Additional praise and awards for Jewell Parker Rhodes' books: Ninth Ward was named a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book, a Notable Book for a Global Society, a CCBC Choices pick, a VOYA Top Shelf Fiction pick, an ALSC Notable Children's Book, an SLJ Best Book of the Year, an IndieBound Kids' Next List pick, a Parents' Choice Gold Award recipient, and an NYPL Top 100 Title for Reading & Sharing. Sugar was a Junior Library Guild selection, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, an IndieBound Kids' Next List pick, a Jane Addams Book Award winner, an IRA Top Chapter Books selection, and a CCBC Choices Pick. Bayou Magic was an LA Times summer reading selection and a Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature Best Books selection. Towers Falling was an Indiebound Kids' Next List selection, a Junior Library Guild selection, one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month, a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, a Seventeen Magazine Best Book of the Year, and a Notable Book for a Global Society. Rhodes approaches a complex, painful topic with insight and grace, providing context to an event distant to the book's audience.
Publishers Weekly This is a welcome contribution to children's literature.
School Library Journal This tender retelling of tragedy is a solid vessel to help young readers understand the gravity of 9/11 and how it touches all Americans, no matter where we come from.
Kirkus Reviews Praise for Towers Falling History made personal
and what a person! Deja's voice is real and memorable, her compelling story one of hope unmarred by sentimentality.
Linda Sue Park, Newbery Medalist and New York Times bestselling author