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 New Children and Teen Books |
Special Guest Author
Angela Johnson Speaks
at Annual Books and Brunch
The Mansfield/Richland County Public Library welcomed noted author,
Angela Johnson as a guest speaker at our annual Books and Brunch
seminar. Each year the library invites school librarians to attend
Books and Brunch to tell them about outreach programs and services
available to teachers and school librarians in Richland County.
A contest was held in county schools to see who could build the
best book display of Angela Johnson work for their school library.
Mansfield Senior High School and John Sherman Elementary School.were
the winners of the contest and they will receive a special visit
from Angela Johnson speak to students after she speaks at the library.
Angela won the Coretta Scott King Author Award in 1999 for her young
adult fiction work alled "Heaven." She wrote a prequel
to her first award book about a single teen father struggling to
accept his new paternal role, called "The First Part Last."
This book has received several awards including the 2004 Coretta
Scott King Award, the Michael L. Printz Award and been listed as
ALA Best Books for Young Adults, and ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant
Young Adult Readers. The library is honored to have her visit. "The
First Part Last." is now in it's tenth printing.
Angela Johnson, born June 18, 1961 in Tuskegee Alabama once commented:
"I don't believe the magic of listening to Wilma Mitchell read
us stories after lunch will ever be repeated for me. Book people
came to life. They sat beside me in Maple Grove School. That is
when I knew. I asked for a diary that year and have not stopped
writing. My family, especially my grandfather and father, are storytellers
and those spoken words sit beside me too.
"I started keeping a journal when I was eight years old. My
mother had given it to me as a Christmas present. I remember that
even back then I had things to say. I'd probably vocalized them
so much that my mother thought i needed a different venue for some
of my expression."
"So, my journal started as a place to rocount my thoughts
and events. It eventually became a private place where i could write
poetry and stories, draw pictures, and make lists of everything
I wanted to do "when I was older." It was my first vessel
of self-expression and I kept it safe from younger siblings and
the rest of the world. My words were still secret, magical, and
my own."
Johnson attended Kent State University and has worked with Volunteers
in Service to America (VISTA), Ravenna, OH, as a child development
worker, 1981-82; and is currently a free-lance writer of children's
books.
Here is a complete
list of books by Angela Johnson found on our shelves throughout
the Mansfield/Richland County Public Library. Angela has authored
40 books for children and teens.
 Heaven
/
by Angela Johnson, 1961-
Winner of the 1999 Coretta Scott King Author Award. Marley has
lived in heaven with her parents and her brother for 12 years since
the accident. She can't imagine her life any other way, but she
may have to. Does Marley have the perfect life, or is her life the
perfect lie?
Marley has lived in Heaven since she was two years old, when her
mother found a postcard postmarked HEAVEN, OH on a park bench and
decided that was where she wanted to raise her family. And for twelve
years, Marley's hometown has lived up to its name. She lives in
a house by the river, has loving parents, a funny younger brother,
good friends, and receives frequent letters from her mysterious
Uncle Jack. Then one day a letter arrives form Alabama, and Marley's
life is turned upside down. Marley doesn't even know who she is
anymore -- but where can she go for answers, when she's been deceived
by the very people she should be able to trust the most?
 The
First Part Last
by Angela Johnson
"Author Angela Johnson follows up her Coretta Scott King Award–winning
novel, Heaven, with this absorbing prequel about a single teen struggling
to accept his new paternal role."
—The Barnes & Noble Review
In this companion novel, Johnson's fans learn just how Bobby, the
single father for whom Marley baby-sits in Heaven, landed in that
small town in Ohio. Beginning his story when his daughter, Feather,
is just 11 days old, 16-year-old Bobby tells his story in chapters
that alternate between the present and the bittersweet past that
has brought him to the point of single parenthood. Each nuanced
chapter feels like a poem in its economy and imagery; yet the characters-Bobby
and the mother of his child, Nia, particularly, but also their parents
and friends, and even newborn Feather-emerge fully formed. Bobby
tells his parents about the baby ("Not moving and still quiet,
my pops just starts to cry") and contrasts his father's reaction
with that of Nia's father ("He looks straight ahead like he's
watching a movie outside the loft windows"). The way he describes
Nia and stands by her throughout the pregnancy conveys to readers
what a loving and trustworthy father he promises to be. The only
misstep is a chapter from Nia's point of view, which takes readers
out of Bobby's capable hands. But as the past and present threads
join in the final chapter, readers will only clamor for more about
this memorable father-daughter duo-and an author who so skillfully
relates the hope in the midst of pain. Ages 12-up. - Publishers
Weekly Review
 Toning
the Sweep
by Angela Johnson
Winner of the 1994 Coretta Scott King Author Award.
One of the best-reviewed novels for young adults in 1993, this
powerful debut is reminiscent of Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale.
This story spans three generations of African-American women and
their struggle to find a common ground for sharing love, friendship,
and hardships. Young Adult.
 When
I Am Old with You
by Angela Johnson
"A small child imagines a future when he will be old with
his Granddaddy. . . . The African-American child and grandfather
are distinct individuals, yet also universal figures, recognizable
to anyone who has ever shared the bond of family love across generations."--School
Library Journal, starred review. Full color. Ages 5-7
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