Teens Hobnob with National Book Award Finalists

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By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 11/18/2009

Students from New York City area schools were treated to a surprise guest at this year’s National Book Award’s Teen Press conference with award finalists—Claudette Colvin, the little known civil rights activist and subject of a book by Phillip Hoose showed up at the event.

Phillip Hoose and Claudette Colvin.
Photos: Joe Pacheco

In March 1955, just nine month’s before Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, AL, bus, Colvin was arrested at the age of 15 for the same reason.

Hoose’s who wrote Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, 2009) is one of five finalists for this year’s National Book Award in the category of Young People’s Literature, along with Deborah Heiligman for Charles and Emma (Holt, 2008), David Small for Stitches (Norton, 2009), Rita Williams-Garcia’s for Jumped (HarperTeen, 2009), and Laini Taylor for Lips Touch: Three Times (Scholastic, 2009). All five finalists read from their works and answered questions for about 200 students.

Hoose brought the 70-year-old Colvin on stage to share her experiences as a teen living in the segregated south. “We didn’t get 40 acres and a mule, but we did get the Voting Rights and Public Accommodations Acts,” says Colvin, who asked students to “fight any injustice wherever you see it and to live up to your fullest potential.”

The students who came to the Celeste Bartos Room in the New York Public Library’s 42nd Street building were well prepared, with many reading two or more of the nominated books.

“I enjoyed Charles and Emma because Darwin is my Hero!” says Marjana Chodhury, a junior at the Young Women’s Leadership Academy of East Harlem. “Religion was such a controversy in his life.”

The finalists from left: Phillip Hoose, Laini Taylor, Deborah Heiligman, Rita Williams-Garcia and David Small.

Several sensitive observations and questions were directed at Small about his graphic novel memoir, which was originally written for adults and recounts his hellish childhood. One student commented about Small’s depiction of his characters’ eyes to express emotion, while another asked about the author about his relationship with his brother. “If nothing else happens, the whole thing (writing the book) would have been worth it because it brought my brother and me back to being brothers,” says an emotional Small.

Felice Piggot, a librarian at the Young Women’s Leadership Academy, described the candor in the room as a “psychiatric cabaret.”

The Teen Press Conference is a key part of the celebrations that lead up to the National Book Awards, which takes place this year on November 18^th.The winner receives a $10,000 prize.