The Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank
Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. were born the same year a world apart. Both faced ugly prejudices and violence, which both answered with words of love and faith in humanity. This is the story of their parallel journeys to find hope in darkness and to follow their dreams.
Author Nancy Churnin’s program is aimed at parents and teachers using the book as a way to introduce hard topics. She will discuss follow up activities that would be interesting.
Nancy Churnin is the author of eight picture book biographies. The William Hoy Story, How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game made the 2016 New York Public Library Best Books for Kids list, the 2017 Texas Library Association's 2X2 and Topaz lists, 2017-2018 Kennebec Valley Book Award Books, the 2018 Illinois School Library Media Association's Monarch Award Master List, Connecticut's 2018 Charter Oak Children's Book Awards list and the 2018-2019 Louisiana Young Readers' Choice awards. Manjhi Moves a Mountain won the 2018 South Asia Book Award is a 2018 Children and Teen's Choice Book Awards finalist, a 2017 Junior Library Guild selection, a Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2018, a Silver Eureka Award-winner and a Little Free Libraries/Children’s Book Council Pick for the Action Book Club. Charlie Makes His Shot, How Charlie Sifford Broke the Color Barrier in Golf is a Silver Eureka Award-winner and was presented at the Ruby Bridges Reading Festival at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and the International Literacy Association's Children Literacy Day in Austin. Irving Berlin, the Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing is a 2019 Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable Book and 2019 Social Studies Notable Trade Book for Children. The Queen and the First Christmas Tree, Queen Charlotte’s Gift to England is on A Mighty Girl’s 2018 list. Her 2019 release, Martin & Anne, the Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank will be presented at the Ruby Bridges Reading Festival. In 2020: Beautiful Shades of Brown, How Laura Wheeler Waring Painted Her World and For Spacious Skies, Katharine Lee Bates Heals a Nation with “America the Beautiful.” Nancy has presented on panels for the Texas Library Association, the International Literacy Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, the annual conference of NYC librarians and Dallas Book Festival and served as faculty at SCBWI North Texas and Writers Who Run. She loves speaking and teaching in person and by Skype at conferences and schools. She is a former theater critic for The Dallas Morning News and the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Edition. She lives in North Texas with her husband and a dog named Dog.
Hosted by the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center (PJTC) & the Adult Education Department of PJTC