The Best of the Best: Coretta Scott King

This summer, while completely immersed in Caldecotts, my co-worker and I read also all of the Coretta Scott King (CSK) Illustrator award winners and honors. There are significantly less books for this award than the Caldecotts (and you can peruse that post here), mainly because this award was first given in 2006, so it didn't take very long. The CSK awards are annually given to outstanding books for young adults and children by African American illustrators that reflect the African American culture (ala.org).

Current CSK Illustrator Winner, Knock, Knock

The following (in alphabetical order by title) are my Coretta Scott King Illustrator favorites, as reviewed through my Goodreads.com account.

• Almost to Freedom, by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, ill. by Colin Bootman (2004 Honor)
  
• The Blacker the Berry, by Joyce Carol Thomas, ill. by Floyd Cooper (2009 Winner)
• Ellington Was Not a Street, by NtozakeShange, ill. by Kadir Nelson (2005 Winner)
• I, Too, Am America, by Langston Hughes, ill. by Bryan Collier (2013 Winner)
• Jazz, by Walter Dean Myers, ill. by Christopher Myers (2007 Honor)
• Just Us Women, by Jeannette Franklin Caines, ill. by Pat Cummings (1983 Honor) 
• Knock, Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me, by Daniel Beaty, ill. by Bryan Collier (2014 Winner)
• Let It Shine, by Ashley Bryan (2008 Winner)
• The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo, by Tom Feelings (1996 Winner)
• Nelson Mandela, by Kadir Nelson (2014 Honor)
• The Patchwork Quilt, by Valerie Flournor, ill. by Jerry Pinkney (1986 Winner)
• Thunder Rose, by Jerdine Nolan, ill. by Kadir Nelson (2004 Honor)
• Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom, by Shane W. Evans (2012 Winner)
• Uptown, by Bryan Collier (2001 Winner)
• Visiting Langston, by Willie Perdomo, ill. by Bryan Collier (2003 Honor)
• We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, by Kadir Nelson (2009 Honor...FYI, this book is also on a ton of other award lists...so you'll be seeing it again.)

However, my favorite CSK Illustrator is We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. Kadir Nelson's artwork is utterly fascinating, beautiful, amazing, richly-colored, and brilliant. His illustrations and techniques are instantly recognizable, and honestly, his pictures hold so much emotion and feeling one doesn't even have to glance at the text to understand the story. I think I'm partial to We Are the Ship because I'm a lover of baseball. Oh, and, as I was able to catch a few glimpses of him at ALA this year (he was signing autographs and every time his tables were a mile long), he is easy on the eyes.

*Updated March 2014

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi