91´«Ã½

CHICAGO — The 91´«Ã½ Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) and the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee will celebrate 45 years of the best in children’s and young adult literature representing the African-American experience at the 2014 Coretta Scott King Book Awards Breakfast. The 2014 Awards Breakfast will be held from 7 – 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 29 in the Caesars Palace Milano Ballroom during 91´«Ã½’s 2014 Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

This year’s celebration will honor Coretta Scott King Author Award winner Rita Williams-Garcia, author of “P.S. Be Eleven” (Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2013) and Illustrator Award winner Bryan Collier, illustrator of “Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me,” written by Daniel Beaty (Little, Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group, 2013). John Steptoe Award for New Talent winner Theodore Taylor III, illustrator of “When the Beat was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop,” written by Laban Carrick Hill (Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership, 2013) will also be honored.

The 2014 Coretta Scott King Book Awards Honor recipients will also be recognized, including Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, authors of “March: Book One,” illustrated by Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions, 2013); Walter Dean Myers, author of “Darius & Twig” (Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2013); Nikki Grimes, author of “Words with Wings” (WordSong, an imprint of Highlights, 2013); and Kadir Nelson, illustrator of “Nelson Mandela” (Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publsihers, 2013)

Also honored will be Patricia and Frederick McKissack, recipients of the 2014 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. Patricia McKissack and her late husband Fredrick McKissack, both natives of Tennessee, began their writing and research partnership in the 1980’s.Their subject matter from family-based folklore to nonfiction titles, are scholarly researched and written with accurate, authentic text, creating a cultural transmission of history. Their immense range of topics are informative, readable and enjoyable, covering accounts from slavery days to biographical studies of noted men and women in African American History past and present.

Following the Breakfast, copies of “Coretta Scott King Award Books Discussion Guide: Pathways to Democracy” by Adelaide Poniatowski Phelps and Carole J. McCullough will be available for purchase at a discount during a book signing immediately following the Breakfast. Spotlighting titles appropriate for grades K-12, this discussion guide builds on the rich legacy of the Coretta Scott King award-winning books to offer an important educational resource for teachers, librarians, parents, and other caregivers.

Individual tickets may be purchased for $62 each through June 20, 2014. All tickets must be purchased before June 20; tickets will not be available at Annual Conference. To register, visit , registration code EMI1.

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are presented annually by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee of the 91´«Ã½’s Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) to African-American authors and illustrators to encourage the artistic expression of the African-American experience via literature and the graphic arts.

To learn more about the Coretta Scott King Book Awards, please visit .