TeachingBooks.net launches Coretta Scott King Book Award resource center

On the eve of the 40th anniversary celebration of the Coretta Scott King Book Award, TeachingBooks.net is launching the Coretta Scott King Book Award Curriculum Resource Center ( http://TeachingBooks.net/csk ), a free, online resource center for educators and families, featuring over 250 original recordings with the award-winning authors and illustrators and hundreds of lesson plans. The resource center was developed to assemble teaching materials that connect the award-winning books to the curriculum in any classroom, and to add a multimedia dimension to reading activities for any library, academic or book enthusiast.

“We hope that this curriculum center makes teaching the Coretta Scott King Award-winning books fun, informative, and exciting,” said Nick Glass, founder of TeachingBooks.net. “Students can now learn the personal story behind each book directly from the creator, including how and why it was made. Research shows that as students feel more connected to a book, they read more and become more successful readers.”

The Coretta Scott King Book Award Curriculum Resource Center contains more than eight hours of originally produced audio with award-winning authors and illustrators, presented in accessible, two- to three-minute clips. Searches can be executed by author, illustrator, title, grade level, and curriculum area, as well as by the year or specific Coretta Scott King Book Award citation.

In addition to free, online primary source materials (audio recordings and book readings), the collection features hundreds of lesson plans and original movies filmed in the studios of some of the award-winning authors and illustrators.

Among the more than 250 recordings are Dr. Maya Angelou and George Ford—two of the first recipients of the award in the early 1970s—as well as Dr. Toni Morrison, Walter Dean Myers, Kadir Nelson, Faith Ringgold, and Jacqueline Woodson, some of the most famous and successful recipients.

“TeachingBooks.net has done an extraordinary job of amassing and presenting these materials,” said Deborah Taylor, current chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Award. “We are thrilled that teachers, librarians, parents, and children will be able to listen to some of the most distinguished African American children’s book authors and illustrators, and share in as well as learn more about African American life and culture.”