A Place of Our Own
"I’m so glad Joshunda is telling our stories." —Jacqueline Woodson
In summertime, intrepid eight-year-old journalist Ava Murray and her best friend, Marisol, love to play hopscotch and double Dutch. But the hot asphalt of the sidewalk in their neighborhood makes them sweaty and burns their feet through their sneakers. When Ava’s mother, Kim, tells her that the New York City Parks Department is building a new park in her neighborhood, she wants to make her voice and opinions heard.
Her mother takes her to a city council planning meeting, and Ava is given the chance to present her impassioned plea for shady trees, cool grass, and safe spaces for her and her friends to enjoy. And she’s not going to stop there: Ava wants to write a story about the neighborhood children’s needs for her local newspaper. She wants to talk about it on television and on the radio. She wants to gather the kids to make signs for a demonstration. And more!
Ava shows that being a journalist means not only reporting on her world, but also advocating for what she believes is right. In A Place of Our Own, Ava helps reveal to children the power of their own voices.
Joshunda Sanders has been a prolific journalist since 1999 and served as a staff writer for some of the nation’s largest news organizations, including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Houston Chronicle. She has also worked as a federal speechwriter, as Press Secretary to the Secretary of Energy during the Obama Administration, and as Director of Communications in North America for Change.org. She teaches in the First-Year Writing Program at The New School in New York City. She earned a BA in English at Vassar College and an MS in Information Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in the Bronx, not far from where she was raised.
Charly Palmer is an award-winning painter and collagist whose first children’s book, Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song, won the 2018 Coretta Scott King / John Steptoe New Talent Award and was named a Kirkus Best Book of the year. He is also the illustrator of There’s a Dragon in My Closet. He currently lives and works in Atlanta, GA.
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