Ernestine and Amanda, two African-American girls growing up in the 1950s, go away to different summer camps and make discoveries about what they can expect from themselves and other people.

Amanda loves having a first-day-of-summer birthday party. She can invite anyone she wants - and that doesn't mean fatso Ernestine Harris. Ernestine hates having school start the week after her birthday. But it's great having a real Harris family party - and she isn't going to invite stuck-up Amanda Clay. But somehow Ernestine winds up at Amanda's party and Amanda comes to Ernestine's. And in between the parties there are twelve weeks of summer. The summer the girls turn 11, means summer camp for Ernestine and Amanda - Hilltop, a camp for African-American girls, for Ernestine, and integrated Camp Castle for Amanda. Swimming lessons, pillow fights, practical jokes, and new friends are all part of camp - as well as some surprises for both girls when things don't turn out the way they expect. When it's finally time to come home, Ernestine and Amanda have both learned a lot about new experiences, and about belonging.

Celebrating the wealth of quality multicultural literature recently published for children and young adults, this valuable resource examines the fiction, oral tradition, and poetry from four major ethnic groups in the United States. Each of these genres is considered in turn for the literature dealing with African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native-American Indians. Taking up where their earlier volume This Land is Our Land left off, Helbig and Perkins have teamed up once again to identify and expertly evaluate more than 500 multicultural books published from 1994 through 1999. Both considered authorities in the field of children's literature, the two of them personally selected, read, and evaluated all the books included here. Their insightful annotations help readers carefully consider both literary standards such as plot development, characterization, and style, as well as cultural values as they are represented in these cited works. Each entry also indicates the suggested age and grade level appropriateness of the work. With the proliferation and ever increasing popularity of multicultural literature for children and young adults, this sensitively written volume will serve as an invaluable collection development tool. Teachers, as well as librarians, will find the comprehensiveness and organization of this bibliography helpful as a guide in selecting appropriate materials for classroom use. Even students will find this book easy to use, with its five indexes identifying works by title, writer, illustrator, grade level, and subject. Public libraries and school media centers will find much use for Many Peoples, One Land.

As a standard-bearer for intellectual freedom, the school librarian is in an ideal position to collaborate with teachers to not only protect the freedom to read but also ensure that valued books with valuable lessons are not quarantined from the readers for whom they were written.

Black Authors and Illustrators of Books for Children and Young Adults is a biographical dictionary that provides comprehensive coverage of all major authors and illustrators – past and present. As the only reference volume of its kind available, this book is a valuable research tool that provides quick access for anyone studying black children’s literature – whether one is a student, a librarian charged with maintaining a children’s literature collection, or a scholar of children’s literature. The Fourth Edition of this renowned reference work illuminates African American contributions to children’s literature and books for young adults. The new edition contains updated and new information for existing author/illustrator entries, the addition of approximately 50 new profiles, and a new section listing online resources of interest to the authors and readers of black children’s literature.

Ernestine and Amanda, two African-American girls growing up in the 1950s, go away to different summer camps and make discoveries about what they can expect from themselves and other people.