Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Chicago public schools use Shenanigans Series, which features two African-American kids in relatable plotlines

The Chicago Tribune (http://chicagotribune.com) has an interesting and great story about a mother named Jil Ross who was inspired to create children's books aimed at African American children after noticing that she could not find a lot of them in bookstores. What's so inspiring is that after seeing a need, she set out to publish her own book series called The Shenanigans. It's been doing well enough to be featured in 10 Chicago public schools and is also being offered by several online sellers like Amazon, Borders, etc.
Jill states that the marketing has been the hardest part as she has sold 800 of her newest books at a profit of $6.25 each. She's now working on her 6Th book with her main mission being to help children become excited about reading. I think it's a wonderful thing and I wanted to highlight her in order to help promote her efforts.
Reading, publishing, and children are all subjects near and dear to my heart so I applaud all efforts to anyone who makes it a mission to add value to children's literacy. To learn about other African American authors of children's books, there's several places you can look up. Try http://aacbwi.com and you can find some of the latest releases there which highlight many authors and their books. Also, log onto http://thebrownbookshelf.com as they are currently highlighting some of the top picks for Black History month which is really exciting.

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1 comment:

JR said...

Thanks for mentioning The Shenanigans Series on your website! I appreciate the recognition. Please feel free to post my website as well; the chapter books target readers between the ages of 7-11years old. The next book is dealing with the topic of bullying and should be out by summer. Thanks a bunch and keep up the good work! www.shenaniganseries.com