footnotes of history, creating a lively and vastly entertaining book that reconfirms her place as one of our most talented popular historians.
Nominee - Nonfiction
Power Concedes Nothing: One Woman’s Quest for Social Justice in America, from the Courtroom to the Kill Zones
by Connie Rice
Publication Date: Jan 10, 2012
List Price: $26.00
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781416575009
Imprint: Scribner
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: CBS Corporation
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memoir chronicling the life of a fiercely powerful woman dedicated to public service. Connie Rice has taken on the bus system, the school system, the death penalty, the LAPD and won. She has been at the forefront of dozens of major civil rights cases. In 1998, the Los Angeles Times designated Connie Rice one of the “most experienced, civic-minded, and thoughtful people on the subject of Los Angeles.” Rice literally wrote the report that has revolutionized the city’s law enforcement and outreach to gangs. Now, one of America’s most prominent and successful civil rights litigators, Rice illuminates
the origins and inspiration for
her life’s work in this extraordinary memoir. In her electrifying voice, Rice writes of being descended from a “proud and erudite clan” of former slaves and slaveowners who prized “the aggressive pursuit of knowledge and voracious accomplishment.” The Rice family’s quest for excellence was the defining feature of Connie’s youth, a childhood that would see her family move seventeen times across three continents, at the behest of the U.S. Air Force, for which her father was a racial-barrier-breaking major. The eldest of three children, Connie was inspired by influential women like Queen Elizabeth I, Anne Frank, and Rep. Barbara Jordan the first black woman elected to U.S. Congress from a Southern State whose eloquence and composure during the televised Watergate hearings so mesmerized a teenage Rice that she burned a hole ironing her father’s shirt. Provocative and passionate, studded with dramatic stories of a life in the trenches of civil rights law, Power Concedes Nothing reveals the inspiring life of an indomitable woman who knows that power concedes nothing without a demand.
Nominee - Nonfiction
The Courage To Hope: How I Stood Up To The Politics Of Fear
by Shirley Sherrod
Publication Date: Aug 28, 2012
List Price: $24.99
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781451650945
Imprint: Atria Books
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: CBS Corporation
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Read a Description of The Courage To Hope: How I Stood Up To The Politics Of Fear
In the summer of 2010, Shirley Sherrod was catapulted into a media storm that blew apart her life and her job doing what she’d done for decades: helping poor, hardworking people live the American dream. She was a lifelong activist who served as Georgia’s first black director of rural development.
A right-wing blogger, the now late Andrew Breitbart, disseminated a video clip of a speech Sherrod had given to the Georgia NAACP, intending to make her an example of “reverse racism.” The right-wing media ramped up the outrage, and before Sherrod had a chance to defend herself, the Obama administration demanded her resignation. Then, after hearing from Sherrod herself and learning the entire truth of what she said in that speech, the administration tried to backtrack. As public officials and media professionals admitted to being duped and apologized for their rush to judgment, Sherrod found herself the subject of a teachable moment.
The Courage to Hope addresses this regret-table episode in American politics, but it also tells Sherrod’s own story of growing up on a farm in southwest Georgia during the final violent years of Jim Crow. As a child she dreamed of leaving the South, but when her father was murdered by a white neighbor who was never brought to justice, Sherrod made a vow to stay in Georgia and commit herself to the cause of truth and racial healing. With her husband, Charles, a legend in the civil rights movement, she has devoted her life to empowering poor people and rural communities—Americans who are most in need.
The incident that brought Sherrod into the spotlight does not define her life and work, but it strengthens her commitment to stand against the politics of fear and have the courage to hope.
Winner - Poetry
Speak Water
by Truth Thomas
Publication Date: Jun 12, 2012
List Price: $7.99
Format: Kindle eBook, 96 pages
Classification: Poetry
Imprint: Cherry Castle Publishing, LLC
Publisher: Cherry Castle Publishing, LLC
Parent Company: Cherry Castle Publishing, LLC
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Read a Description of Speak Water
Truth Thomas' Speak Water won the 2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry. It chronicles the human quest to conquer hate with love, a grand and piercing collection of midrashic poetry, written from an African-American perspective. It is framed by both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, as each poem references some aspect of every book contained in Scripture. This homecoming work, Thomas' third full collection of verses, is the first to be published in the United States, and reflects breakthrough poetry from one of America's finest writers.
"There is a certain spirituality always in the poetry of Truth Thomas. Speak Water resonates with Thomas' unique blend of the spirit and the self. He has his own grounded language, and delivery, a cadence that is urban and historical, today, yesterday, tomorrow, but all the time, universal and willing to fight. He is a literary traveler; he goes where the best words are, the best thoughts, he reaches deep into his soul to understand the beauty of people, the songs of those that matter." —Brian Gilmore
"Truth Thomas offers powerful verses and insightful reveries, then relieves the ironic pain with reasoned succor--first-aid for the wounded soul. He weaves meanings and codes from biblical notes, personal anecdotes, and political knowledge wielded through experience beyond his years--a mix between Nikki Giovanni at her finest, and Gil Scott-Heron at his sharpest. The poet's musical cadences and true timing are impeccable, pleasing, charming, and biting. It is truly inspiring to read verses with such lyrical soundings of Black America that are revelatory, romantic, spiritual and political." —Dr. Ricardo Guthrie, San Diego Poetry Guild, Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, Northern Arizona University
Nominee - Poetry
Thrall: Poems
by Natasha Trethewey
Publication Date: Aug 28, 2012
List Price: $23.00
Format: Hardcover, 96 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780547571607
Imprint: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Parent Company: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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Read a Description of Thrall: Poems
The stunning follow-up volume to her 2007 Pulitzer Prize winning Native Guard, by America’s new Poet Laureate
Natasha Trethewey’s poems are at once deeply personal and historical—exploring her own interracial and complicated roots—and utterly American, connecting them to ours. The daughter of a black mother and white father, a student of history and of the Deep South, she is inspired by everything from colonial paintings of mulattos and mestizos to the stories of people forgotten by history. Meditations on captivity, knowledge, and inheritance permeate Thrall, as she reflects on a series of small estrangements from her poet father and comes to an understanding of how, as father and daughter, they are part of the ongoing history of race in America.
Thrall confirms not only that Natasha Trethewey is one of our most gifted and necessary poets but that she is also one of our most brilliant and fearless.
Nominee - Poetry
The Ground: Poems
by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Publication Date: May 22, 2012
List Price: $23.00
Format: Hardcover, 96 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780374167080
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publisher: Macmillan
Parent Company: Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck
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Read a Description of The Ground: Poems
original poetic voice A poignant and terse vision of New York City unfolds in Rowan Ricardo Phillips’s debut book of poetry. A work of rare beauty and lyric grace, The Ground is an entire world, drawn and revealed through contemplation of the post-9/11 landscape. With musicality and precision of thought, Phillips’s poems limn the troubadour’s journey in an increasingly surreal modern world (“I plugged my poem into a manhole cover/That flamed into the first guitar”).
The origin of mankind, the origin of the self, the self’s development in the sensuous world, and
in both a literal and figurative sense the end of all things sing through Phillips’s supple and idiosyncratic poems. The poet’s subtle formal sophistication somewhere between flair and restraint and sense of lyric possibility bring together the hard glint of the contemporary world and the eroded permanence of the archaic one through remixes, underground sessions, Spenserian stanzas, myths and revamped translations. These are poems of fiery intelligence, inescapable music and metaphysical splendor that concern themselves with lived life and the life of the imagination both equally vivid and true as they lay the framework for Phillips’s meditations on our connection to and estrangement from the natural world.
Nominee - Poetry
Maybe the Saddest Thing: Poems (National Poetry)
by Marcus Wicker
Publication Date: Oct 23, 2012
List Price: $13.99
Format: Paperback, 96 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780062191014
Imprint: Harper Perennial
Publisher: HarperCollins
Parent Company: News Corporation
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Read a Description of Maybe the Saddest Thing: Poems (National Poetry)
Nominee - Poetry
Hurrah’s Nest (Cedar Tick Natural History Chapbook)
by Arisa White
Publication Date: Feb 03, 2012
List Price: $15.00
Format: Paperback, 80 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780944048016
Imprint: Virtual Artists Collective
Publisher: Virtual Artists Collective
Parent Company: Virtual Artists Collective
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Read a Description of Hurrah’s Nest (Cedar Tick Natural History Chapbook)
Winner - Youth/Teens
Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons - A Dialogue With America’s Young Leaders
by Barack Obama and Gregory Reed
Publication Date: Oct 15, 2012
List Price: $19.95
Format: Paperback, 318 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
ISBN13: 9781937269388
Imprint: Amber Books
Publisher: Amber Communications Group, Inc.
Parent Company: Amber Communications Group, Inc.
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Read Our Review of Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons - A Dialogue With America’s Young Leaders
Read a Description of Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons - A Dialogue With America’s Young Leaders
Obama Talks Back: "provides a rare glimpse into the private letters sent to the President and his accompanied remarks to our young people." - Carmel Middle School, Charlotte, NC. President Barack Obama achieved a landslide victory in 2008 and has touched the lives of young people more so than any previous president. During his presidency, he sought to continue that inspiration by maintaining an engaged relationship with the nation's youth.
Tony Rose (publisher) & Gregory Reed (author)
THIS OUTSTANDING AND HISTORIC COLLECTION of students' letters accompanied with President Obama's responses, speeches, public statements, and quotations during his campaign, tenure as President-Elect, and his presidency is the most comprehensive collection of letters and responses ever assembled as a book in the history of our nation for a sitting president. This collection of letters featuring the voices of today's young leaders and their mission to be heard is a rarity. From these letters, we learn that these young citizens are committed to their country and the world. From President Obama we learn the importance of listening to one another, and of perseverance. We learn in desperate times, we must have faith and know that we are empowered to change the circumstances and conditions of our lives and the destiny of America for the better. The personal thoughts of the writers are a rare and private glimpse into the dialogue between our nation's youth and a sitting president in office. Their letters are priceless, timeless, inspiring and powerful.
Nominee - Youth/Teens
Fire in the Streets
by Kekla Magoon
Publication Date: Aug 27, 2013
List Price: $7.99
Format: Paperback, 352 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
ISBN13: 9781442422315
Imprint: Aladdin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: CBS Corporation
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Nominee - Youth/Teens
Pinned
by Sharon G. Flake
Publication Date: Oct 01, 2012
List Price: $17.99
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
ISBN13: 9780545057189
Imprint: Scholastic Press
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Parent Company: Scholastic Inc.
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Read a Description of Pinned
Award-winning author, Sharon G. Flake, presents a powerful novel about a teen boy and girl, each tackling disabilities.
Autumn and Adonis have nothing in common and everything in common. Autumn is outgoing and has lots of friends. Adonis is shy and not so eager to connect with people. But even with their differences, the two have one thing in common—they’re each dealing with a handicap. For Autumn, who has a learning disability, reading is a painful struggle that makes it hard to focus in class. But as her school’s most aggressive team wrestler, Autumn can take down any problem. Adonis is confined to a wheelchair. He has no legs. He can’t walk or dance. But he’s a strong reader who loves books. Even so, Adonis has a secret he knows someone like Autumn can heal.
In time, Autumn and Adonis are forced to see that our greatest weaknesses can turn into the assets that forever change us and those we love.
Told in alternating voices, Takedown explores issues of self-discovery, friendship, and what it means to be different.
Nominee - Youth/Teens
The Diary Of B. B. Bright, Possible Princess
by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams, Illustrated by Shadra Strickland
Publication Date: Sep 25, 2012
List Price: $19.95
Format: Hardcover, 192 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
ISBN13: 9781618580153
Imprint: Turner
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Parent Company: Turner Publishing Company
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Read a Description of The Diary Of B. B. Bright, Possible Princess
A lively tale of one young woman’s adventure to pass her Official Princess Test, discover a means of escape from her island, and reveal her true destiny.
Thirteen-year-old orphan Black Bee Bright (B. B. for short) is funny, quirky, precocious, and adventurous. But B. B. has a secret. She’s captive on an island in “the middle of very tropical nowhere” because she’s forced to hide her true identity as a royally born princess from her parents’ enemies in Raven World. B. B. must find a way to escape to “the Other World” where there are best friends and cool clothes, but she can’t escape the island until she passes her Official Princess Test and undertakes a dangerous journey alone to the East side of the island, where eight princesses must help her discover what it truly means to be a princess.
Nominee - Youth/Teens
The Mighty Miss Malone
by Christopher Paul Curtis
Publication Date: Jan 10, 2012
List Price: $15.99
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
ISBN13: 9780385734912
Imprint: Wendy Lamb Books
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Parent Company: Wendy Lamb Books
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Read a Description of The Mighty Miss Malone
"We are a family on a journey to a place called wonderful" is the motto of Deza Malone’s family. Deza is the smartest girl in her class in Gary, Indiana, singled out by teachers for a special path in life. But the Great Depression has hit Gary hard, and there are no jobs for black men. When her beloved father leaves to find work, Deza, Mother, and her older brother Jimmie go in search of him, and end up in a Hooverville outside Flint, Michigan. Jimmie’s beautiful voice inspires him to leave the camp to be a performer, while Deza and Mother find a new home, and cling to the hope that they will find Father. The twists and turns of their story reveal the devastation of the Depression and prove that Deza truly is the Mighty Miss Malone.