Eleanora E. Tate
MY AUTHOR VISITS I make Author Visits to elementary schools, selected middle schools, writers and reading conferences, churches, bookstores, book clubs, libraries, universities and colleges. When you have me, my books, and the film Just an Overnight Guest based on my book (same name), you've got a winning combination! When sending me an e-mail for more information, please include your name, title, and mailing address.Students, if you e-mail me for information, please include your full name, the name and an email address of your teacher, and the name of your school. 2010 National Black Storytelling Conference and Festival The twenty-eigth annual gathering will be in historic Minneapolis, MN Nov. 17-21 with the theme "Our Stories are the Breath of Life." This is a unique, enthralling, traveling national festival sponsored by the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. (NABS), headquartered in Baltimore, MD. I was a national board member 1988-1992, was NABS' national president from 1990-1992, and national South Carolina festival co-director in 1991. For info about the 2010 festival and the association, founded by the late Mary Carter Smith and the very much alive Linda Goss, go to: www.nabsinc.org Institute of Children's Literature If you're interested in the basics of writing stories for children, the Institute of Children's Literature (ICL) awaits you. I'm an instructor, along with Joyce Hansen and dozens of instructors who'll give you one-on-one guidance. It's headquartered in West Redding, CT but you work from your home, in your PJs if you want to! Go to: InstituteChildrensLit.com Get Your MFA in Writing for Children at Hamline Hamline University's Graduate School of Liberal Studies in St. Paul, Minnesota offers a two-year, intensive, Masters low-residency program "Writing for Children and Young Adults." Award-winning writers, sensitive editors, and guest writers will keep you inspired and writing. I'm pleased to be an assistant professor on its faculty. For more information go to: http://www.hamline.edu The Brown Book Shelf The Brown Book Shelf offers the "best and brightest authors of children's literature," a "black history celebration of children's literature," reviews, discussions and much, much more! See the new list! Go to: http://thebrownbookshelf.com NEW! A reader's guide is in the back of Celeste's Harlem Renaissance new paperback. You'll also find a discussion guide at my Books pages. |
AAUW Award for Celeste
Is an Award Winner!!! Hooray! Celeste's Harlem Renaissance has been named an International Reading Association (IRA) 2008 "Teachers Choice" Award winner! It's also available in paperback from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers now. Hooray! It's also the 2007 North Carolina Book Award for Juvenile Literature. This award is sponsored by the NC Chapter of the American Association of University Women. On behalf of Celeste and the other characters in my book, thank you very, very much. Onward and upward! When Celeste Lassiter Massey must travel to Harlem to live with her actress Aunt Valentina, she's not thrilled at all to leave her friends, home and Poppa in comfortable Raleigh, North Carolina for New York's 1921 fast life. She constantly wonders and worries about Poppa, her friends, and even her cranky Aunt Society (her Raleigh live-in aunt-in-charge) back home. Talk about dangers, hard work, and romance! What about that fine, bald-headed boy Big Willie from Eagle Rock, NC that she meets on the train to Harlem? Will she ever see him -- or North Carolina again? Publisher: Little, Brown & Co. Pub. Date: April 2007.ISBN-10: 0-316-52394-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-316-52394-3 Great Books for Girls blogspot wrote "... A whole cast of fascinating, well-developed supporting characters surround Celeste as she embarks on this journey from girlhood to womanhood. You'll learn to love Aunt Society, laugh with Miss D., and enjoy Celeste's ever-growing circle of friends." North Carolina School Library Media Association in Info Tech Review wrote, "During her stay in New York (Celeste) encounters famous Harlem Renaissance artists such as Duke Ellington and James Weldon Johnson. These encounters enrich the story without disrupting the coming-of-age theme that is at the heart of Celeste's experiences." "This is an excellent coming-of-age novel with so many added attractions you forget that Celeste, her friends and family aren't real, that all this didn't really happen as you are swept into Harlem in its heyday with theater, jazz, blues and music that enriched our lives. Rating: Recommended 10 Plus." -- Ruth Moose, Raleigh News and Observer "It is a pleasure and a privilege to hang out with Celeste as she grows up. Her world is full of color and music, even when it has to come only from her soul." -- http://phiferbooks.blogspot.com/2007/03/celestes-harlem-renaissance-by-eleanora.html "In Celeste, Tate has created a fully realized heroine, whose world expands profoundly as she's exposed to both the cultural pinnacles and racial prejudices of her era. Readers will likely happily accompany Celeste on her journey." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "...readers will connect with her strong, regional voice ..., her ambitions, and the enormous responsibilities she confronts at such a young age. Both sobering and inspiring, Tate's novel is a moving portrait of growing up black and female in 1920s America." -- Gillian Engberg, BOOKLIST. "Celeste and her friends and family ... represent the wide variety of characters and personalities of African-American society without reverting to stereotypes. Absorbing. -- KIRKUS REVIEWS. Tate's "... large ensemble of secondary characters is complex, distinctive and well developed. Celeste's wide-eyed observations, organic to her strong but somewhat sheltered character, pull readers into the thrills and fears of her rapidly expanding world." -- Claire E. Gross, the HORN BOOK MAGAZINE Windmill Books, an imprint of Rosen Publishing Co., is releasing my book The Minstrel's Melody in January 2009 under its new Histories Through Time series. The Minstrel's Melody was originally published in the American Girl History Mysteries series. Well, Orphelia, Madame Meritta, and lyin' Pearl are back! Hooray! Raisin Stackhouse of coastal Gumbo Grove, SC loves history so much that she's willing to face being grounded in order to know more about her family's and her hometown's hidden secrets. The neighborhood bully, a girl nicknamed Big Boy, is out to beat up Raisin. Does Raisin stand a chance? And will she solve the mystery hidden in that old cemetery? A teacher’s guide is available. Click on A Blessing in Disguise on my home page. A Parents Choice Gold Seal Award Winner A California Young Reader Medal Finalist A Georgia Children's Book Award Nominee Featured in USA Today and on NPR's "All Things Considered" A “Give a Child a Book” SC Public Radio read aloud selection Available as an Audio Book from Recorded Books, Inc. "A warm, humorous, and wonderful story centered around an intellectually curious and spirited black girl... " -- Starred, School Library Journal "A vividly evoked piece of Americana that should be widely enjoyed." -- Pointer, Kirkus Reviews My books Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.! and The Secret of Gumbo Grove are also Audio Books? That means you can listen to them and free up your hands to do other stuff! Check with Recorded Books (see below). And Remember... Reading is knowledge and knowledge is power, and with positive power you can do almost anything positive that you want to in this world. In the meantime, pray for angels and stay away from devils. They're everywhere. My book of biographical profiles is African American Musicians (Wiley & Sons, publishers) with known and unknown Black musicians over the past 200 years. A companion book is Black Stars of the Harlem Renaissance. Another book with a musical bent is The Minstrel's Melody (Windmill Press), my historical fiction saga of Orphelia Bruce who yearns to travel the world in 1904 as a singing and piano playing young star. But when Momma threatens to silence her music forever, Orphelia runs away, determined to let her musical light shine, no matter what. Get both books at your local bookstore, and support your independent bookshops. Films: Just an Overnight Guest, starring Richard Roundtree, Rosalind Cash, Fran Robinson, Tiffany Hill, and Elinor Donahue. Phoenix Learning Group: 1-800-221-1274 (more info on Books page). Audio Books: The Secret of Gumbo Grove , narrated by actress Kim Staunton. Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., narrated by actress Kim Staunton. Ms. Staunton makes my characters really come alive! Contact Recorded Books, Inc., 270 Skipjack Rd., Prince Frederick, MD 20678; 1-800-638-1304 Celeste's Harlem Renaissance Front Porch Stories at the One-Room School Retold African Myths To Be Free The Minstrel's Melody Just an Overnight Guest A Blessing in Disguise The Secret of Gumbo Grove Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.! African American Musicians Don't Split the Pole: Tales of Down-Home Folk Wisdom (out of print) |
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