9 Books Published by Tilbury House Publishers on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Click for more detail about Lion Lights: My Invention That Made Peace with Lions by Richard Turere and Shelly Pollock Lion Lights: My Invention That Made Peace with Lions

by Richard Turere and Shelly Pollock
Tilbury House Publishers (Aug 02, 2022)
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Winner of the 2023 Children’s Africana Book Award (CABA), which is awarded by The Center for African Studies at Howard University.

Outstanding Science Trade Book for 2022 by the National Science Teaching Association and the Children’s Book Council.

California Eureka Silver Honoree 2022

A story of ingenuity and perseverance.

Richard Turere’s own story: Richard grew up in Kenya as a Maasai boy, herding his family’s cattle, which represented their wealth and livelihood. Richard’s challenge was to protect their cattle from the lions who prowled the night just outside the barrier of acacia branches that surrounded the farm’s boma, or stockade. Though not well-educated, 12-year-old Richard loved tinkering with electronics. Using salvaged components, spending $10, he surrounded the boma with blinking lights, and the system works; it keeps lions away. His invention, Lion Lights, is now used in Africa, Asia, and South America to protect farm animals from predators.


Click for more detail about Melena’s Jubilee: The Story of a Fresh Start by Zetta Elliott Melena’s Jubilee: The Story of a Fresh Start

by Zetta Elliott
Tilbury House Publishers (Jun 01, 2021)
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Named to Bank Street College of Education’s prestigious 2016 Best Children’s Books of the Year with a star for outstanding merit.

Named to Bayviews Outstanding List (online journal for the Association of Children’s Librarians of Northern California (ACL))

2017 Skipping Stones Honor Book

After being sent to bed early the previous night, Melena wakes up to a new day with a song in her heart.


Click for more detail about Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter by Shani M. King Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter

by Shani M. King
Tilbury House Publishers (Jan 19, 2021)
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Black lives matter. That message would be self-evident in a just world, but in this world and this America, all children need to hear it again and again, and not just to hear it but to feel and know it.

This book affirms the message repeatedly, tenderly, with cumulative power and shared pride. Celebrating Black accomplishments in music, art, literature, journalism, politics, law, science, medicine, entertainment, and sports, Shani King summons a magnificent historical and contemporary context for honoring the fortitude of Black role models, women and men, who have achieved greatness despite the grinding political and social constraints on Black life. Frederick Douglass, Toni Morrison, Sojourner Truth, John Lewis, Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Maya Angelou, Aretha Franklin, and many more pass through these pages. An America without their struggles, aspirations, and contributions would be a shadow of the country we know. A hundred life sketches augment the narrative, opening a hundred doors to lives and thinking that aren’t included in many history books. James Baldwin’s challenge is here: “We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it.” Actress Viola Davis’s words are here, too: “When I was younger, I did not exert my voice because I did not feel worthy of having a voice. I was taught so many things that didn’t include me. Where was I? What were people like me doing?”

This book tells children what people like Viola were and are doing, and it assures Black children that they are, indisputably, worthy of having a voice.

Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter? is a book for this time and always. It is time for all children to live and breathe the certainty that Black lives matter.


Click for more detail about Astronaut Annie by Karyn Parsons Astronaut Annie

by Karyn Parsons
Tilbury House Publishers (Sep 08, 2020)
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Career Day is approaching, and Annie can’t wait to show her family what she’s planning to be when she grows up. But, she must keep it a secret until Friday! So curious family members each ask Annie for a clue. Convinced that she’ll be a news reporter like he once was, Grandpop gives her his old camera and notebook to use for her presentation. Grandma is sure Annie wants to be a champion baker like her, so she offers a mixing bowl and oven mitts to Annie. Hopeful she’ll become the mountain climber he aspired to be, Dad gives Annie an old backpack. Mom presents Annie with a pair of high-top sneakers to pursue Mom’s favorite sport in high school — basketball.

Grateful for each gift, Annie cleverly finds a way to use them all to create her Career Day costume. When the big day arrives, Annie finally reveals her out-of-this-world dream to everyone.


Click for more detail about The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story by Aya Khalil The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story

by Aya Khalil
Tilbury House Publishers (Feb 18, 2020)
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2021 ARAB AMERICAN CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD WINNER

NCSS 2021 Notable Social Studies Book

Kanzi’s family has moved from Egypt to America, and on her first day in a new school, what she wants more than anything is to fit in. Maybe that’s why she forgets to take the kofta sandwich her mother has made for her lunch, but that backfires when Mama shows up at school with the sandwich. Mama wears a hijab and calls her daughter Habibti (dear one). When she leaves, the teasing starts.

That night, Kanzi wraps herself in the beautiful Arabic quilt her teita (grandma) in Cairo gave her and writes a poem in Arabic about the quilt. Next day her teacher sees the poem and gets the entire class excited about creating a “quilt” (a paper collage) of student names in Arabic. In the end, Kanzi’s most treasured reminder of her old home provides a pathway for acceptance in her new one.

This authentic story with beautiful illustrations includes a glossary of Arabic words and a presentation of Arabic letters with their phonetic English equivalents.


Click for more detail about Magnificent Homespun Brown: A Celebration by Samara Cole Doyon Magnificent Homespun Brown: A Celebration

by Samara Cole Doyon
Tilbury House Publishers (Jan 07, 2020)
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Kirkus Starred Review

PW Starred Review

School Library Journal Starred Review

"The definition of brown joy. THESE are the normalizations in stories that we need, unadulterated Black and Brown joy full of self-esteem and confidence…" the tiny activist

Told by a succession of exuberant young narrators, Magnificent Homespun Brown is a story — a song, a poem, a celebration — about feeling at home in one’s own beloved skin.


Click for more detail about Have I Ever Told You? by Shani M. King Have I Ever Told You?

by Shani M. King
Tilbury House Publishers (Jan 08, 2019)
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“Have I ever told you that, for me, there is no one more special than you? That for me, you are the most special child in the world, and that I love you now and will love you forever? Have I ever told you that?”

Shani King wrote Have I Ever Told You? as a note to his children, to remind them that they are amazing in their individuality and that they have the power to choose who they want to be in this world. The illustrations create a masterful visual narrative: warm, witty, simple, profound, and as ferociously empowering as a children’s book can be.


Click for more detail about Astronaut Annie by Suzanne Slade Astronaut Annie

by Suzanne Slade
Tilbury House Publishers (Mar 06, 2018)
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Career Day is approaching, and Annie can’t wait to show her family what she’s planning to be when she grows up. But, she must keep it a secret until Friday! So curious family members each ask Annie for a clue. Convinced that she’ll be a news reporter like he once was, Grandpop gives her his old camera and notebook to use for her presentation. Grandma is sure Annie wants to be a champion baker like her, so she offers a mixing bowl and oven mitts to Annie. Hopeful she’ll become the mountain climber he aspired to be, Dad gives Annie an old backpack. Mom presents Annie with a pair of high-top sneakers to pursue Mom’s favorite sport in high school — basketball.

Grateful for each gift, Annie cleverly finds a way to use them all to create her Career Day costume. When the big day arrives, Annie finally reveals her out-of-this-world dream to everyone.


Click for more detail about Real Sisters Pretend by Megan Dowd Lambert Real Sisters Pretend

by Megan Dowd Lambert
Tilbury House Publishers (May 10, 2016)
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Massachusetts Must Read Title: 17th Annual Mass Book Awards

*CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book*

*CCBC Choices Selection*

This warm, engaging story, which unfolds entirely through the conversation of two adopted sisters, was inspired by the author’s own daughters, whom she overheard talking about how adoption made them real sisters even though they have different birth parents and do not look alike.