Since 2005, more than 15,000
Sacramento-area school children have benefited from Words Take
Wing: Honoring Diversity in Children’s Literature. This annual
celebration, held each February, gives students the opportunity
to hear about the personal journeys and creative processes of
acclaimed authors and illustrators of diverse children’s
literature whose stories about Native American heritage, Asian
culture, African American culture, and Latino identity, among
many others, allow them to explore a wide range of perspectives
and world views.
On Tuesday, February 15, 2022, Words Take Wing will host
award-winning children’s author David A. Robertson in two virtual
events via Zoom:
David A. Robertson is the 2021 recipient of the Writers’ Union of
Canada Freedom to Read Award. He is the author of numerous books
for young readers, including When We Were Alone, which
won the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award and the McNally
Robinson Best Book for Young People Award. The Barren
Grounds, the first book in the middle-grade The Misewa
Saga series, received a starred review from Kirkus, was a
Kirkus and Quill & Quire best middle-grade book of 2020, was a
USBBY and Texas Lone Star selection, was shortlisted for the
Ontario Library Association’s Silver Birch Award, and was a
finalist for the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award.
Robertson’s memoir, Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood
Memory, was a Globe and Mail and Quill & Quire book of the
year in 2020, and won the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for
Non-Fiction as well as the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award at
the 2020 Manitoba Book Awards. On The Trapline,
illustrated by Julie Flett, won Robertson’s second Governor
General’s Literary Award and was named one of the best picture
books of 2021 by the CCBC, The Horn Book, New York Public
Library, Quill & Quire, and American Indians in Children’s
Literature. Dave is the writer and host of the podcast Kíwew,
winner of the 2021 RTDNA Prairie Region Award for Best Podcast.
He is a member of Norway House Cree Nation and currently lives in
Winnipeg.
Words Take Wing is made possible by the support of our title
sponsors
and our supporting sponsor
