Panel: Friendship, Loss, and Everything in Between

Leslie C. Campbell is a Broward County Public Educator, with 29 years of experience in the Broward County Public Schools. She has taught Physical Education, Elementary Education, K-5, and is currently a Licensed School Counselor at Park Lakes Elementary.   She creates a positive environment in the world of Guidance Services. She has participated in many reading initiatives. Serving as the School’s   Title One Liaison, parents and students are encouraged to participate in reading trainings to promote literacy at home. She has partnered with Scholastic Books to provide Book Fairs earning over $10,000 dollars so that students would benefit.

Donna Barba Higuera grew up in the oilfields of Central California and has spent her entire life blending folklore with her experiences into stories. Her Middle Grade and Picture Books are about kids who find themselves in odd or scary situations.  Lupe Wong, our hero in Lupe Wong Won’t Dance (Levine Querido) is a sports-loving girl who refuses to stay in her lane. She is going to be the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues. She’s championed causes her whole young life. Some worthy, like expanding the options for race on school tests beyond just a few bubbles, and others not so much — like complaining to the BBC about the length between Doctor Who seasons. Lupe needs an A in all her classes in order to meet her favorite pitcher, Fu Li Hernandez, who’s Chinacan/Mexinese just like her. So when the horror that is square dancing rears its head in gym she’s not gonna let that slide. Publisher Weekly, in a starred review, called Higuera’s debut “a home run, with a plot as multifaceted and compelling as her characters, whose nuanced voices and varied range of interests ring wholly true.”

Jerry Craft is the author of the graphic novel New Kid. He has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels. He is also the creator of Mama’s Boyz, a syndicated comic strip. He is a cofounder of the Schomburg Center’s Annual Black Comic Book Festival. With Class Act (Quill Tree Books) New York Times bestselling author Jerry Craft returns with a companion book to New Kid. This time, it’s Jordan’s friend Drew who takes center stage in another laugh-out-loud funny, powerful, and important story about being one of the few kids of color in a prestigious private school. Eighth grader Drew Ellis’s grandmother has reminded him his entire life that “You have to work twice as hard to be just as good.” But what if he works ten times as hard and still doesn’t get the same opportunities that his privileged classmates at the Riverdale Academy Day School take for granted? Worse still, Drew begins to feel his good friend Liam might be one of those kids and now their mutual friend Jordan doesn’t know how to keep the group together. Will Drew find a way to bridge the divide so he and his friends can truly accept each other? Will he finally be able to accept himself? Kirkus Reviews in a starred review called it “A well-Crafted, visually rich, truth-telling tale for our troubled times that affirms the eternal importance of friends.”

Kereen Getten grew up in Jamaica where she would climb fruit trees in the family garden and eat as much mango, guinep and pear as she could without being caught. She now lives in Birmingham with her family and writes stories about her childhood experiences. When Life Gives You Mangos (Delacorte Books for Young Readers) is Getten’s debut novel. Twelve-year-old Clara lives on an island that visitors call exotic. But there’s nothing exotic about it to Clara. She loves eating ripe mangos off the ground, running outside in the rain with her Papa during rainy season, and going to her secret hideout with Gaynah—even though lately she’s not acting like a best friend. The only thing out of the ordinary for Clara is that something happened to her memory that made her forget everything that happened last summer after a hurricane hit. But this summer is going to be different for Clara. Everyone is buzzing with excitement over a new girl in the village who is not like other visitors. She is about to make big waves on the island—and give Clara a summer she won’t forget. Tae Keller, author of When You Trap a Tiger called it “A heartfelt and accessible debut about friendship, memory, and forgiveness.”