(It proved only good sense to later marry him.) It was not cheap-and I was, as is typical of many college students, usually flat broke-so I was completely flustered and impressed. Q: What is the best book-receiving experience you’ve had?Ī: My boyfriend-at-the-time bought me a gorgeous, illustrated Riverside Chaucer after I admired it in our college bookstore. I loved Anne immediately, and was thrilled to learn that I could have “kindred spirits” and “vexation of spirit.” I was so intrigued by Anne’s (mis)adventures that I carried the book everywhere, reread it repeatedly, and even wrote my own sequels, before discovering that the author already had. As the youngest in my family, I jumped at the chance to read a thick book with no pictures that felt more like A Real Adult Book. I fished a hardbound copy of the 1908 classic from a pile of books being donated for a sale by teachers winnowing their classroom libraries. Q: What was your first favorite book, the book that made you a reader?Ī: The book that made me a reader was L. M. In addition to serving as a juror for the 2021 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, Davis will participate in the Readings and Book Giveaways by the 2021 NSK Prize Jury event. A native San Franciscan, she currently lives in Northern California with David Macknet and a houseful of books. Kirkus praised her most recent novel, Peas and Carrots, as “an emotionally honest plot and candid conversations about race and class.” Davis was a foster sister from the age of nine until she graduated from college, when her parents adopted the last two babies and retired. Davis was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Mare’s War, which was a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Get to know the jurors for the 2021 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature in this series of short interviews.

Peas and Carrots by Tanita S. Davis