Scholastic to Publish Children's Book by Diane McWhorter

Posted on June 4, 2004

Scholastic, a publisher and distributor of children's books, announced that it will publish Pulitzer Prize-winning author Diane McWhorter's first book for young readers in October, 2004. Released under the Scholastic Nonfiction imprint, A Dream of Freedom is a history of the civil rights movement in America and is McWhorter's first book since she won the Pulitzer Prize for Carry Me Home in 2002.

A Dream of Freedom tells the story of the modern civil rights movement for young readers, a history of the momentous years between 1954 (Brown vs. the Board of Education) and 1968 (the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.). In her epilogue, Diane McWhorter writes to young people: "Have no doubt: History is going on around you right now. You can either make it or it can make you. No one knows while it's happening how it will turn out. But everything counts."

"This is a very exciting time for children's nonfiction publishing and we are thrilled to be the publisher of Diane McWhorter's first book for young readers," said Kenneth Wright, Editorial Director, Scholastic Nonfiction. "Diane came to us with the professional credentials of a journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and the personal experience of growing up in the epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement: Birmingham, Alabama in the 1950s and 1960s. The combination was unbeatable. A Dream of Freedom has Diane's own experience as a backdrop to the momentous events that make up the Movement. It's a powerful story -- one I hope many children and their parents will want to read together."

Diane McWhorter won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for her adult book, Carry Me Home, a personal documentary of the cataclysmic events that took place in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963 -- a time and place many people consider the turning point in America's long struggle for civil rights. Considered one of the most important books on the civil rights movement, its additional awards and accolades include one of Time Magazine's Ten Best Books of the Year, a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year, and winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. Ms. McWhorter lives in New York City.

The Scholastic Nonfiction imprint, whose credo is "great nonfiction is great storytelling," is aimed at making nonfiction books more exciting and innovative for children. Launched in 2003, the imprint recently released: A Nation Challenged: A Visual History of 9/11 and its Aftermath (published with The New York Times), The White House: An Illustrated History by Catherine O'Neill Grace, in association with The White House Historical Association, and Island of Hope: The Story of Ellis Island and the Journey to America by Martin W. Sandler.