Mills Tannenbaum Award Recipient Announced: Andrea Davis Pinkney

Danny WangJuly 31, 2018

At the Reach Out and Read of Greater New York Annual Benefit and Auction, June 5, 2018, at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park, Andrea Davis Pinkney will receive the organization’s Mills Tannenbaum Award for Childhood Literacy.

Pinkney is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults, including picture books, novels, works of historical fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Her books have been awarded multiple Coretta Scott King Book Awards, Jane Addams Children’s Literature Honor citations, four NAACP Image Award nominations, the Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor medal, as well as several Parenting Publication Gold Medals, and American Library Association Notable Book citations.

Pinkney was named one of the “The 25 Most Influential People in Our Children’s Lives” by Children’s Health Magazine, and is among The Network Journal’s “25 Most Influential Black Women in Business.” She was included in Good Housekeeping and Women’s Day magazines’ “50 Over 50 Extraordinary Women,” and was named among L’Oreal’s “10 Women Who Light Up the Arts Scene.”

Pinkney was recently selected to deliver the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture. This award recognizes her significant contributions to literacy for young people provided through a body of work that brings a deeper understanding of children’s books, reading, and their impact. Additionally, she is the recipient of the Regina Medal, a citation for her distinguished contribution to the field of children’s literature.

In addition to her work as an author, Pinkney has had an illustrious career as a children’s book publisher and editor. She is currently Scholastic Vice President, Executive Editor, a role in which she has acquired and published a robust mix of titles by authors such as Christopher Paul Curtis, Patricia Polacco, Allen Say, Sharon G. Flake, and Lois Lowry. She has edited works by Toni Morrison, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Walter Dean Myers.

During the course of her career, Pinkney has launched many high-profile publishing and entertainment entities, including Disney Publishing’s Jumpat the Sun imprint, the first African- American children’s book imprint at a major publishing company; the hugely popular Cheetah Girls series, and the teen book Serving from the Hip by world-class tennis pros Venus and Serena Williams, an Oprah featured selection. Andrea is a graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications. She lives in New York City with her husband, award- winning illustrator Brian