Andrea Davis Pinkney comes to MSMC

Everyone in my class had to pick an author to research and be them for a class. People were Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, Beverly Cleary and many others. I chose to be Andrea Davis Pinkney. She is an incredible writer who had one many awards.She was born September 25, 1963 in Washington D.C.
Her parents were involved in the civil rights movement, and she became very interested in this topic.
However she aspired to write for magazines because of the Mary Tyler Moore Show;
Mary Richards was a big-city journalist and she wanted to be that too. She majored in journalism
at the University of Syracuse 1985 and became the Senior editor for Essence Magazine. She 

switched to childrens books with encouragement from her husband Brian (children's book editor). His mom was a writer and his father was an illustrator. She noticed the lack of African-American literature geared toward and available to children so she decided to create something that would operate around their cultural norms and morals, something that would reflect their lives, their cultural heritage, and the achievements of African-American figures.  She did just that and became an award winning author. This video is amazing take a look!!! She also wrote a book because she was inspired by her son.

This book one the Corretta Scott King Award in 2013! She has many other books take a look at the link above. 

I enjoyed being her for a little while and teaching everyone about her, and all of her accomplishments!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abN2aP_Dzd0




I think that these author presentations were a great idea. We really got the chance to learn about how people became writers/illustrators, and their struggles along the way.
Here is what my classmates had to say about my presentation:

3 Pluses

1. I liked how you did not read off of the slide presentation.

2. I liked how you gave us an age range for your books. 

3. I like how you wanted to do a multicultural author and just because it was difficult to research her you did not switch who you did. 

1 Wish

1. I wish the technology would work in our room! 

Denise,

1. Improve was done very well! You weren't even frustrated when the technology didn't work. 

2.  Good resources for more information! Excited about the "Red Pencil"

3. You did a nice job with the information you had. It's tough when there isn't a lot of resources out there.

Wish: A sneak peek from the"Red Pencil!"

Three Pluses

1. I liked how you chose a multi-cultural author.
2. It was great that you had so many books to show us.
3.  I am looking forward to reading your new book, The Red Pencil.

One wish

      - To hear more about the The Red Pencil - sounds like a wonderful book!

Pinkney, A., & Pinkney, J. (n.d.). Hand in hand: Ten Black men who changed America.

Pinkney, A., & Pinkney, J. (2010). Sit-in: How four friends stood up by sitting down. New York: Little, Brown and Company.