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2005 Coretta Scott King Awards
The Coretta Scott King Award is presented annually by the Coretta Scott King Task Force of the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table. Recipients are authors and illustrators of African descent whose distinguished books promote an understanding and appreciation of the "American Dream."
The Award commemorates the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and honors his widow, Coretta Scott King, for her courage and determination in continuing the work for peace and world brotherhood.
Coretta Scott King Award books are chosen by a seven-member national award jury. The CSK Award Jury also chooses the winners of the John Steptoe Award for New Talent Award winners. These books affirm new talent and offer visibility to excellence in writing or illustration at the beginning of a career as a published book creator.
This year's winners are:
2005 Coretta Scott King Author Winner
 REMEMBER: The Journey to School Integration
by Toni Morrison
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 061839740X
Ages 9-12
80 pages
May 2004
Toni Morrison has collected a treasure chest of archival photographs that depict the historical events surrounding school desegregation. These unforgettable images serve as the inspiration for Morrison's text --- a fictional account of the dialogue and emotions of the children who lived during the era of "separate but equal" schooling. REMEMBER was published on the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision ending legal school segregation, handed down on May 17, 1954.
2005 Coretta Scott King Author Honors
 FORTUNE'S BONES: The Manumission Requiem
by Marilyn Nelson
Front Street
ISBN: 1932425128
Ages 12-up
32 pages
October 2004
There is a skeleton on display in the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut. It has been in the town for over 200 years. Over time, the bones became the subject of stories and speculation in Waterbury. In 1996 a group of community-based volunteers, working in collaboration with the museum staff, discovered that the bones were those of a slave named Fortune who had been owned by a local doctor. After Fortune's death, the doctor dissected the body, rendered the bones, and assembled the skeleton. A great deal is still not known about Fortune, but it is known that he was baptized, was married, and had four children. He died around the age of 60, sometime after 1797.
Marilyn Nelson was commissioned by the Mattatuck Museum and received a grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts to write a poem in commemoration of Fortune's life. "The Manumission Requiem" is that poem.
 THE LEGEND OF BUDDY BUSH
by Shelia P. Moses
Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0689858396
Ages 12-up
224 pages
January 2004
The day Uncle Goodwin "Buddy" Bush came from Harlem all the way back home to Rehobeth Road in Rich Square, North Carolina, is the day Pattie Mae Sheals' life changes forever.
Pattie Mae adores and admires Uncle Buddy --- he's tall and handsome and he doesn't believe in the country stuff most people believe in, like ghosts and stepping off the sidewalk to let white folks pass. He unsettles the dust and brings fresh ideas to Rehobeth Road. But when Buddy's deliberate inattention to the protocol of 1947 North Carolina lands him in jail for a crime against a white woman that he didn't commit, Pattie Mae and her family are suddenly set to journeying on the long, hard road that leads from loss and rage to forgiveness and pride.
 WHO AM I WITHOUT HIM? Short Stories About Girls and the Boys in Their Lives
by Sharon G. Flake
Jump at the Sun/Hyperion
ISBN: 0786806931
Ages 8-12
176 pages
May 2004
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There is "The Ugly One," whose only solace comes when she is locked inside her own head. In "Wanted: A Thug," a teenager seeks advice on how to steal her best friend's bad-guy boyfriend. And then there's Erika, who only likes white boys.
Sharon Flake takes readers through the minds of girls trying to define themselves while struggling to remain relevant to the boys in their lives.
2005 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Winner
 ELLINGTON WAS NOT A STREET
illustrated by Kadir Nelson
written by Ntozake Shange
Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0689828845
Ages 4-8
40 pages
January 2004
In a reflective tribute to the African-American community of old, noted poet Ntozake Shange recalls her childhood home and the close-knit group of innovators that often gathered there. These men of vision, brought to life in the majestic paintings of artist Kadir Nelson, lived at a time when the color of their skin dictated where they could live, what schools they could attend, and even where they could sit on a bus or in a movie theater. Yet in the face of this tremendous adversity, these dedicated souls and others like them not only demonstrated the importance of Black culture in America, but also helped usher in a movement that "changed the world."
2005 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors
 GOD BLESS THE CHILD
illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
written by Billie Holiday
Amistad/HarperCollins
ISBN: 0060287977
Ages 4-8
32 pages
January 2004
The song "God Bless the Child" was first performed by legendary jazz vocalist Billie Holiday in 1939 and remains one of her enduring masterpieces. In this picture book interpretation, renowned illustrator Jerry Pinkney has created images of a family moving from the rural South to the urban North during the Great Migration that reached its peak in the 1930s. The song's message of self-reliance still speaks to us today but resonates even stronger in its historical context. A free CD of Billie Holiday's timeless recording of "God Bless the Child" is included to enjoy along with the book.
 JAZZY MIZ MOZETTA
illustrated by Frank Morrison
written by Brenda C. Roberts
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374336741
Ages 4-8
32 pages
October 2004
One fine evening, Miz Mozetta puts on her firecracker-red dress and heads outside to enjoy the moonlight. When she hears the neighborhood kids' music, she is inspired to dance, but her old friends have too many aches and pains to join her. The kids doubt that Miz Mozetta would be able to keep up with them. So she retreats to her parlor, where she dreams about the old days at the Blue Pearl Ballroom. Just when her feet are itching to get out there and do the jitterbug --- friends or no friends --- there's a knock on the door, and Miz Mozetta gets some welcome company.
 THE PEOPLE COULD FLY: The Picture Book
illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon
written by Virginia Hamilton
Knopf
ISBN: 0375824057
All ages
32 pages
November 2004
"The People Could Fly," the title story in Virginia Hamilton's prize-winning American Black folktale collection, is a fantasy tale of the slaves who possessed the ancient magic words that enabled them to literally fly away to freedom. And it is a moving tale of those who did not have the opportunity to "fly" away, who remained slaves with only their imaginations to set them free as they told and retold this tale.
Leo and Diane Dillon have created powerful new illustrations in full color for every page of this picture book presentation of Virginia Hamilton's most beloved tale. The author's original historical note as well as her previously unpublished notes are included.
2005 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Author Talent Award
 MISSY VIOLET AND ME
by Barbara Hathaway
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 061837163X
Ages 7-10
112 pages
May 2004
The summer that Viney is eleven years old is extraordinary. It takes her out of school and puts her under the wing of Missy Violet, a well-loved midwife whose wise and warm ways help teach Viney about the business of catchin' babies. Suddenly, Viney must learn about roots and herbs and their medicinal purpose, understand the contents of Missy Violet's "birthin' bag," and contend with a snooty peer and wild, irrepressible cousin --- Charles Elister Paxton Nehemiah Windbush. And all this before she actually helps to deliver a single baby!
2005 Steptoe New Illustrator Talent Award
JAZZY MIZ MOZETTA
illustrated by Frank Morrison
written by Brenda C. Roberts
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374336741
Ages 4-8
32 pages
October 2004
One fine evening, Miz Mozetta puts on her firecracker-red dress and heads outside to enjoy the moonlight. When she hears the neighborhood kids' music, she is inspired to dance, but her old friends have too many aches and pains to join her. The kids doubt that Miz Mozetta would be able to keep up with them. So she retreats to her parlor, where she dreams about the old days at the Blue Pearl Ballroom. Just when her feet are itching to get out there and do the jitterbug --- friends or no friends --- there's a knock on the door, and Miz Mozetta gets some welcome company.
-- Written by Tom Donadio
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