In commemoration of Black History Month, we'll be featuring articles, speeches, interviews, and reviews from The Horn Book's past year that are by and/or about African American authors, illustrators, and luminaries in the field — one a weekday through the month of February.

Last Monday's ALA Youth Media Awards announcement saw a Caldecott honor for C. G. Esperanza for My Daddy Is a Cowboy, which also won the CSK Illustrator Award (and it was a Horn Book Fanfare 2024 title!). And speaking of the CSK Awards, we're starting off the month with Carole Boston Weatherford and Jeffery Boston Weatherford's original found poem, "Black Means: Roll Call & Rap," of Coretta Scott King Award and Honor Book titles for three voices, which they performed at the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Round Table's 55th Anniversary Celebration on June 28, 2024, and which we included in the January/February issue of the Horn Book Magazine.

Check back here to follow along each day/week and look for the social media tag #HBBlackHistoryMonth on Facebook (@TheHornBook) and Bluesky (@thehornbook.bsky.social). Be sure to also follow The Brown Bookshelf's "28 Days Later" initiative ("designed to celebrate Black children’s book creators and raise awareness of those who may be under the radar of librarians, educators and families"), and on Bluesky (@thebrownbookshelf.bsky.social).

Week 1

2/3: Carole Boston Weatherford and Jeffery Boston Weatherford's poem "Black Means: Roll Call & Rap" from the January/February 2024 Horn Book Magazine

2/4: Vashti Harrison's Caldecott acceptance for Big plus a profile of her, from the July/August 2024 Horn Book Magazine Special Issue: ALA Awards

2/5: Ibi Zoboi's CSK Author Award acceptance for Nigeria Jones plus a profile of her, from the July/August 2024 Horn Book Magazine Special Issue: ALA Awards

2/6: Dare Coulter's CSK Illustrator Award acceptance speech for An American Story plus two profiles of her, from the July/August 2024 Horn Book Magazine Special Issue: ALA Awards

2/7: Christopher Paul Curtis's CSK–Virginia Hamilton Award acceptance speech, from the July/August 2024 Horn Book Magazine Special Issue: ALA Awards

Week 2

2/10:

2/11:

2/12:

2/13:

2/14:

Week 3

2/17:

2/18:

2/19:

2/20:

2/21:

Week 4

2/24:

2/25:

2/26:

2/27:

2/28:

Click the tag HBBlackHistoryMonth25 for more articles in this series.