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Once a month, the World Area Book Awards (Américas Award, Children's Africana Book Award, Freeman Book Award, Middle East Book Award, & South Asia Book Award) sponsor a free 60-minute webinar on a book recognized by one of the awards and facilitate a discussion with the author on how to incorporate the book into the classroom. We encourage educators to read the books with your colleagues, students, and community, and then join us to hear more from the author.
K12 Educators! You’re invited to an evening with Lesley Younge, author of the award-winning young adult novel Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself.
Olaudah Equiano was a writer and abolitionist whose autobiography, The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano, captured the attention of British readers at the height of the transatlantic slave trade. The account of his childhood in the African kingdom of Benin, the details of his kidnapping and enslavement as a young boy, and the chronicles of his life as a sailor were influential in ending the British slave trade and continue to inspire the work of academics, activists, and artists over two hundred years later.
Nearer My Freedom retells Equiano’s remarkable life story in found verse, shaping his own words into impassioned, striking poetry, allowing readers to discover it anew. Supplemented with detailed and illuminating annotations, authors Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge offer a new means to engage with one of the most famous texts of the abolition movement.
- NCTE Notable Poetry Books and Verse Novels List, Winner, 2024
- Booklist Top 10 History Books for Youth, Winner, 2024
- Children's Africana Book Award Best Book, Commended, 2024
- Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature Best Books of the Year, Winner, 2024
- Notable Award Bank Street College of Education's Best Children's Books of the Year 2024, Winner, 2024
- Notable Award Boston Globe Best Books of the Year, Winner, 2023
- Notable Award School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Winner, 2023
- Notable Award YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults, Short-listed, 2023
- CYBILS Award Finalist, Short-listed, 2023
Read more about the book in Betsy Bird’s review on her Fuse #8 SLJ Blog.
Participants will have the opportunity to discuss the book with the author and consider classroom applications.
WHEN: Thursday, February 27, 2025 at
7:00-8:00 pm Eastern
6:00-7:00 pm Central
5:00 - 6:00 pm Mountain
4:00-5:00 pm Pacific
WHERE: This event will take place on Zoom.
SPONSORS: This webinar is sponsored by the Children's Africana Book Award through Howard University Center for African Studies
REGISTRATION: Registration is required for this event. Register here: https://howard.zoom.us/meeting/register/BdSZc8qGQrq3uDxzG_h0Xw
For more information, please email brenda.randolph@howard.edu
The Américas Award is excited to organize this year's Global Reads Webinar Series with the support of the World Area Book Awards! More information is coming soon for the rest of the series. Each webinar will feature a different World Area Book Award.