February 5, 2021
Announcing 2020 Golden Kite Award Finalists
The Golden Kites, sponsored by SCBWI, are the most prestigious children’s literary award judged by a jury of peers. The awards recognize excellence in children’s literature in eight categories: Young Reader and Middle Grade Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Nonfiction Text for Younger Readers, Nonfiction Text for Older Readers, Picture Book Illustration, Illustrated Book for Older Readers, Picture Book Text, and the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor.

For the first time ever, we will be announcing the winners live at the Golden Kite Gala on Friday, February 19. All SCBWI members, whether or not they are enrolled for the Winter Conference, are invited to attend the virtual Golden Kite Gala at 4:30pm PST/ 7:30pm EST on February 19 with THIS LINK. We hope to see you all there, in your gold attire, celebrating all these outstanding books.


GOLDEN KITE AWARD NOMINEES

Middle Grade/Young Readers:

Phil Bildner: A High Five for Glen Burke
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley: Fighting Words
Leah Henderson: The Magic in Changing Your Stars
Pam Muñoz Ryan: Mañanaland
Renée Watson: Ways to Make Sunshine

 
Picture Book Text:

Marsha Diane Arnold: Lights Out, illustrated by Susan Reagan
Derrick Barnes: I Am Every Good Thing, illustrated by Gordon C. James
Tami Charles: All Because You Matter, illustrated by Bryan Collier
Carole Lindstrom: We Are Water Protectors, illustrated by Michaela Goade
Phoebe Wahl: The Blue House

 
Nonfiction Text for Younger Readers:

Gary Golio: Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson’s Journey to the Stars, illustrated by E.B. Lewis
Mary Beth Leatherdale: Terry Fox and Me, illustrated by Milan Pavlovic
Sandra Nickel: Nacho’s Nachos: The Story Behind the World’s Favorite Snack, illustrated by Oliver Dominguez
Meeg Pincus: Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery, illustrated by Yas Imamura
Don Tate: William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad
 

Picture Book Illustration:

Catia Chien: The Bear and the Moon
Cindy Derby: Outside In, written by Deborah Underwood
Susan Gal: Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale with a Tail written by Leslea Newman
Vincent K. Kirsch: From Archie to Zack
Jennifer K. Mann: The Camping Trip
 

Nonfiction Text for Older Readers:

Paul Fleischman: Alphamaniacs: Builders of 26 Wonders of the Word, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Candace Fleming: The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindberg
Cindy L. Otis: True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News
Christina Soontornvat: All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team
Christine Virnig: Dung for Dinner

 
Illustrated Books for Older Readers:

Lauren Castillo: Our Friend Hedgehog
Mike Curato: Flamer
John Rocco: How We Got to the Moon
Uri Shulevitz: Chance: Escape from the Holocaust: Memories of a Refugee Childhood
Peter Van Den Ende: The Wanderer

 
Young Adult:

Margarita Engle: With a Star in My Hand
Darcie Little Badger: Elatsoe
Kelly McWilliams: Agnes at the End of the World
Sherri L. Smith: The Blossom and the Firefly
Nic Stone: Dear Justyce


Sid Fleischman Award for Humor

Donna Barba Higuera: Lupe Wong Won't Dance
Remy Lai: Fly on the Wall
Amy Timberlake: Badger and Skunk
Kristen O'Donnell Tubb: Zeus, Dog of Chaos
Renee Watson: Ways to Make Sunshine


The Golden Kite recipients will receive a cash prize of $2,500 plus $1,000 to be donated in their name to a non-profit of their choice. The Golden Kite Honor recipients will receive a cash prize of $500 plus $250 to be donated in their name to a non-profit of their choice. The winners and honors will be announced via Zoom at the Golden Kite Gala at the Winter Conference on Friday, February 19 at 4:30pm PST/ 7:30pm EST. Special guest speaker Jennifer Garner will deliver the opening remarks. The festive event will be followed by up-close interviews with the winners done by Jim Averbeck.

CLICK HERE for more information about the 2021 Winter Conference and the Golden Kite Gala.
SCBWI Is Proud to Announce BIPOC Scholarship Winners for Winter Conference
SCBWI is proud to announce the winners of the BIPOC Scholarship for the 2021 Winter Conference. This Scholarship, which is sponsored by Christopher Paul Curtis, grants ten all-expense-paid conference admission to Black, indigenous, and creators of color. At least half of the scholarships are exclusively made available to women.
 
There were so many talented applicants that SCBWI decided to award 16 scholarships instead of ten. The winners are: Sonya Bernard-Hollins, Marie Chan, Angela Dahle, Jay Davis, Karen deBlieck, Francisco Dueñas-Serrano, Tatiana Gardel, Leah Harris, Ana Ivey, Carmen Johnston, Rehannah Khan, Adesope Martins, Karen Mitchell, Jessica Parra, Kavita Ramchandran, and Rae Rose.
 
This year's winners will receive free tuition to the Winter Conference, including access to all Zoom Keynote Conversations, the Editors Panel, and the Agents Panel, with illustrators also receiving admission to the Illustrators' Intensive.
 
For more information about the BIPOC Scholarship, visit the award page here.
Student Writer and Student Illustrator Scholarships Announced for Winter Conference
Art by Ciana Malchione
Art by Maya Halko
Art by Ellie Grever
Congratulations to the winners of the 2021 Winter Conference Student Illustrator Scholarship! The winners are Maya Halko, who attends MICA, Ellie Grever, a student at Pratt, and Ciana Malchione, who attends Cooper Union. All three students will attend the SCBWI 2021 Winter Conference for free, as well as the post-Conference Illustrators Intensive, and will participate in the online Portfolio Showcase. Huge thanks to our judges, agent Chad Beckerman, art director Meagan Bennett, and author/illustrator (as well as SCBWI IC and former SIS winner) Lisa Anchin.

Two winners were also chosen for the Student Writer Scholarship (SWS), a scholarship for full-time students with a promising manuscript in progress. SWS winners receive Conference tuition and may submit their work to the online Manuscript Gallery.

The graduate winner is Renata Flow, who is earning her Master of Arts Degree at the University of Freiburg in Germany. The undergraduate winner is Bianca Breen, who is working towards a Bachelor of Creative Arts degree at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
Golden Kite speaker Jennifer Garner
The 2021 Winter Conference is just two weeks away, so if you haven’t registered yet, you’ll want to snag your spot soon. The event kicks off with the Golden Kite Awards Gala which will feature actress and children’s advocate Jennifer Garner! Jennifer is most known for her film and television roles, but she is also a tireless advocate for children, serving as Artist Ambassador for the nonprofit Save the Children for over ten years. In 2014, she joined the global non-profit’s board of trustees, deepening her commitment to issues affecting children in America and around the world. Jennifer is also a passionate promoter of kid's literature, racking up thousands of views for her YouTube read-alouds.
by TeMika Grooms
TeMika Grooms
We live in times when the publishing industry has been challenged to meet creator and consumer demands. This includes a strong call to action to employ professionals and publish writers and illustrators with more diverse backgrounds and stories. Imprints are one way to address this need. Andrea and Brian Pinkney’s Bright Brown Baby imprint through Scholastic and the eponymous Denene Millner Books, a Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers imprint, are publishing companies lighting a bright pathway for the future of children’s books for young readers.

In preparing to create a thoughtful interview highlighting these two imprints, I dove down the research wormhole to explore their current work, as well as the history of publishing amongst African Americans in the United States. This history is long, yet not highlighted with enough frequency.
Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, often referred to as the Father of Black History, is noted for innumerable accomplishments in his lifetime. Of key importance to this article, he lobbied for Black History week-long before the establishment of Black History Month in the United States. He also founded Associated Publishers in 1921, the first documented African-American book publishing company. Several publishers have followed his legacy by focusing on historical, social and cultural documentation while expanding the literary works by people of color.
A New Program:
Equity and Inclusion Book Club
by Avery Silverberg
Calling all readers! Looking for curated, diverse children’s book-selections? Missing your book club gatherings from the days before the pandemic? Look no further! SCBWI’s first official, Instagram-Exclusive, Equity & Inclusion Book Club is here!
The SCBWI Equity & Inclusion Book Club will be dedicated to our mission of amplifying diverse voices. This new program will cover all areas of diversity as defined by We Need Diverse Books as each selected pick will be a Middle Grade, YA, or Nonfiction title written by a diverse author from an underrepresented background.

On the first of every month, the book club announcement may be found right here in Insight and our social media platforms.
Throughout the month, we will post quotes and questions from our book club pick via Instagram (make sure you are following us at @scbwi so you don’t miss out on all the fun)! You can turn your posts notifications on for @scbwi by clicking the little bell in the upper right-hand corner of our Instagram profile. That way, you never miss a post from us!

SCBWI Exclusive With...
Arianne Lewin, Executive Editor, G.P. Putnam's Sons
Arianne Lewin
Arianne Lewin is an Executive Editor at G.P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House USA. 
A native New Yorker, Arianne started her publishing career in 2002 at Disney-Hyperion Books for Children, where she worked on picture books with Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Laura Numeroff; chapter books with Deborah Underwood and Whoopi Goldberg; and young adult novels with Cinda Williams Chima; Chris Bradford; and Julie Anne Peters.

Since joining Penguin Random House in 2010, Arianne has acquired and published the work of the Geisel Award-winning picture book author/illustrator Ethan Long; middle-grade and young adult fiction from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins; and Rick Yancey’s #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling 5th Wave series.
April Powers
#KidLitBlackHistoryMonth Family Feud, created and produced by Kwame Alexander, and sponsored by SCBWI, debuts later this month, and we are excited to share all of the details with you. At 4pm PST/7pm EST on Feb 26 (12:00am GMT Feb 27), Jerry Kraft, Alicia D. Williams, Kwame Mbalia, Lamar Giles, Oge Mora, Karyn Parsons, Breanna McDaniel, and Van G. Garrett will compete in support of a library or school of their choice.The winning team will get $250 worth of books for each of their schools or libraries, while the losing team will win $100 worth of books for their causes. This is a family event, so please feel free to share the information with everyone you know. Registration links will be posted on our social media and by our event partners, The Brown Bookshelf and Versify as well. 


Take the ACA Survey Today
The SCBWI needs your help!

In order for the SCBWI to continue to receive funds from the Authors Coalition of America (ACA), we’re asking all of our published author, illustrator, and translator members to fill out a brief survey about what type of work you have published.
Regional Corner:
The Alaska Dream
by Stephanie Tatalias
Stephanie Tatalias
Alaska. Say the words aloud or visualize the land, and the call to adventure awakens. Like the land bridge opening a way for curious and hungry hardy people 11,000 years ago, the wide-open space—three times the size of Texas—still evokes a visceral call. For most, it’s a far away dream. A place of escape. A sweet reverie of a quiet retreat to cabin in the woods where a novel can peak and valley like the endless mountain ranges. But then the shiver of six—or eight—hard and cold months of snow and darkness descends. And the comfort of the “lower forty-eight” seems not so bad.
Draw This!
Draw This! is our monthly prompt word for illustrators. Artists can post their DrawThis! entries on Twitter and Instagram with the tag #SCBWIDrawThis
There is no longer a gallery for DrawThis! View all entries by searching the tag #SCBWIDrawThis.

The January prompt was LUMINOUS.

The February prompt is MY SECRET IDENTITY
#FacesofSCBWI
Want to appear in the next issue of INSIGHT? Post a picture to social media and tag it #FacesofSCBWI
Caitlin Gooch with her new December 2020 release BLACK EQUESTRIAN
Anika Fajardo with 2020 debut WHAT IF A FISH
Author-illustrator Esther Kent to chat with SCBWI British Isles Region
Sharon A. Langley celebrates release of her book A RIDE TO REMEMBER (co-written with Amy Nathan and illustrated by Floyd Cooper)
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