This year marks a big milestone for the non-profit multicultural children’s magazine Skipping Stones. Founded in 1988 by educator Arun Toke, Skipping Stones is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The magazine offers articles for children from the elementary level and up, as well as educators, on the lives of people around the world, environmental sustainability, and social action. Each issue features essays, poems, stories and art by children and teenagers living in the United States and around the world, and the September-October issue presents the winners of the magazine’s annual youth writing and art contests. The magazine also features articles, poems, stories, artwork, and photography by adults who write for children, many of whom live, or have lived, in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. These multicultural perspectives make every issue of Skipping Stones a journey around the world without ever having to get on an airplane!
Every May-June issue presents the winners of the prestigious Skipping Stones Honor Awards. While each issue contains a Bookshelf with reviews of recommended books, videos, and teaching resources, the Honor Awards present the best of the best in the categories of Multicultural & International Books, Nature & Ecology Books, and Teaching & Parenting Resources. Usually, between 20 and 25 titles are chosen, but for the magazine’s 25th anniversary, there are exactly that number on the list. These are the 2013 winners; for reviews of the books, please visit the Skipping Stones website, www.skippingstones.org.
Multicultural & International Books:
Arnett, Robert. Finders Keepers? A True Story in India (and its Spanish translation Es Mio? Una historia verdadera en la India). Illus. by Smita Turakhia. Atman Press. Picture books.
Cole, Henry. Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad. Scholastic. Picture books.
Halperin, Wendy Anderson. Peace. Drawing Children Into Peace. Picture book.
Hiranandani, Veera. The Whole Story of Half a Girl. Random House Children’s Books. Middle grades.
Iturralde, Enda. Los pajaros no tienen fronteras: Leyendas y mitos de America Latina (Spanish only). Illus. by Andrezzinho. Libros Alfaguara Infantil. Middle grades.
Lang, Heather. Queen of the Track. Illus. by Floyd Cooper. Boyds Mills Press. Picture books.
Lyons, Kelly Starling. Tea Cakes for Tosh. Illus. by E. B. Lewis. Penguin. Picture books.
Manuel, Jose et al. ed. Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth. Illus. by Julio Salgado. Papers: The Movie. Upper grades.
Ortiz Cofer, Judith. The Poet Upstairs. Illus. by Oscar Ortiz. Arte Publico Press/Pinata Books. Picture books.
Powers, J. L., ed. That Mad Game: Growing Up in a War Zone. Cinco Puntos Press. Upper grades.
Robinson, Hilda and Jeff Kunke. Didn’t We Have Fun? Illus. by Hilda Robinson. Cricket Hollow Books. Picture books.
Scandiffio, Laura. People Who Said No: Courage Against Oppression. Annick Press. Middle and upper grades.
Smith, Icy. Three Years and Eight Months. Illus. by Jennifer Kindert. East West Discovery Press. Picture books.
St. John, Warren. Outcasts United: The Story of a Refugee Soccer Team That Changed a Town. Random House Children’s Publishing. Middle and upper grades.
Stewart, Elizabeth. The Lynching of Louie Sam. Annick Press. Middle and upper grades.
Swain, Gwenyth. Hope and Tears: Ellis Island Voices. Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills. Middle and upper grades.
Nature & Ecology Books:
Cerullo, Mary. City Fish, Country Fish. Illus. with photos by Jeffrey L. Rotman. Tilbury House. Picture books.
Curtis, Andrea. What’s for Lunch! How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World. Illus. with photos by Yvonne Duivenvoorden. Red Deer Press. Middle grades.
Dyer, Hadley. Potatoes on Rooftops: Farming in the City. Annick Press. Middle grades.
Fomento, Alison. These Bees Count! Illus. by Sarah Snow. Albert Whitman. Picture books.
Pedersen, Laura. Unplugged: Ella Gets Her Family Back. Illus. by Penny Weber. Tilbury House. Picture books.
Vancleave, Janice. Step-by-Step Experiments series (Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Ecology, and Energy). Rosen Publishing. Middle grades.
Teaching & Parenting Resources:
Collie, Lyn and Briar March. There Once Was an Island (te huena e nnoho). New Day Films. DVD.
Palos, Ari Luis and Erin Isabel McGinnis. Precious Knowledge: Arizona’s Battle Over Ethnic Studies. DVD.
Roy, Mathieu and Harold Crooks. Surviving Progress. National Film Board of Canada. DVD.
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