“Big Night for Salamanders”  is about a boy named Evan who wants to help his beloved salamanders. Evan can hardly wait for the Big Night. During the first warm night, he spots salamanders by the hundreds crawling out of the woods and down to a natural pool across the road. There they will breed and lay their eggs. How can Evan and his parents help these delicate creatures cross the road in safety? Evan has the solution.  Lamstein delivers a moving story of genuine caring. Carol Benioff’s colorful and animated illustrations transport the reader into Evan’s world, where a child can do small yet wonderful things to help other creatures.

Author Chris-Tia Donaldson came by the store recently to tell us her “hairstory.”

Store Highlights
Women’s History Month continues here at the store, and we have a great selection of books by and about smart and interesting women. One of those books is about Precious Jones, an illiterate, 16 years old who is impregnated by her father with her second child.  She meets a caring teacher who takes her on a journey of transformation and redemption. Push was written by Sapphire over a decade ago, and filmmaker Lee Daniels adapted it for his Oscar-winning film “Precious.” Push is loosely based on the author’s own experience with teaching troubled youth. During a recent NPR interview, Sapphire said she hopes people will read the book, see the movie and be inspired by the “Preciouses” in their own lives. Sapphire also said in the interview that she was approached by a white woman who told her that after seeing the film that she would never look at an overweight black woman the same way again.

“After seeing this film, she had to deal with an obese black woman as a feeling, intelligent person as a person who dreams, as a person who wants the things that she wants. So we brought up a stereotype, and we cracked it open, and a human being comes forth.”

In the next couple of weeks we will be hosting a number of book events with great women writers, including Chris-Tia Donaldson, author of “Thank God I’m Natural: The Ultimate Guide to Caring for and Maintaining Natural Hair” on Friday, March 5 at 7PM.  Donaldson is a Harvard graduate with a true passion for hair. By day, she is a successful lawyer for a software company. By night, she is a freelance writer and entrepreneur looking to launch her own product line for naturally kinky tresses. For this revolutionary book, Donaldson has interviewed hundreds of women — from all walks of life — about everything from the epidemic of hair loss in the black community to the historical effects of slavery on black women and their hair care practices.  Donaldson currently lives in Chicago — where she is active in a wide variety of civic, educational, and charitable organizations.

Carolina Gomez, founder of 1-2-3 Spanish Together, comes back to the store for our latest installment of Children’s Spanish Reading Fun, Saturday, March 6 at 10:30AM. This is a great opportunity for children (and parents) to learn about the Spanish language and embrace Hispanic culture.

Deahn Berrini talked to us recently about her new book and her work as a veterans’ advocate.

Store Highlights

“The passion and talent of African-American painter Alma Woodsey Thomas (1891-1978) shines through each of the full-color reproductions in this elegant book, the first comprehensive text published on Thomas’s life and work in over fifteen years. A gifted and dedicated artist whose life spanned vast social and political changes, Thomas steadfastly forged her path without regard to political or social expectations from the art world. In 1924 she became the first graduate of Howard University’s newly organized art department, and in 1972 she became the first African-American woman to hold a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. This is the exhibition catalog for the show organized by the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.”

Deahn Berrini

“Deahn Berrini’s Milkweed is a gentle revelation, a story whose apparent simplicity belies an unsettling resonance … [She] has given us an American tapestry, filled with a vivid universe of kids on the edge, seekers, supplicants, the decent and the wayward and the lost, carried forward by a young woman’s quest for understanding as she prepares to launch her life … Milkweed reminds us that war stories are still the oldest, hardest and most telling and compelling tales we share.” —Richard Currey, author of Fatal Light and Crossing Over The Vietnam Stories

Jamaicaway Books & Gifts owner Rosalyn Elder will show a multimedia presentation on the art of the Harlem Renaissance Sunday Feb. 28 at 2PM.  The Harlem Renaissance was a time when African-Americans attempted to take charge of implementing change in this country and defining their destiny through art. This presentation explores this pivotal era in American history through the art, literature and music that came out of it and introduces the audience to such personalities as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois, Mary Macleod Bethune, James Weldon Johnston, Marcus Garvey, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and many others. In addition to running the store, Elder is also an artist, as well as an architect and author of the book “African American Heritage in Massachusetts: A Coloring Book.”

In case you missed it, Omékongo Dibinga dropped by the store recently to give us some advice on living our best lives.

Are you looking for a new place to get weekend brunch?  It’s might be time for you to visit J’Way Café, Boston’s newest hot spot for soul food.   Wouldn’t it be nice to have a delicious Jamaican jerk chicken sandwich during this winter weather?  Why not remind yourself of what nicer weather in the Caribbean feels like by having one!  Our hours of operation are Fridays 5PM-9PM, Saturdays 10AM-9PM and Sundays Noon – 6PM.  Check out our menu for all the good stuff!

The Boston Black Theatre Collective will stage its first reading here at the store with a series of short vignettes by award-winning playwright Ed Bullins and his company Roxbury Crossroads Theatre.   This event takes place Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 6PM, and it is sponsored by The Trotter Institute and The Color of Film Collaborative, in association with StageSource and The Greater Boston Theatre Alliance.

Omékongo Dibinga, author of the new book “G.R.O.W Towards Your Greatness: 10 Steps to Living Your Best Life” will also join us in the store Friday, Feb. 19 at 7PM. Dibinga is a motivational speaker, life coach, and award‐winning poet. He is the founder & CEO of Free Your Mind Publishing. A first generation Congolese‐American who was described by Nikki Giovanni as “outstanding, exciting, and new while being very old”, Dibinga writes and performs in English, French and Swahili, and has occasionally used Wolof in his writings. He is currently a PhD student in international education policy at The University of Maryland, where he studies the arts as a tool for social change. He received his master’s degree from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University and a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.

Carolina Gomez, founder of 1-2-3 Spanish Together, comes back to Jamaicaway Books & Gifts for our latest installment of Children’s Spanish Reading Fun, Saturday, Feb. 20 at 10:30AM. This is a great opportunity for children (and parents) to learn about the Spanish language and embrace Hispanic culture.

Don’t forget to get your grub on at J’Way Café, Boston’s newest hot spot for soul food.  All of our food is made by Jamaicaway Books & Gifts owner Rosalyn Elder, and she makes a mean jambalaya! This is a Louisiana Creole dish of Spanish and French origin, which has been a hit with café visitors.   Our hours of operation are Fridays 5PM-9PM, Saturdays 10AM-9PM and Sundays Noon – 6PM.  Check out our menu for all the good stuff!

Last but not least, Judah Leblang dropped by the store recently to discuss the importance of having diverse writers producing memoirs.

“From wearing a ‘WWJD’ cap around Jacksonville, Florida (assuming it was the moniker of a local radio station) to an unfortunate car accident on the first day of kindergarten, to trying to fill out a muscle T-shirt at age 51 in Provincetown, Leblang’s journey of discovery blends comedy and drama. In this episodic memoir, Leblang sketches the world he comes from, a world of poppy seed kuchen, Indians baseball, and the great industrial city of Cleveland, Ohio, which seemed to be imploding in the 1960’s and ’70’s-and the world he inhabits today, as a hard of hearing man with a funny name, navigating middle age.”

Jamaicaway Books & Gifts’ J’Way Cafe opened last weekend to rave reviews from many of our store’s supporters.   From pulled pork to Jamaican jerk chicken to sweet potato pie, J’Way Cafe is quickly becoming Jamaica Plain’s one stop for food for the soul.  Our hours of operation are Fridays 5PM-9PM, Saturdays 10AM-9PM and Sundays Noon – 6PM.  Check out our menu to see what will satisfy your palate.

Store Highlights
Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and what better way to get into the mood than with some good literary loving! In addition to the great choice of romance novels in our store window display, we also carry Zora Neale Hurston’s classic Their Eyes Were Watching God. “One of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature, [this book] is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose. A true literary wonder, Hurston’s masterwork remains as relevant and affecting today as when it was first published — perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature.”

Black History Month continues at Jamaicaway Books & Gifts, and if you haven’t had a chance yet, check out our Black History Month Book List, which has a wide selection of resources for adults, children and teachers.  A popular children’s book is Elizabeth Yates’ Amos Fortune: Free Man.  Amos Fortune was “born the son of a king in the At-mun-shi tribe in Africa.  When Amos was only fifteen years old, he was captured by slave traders and brought to Massachusetts, where he was sold at auction.  Although his freedom had been taken, Amos never lost his dignity and courage.  He dreamed of being free, and of buying freedom of his closest friends.  By the time he was sixty years old, Amos Fortune began to see those dreams come true.” Ages 8-12

February is Black History Month, and our store is stocked with resources about the African-American experience adults, kids and teachers can appreciate.  Check out our Black History Month Book List to learn more about the people and events that have shaped our country.

The Boston Black Theater Collective will stage its first reading here at the store with a series of short vignettes by award-winning playwright Ed Bullins and his company Roxbury Crossroads Theatre.   This event takes place Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 6PM.  It is sponsored by The Trotter Institute and The Color of Film Collaborative, in association with StageSource and The Greater Boston Theatre Alliance.

Store Highlights
“From the first Black amateur players before the Civil War through to the last barnstorming Negro League teams in the 1960s, Black Baseball: A History of African-Americans & the National Game is the complete and utterly fascinating history of segregated baseball in the United States. Thanks to photographs of the major players and many first-hand accounts, baseball fans will get the full story of this tumultuous time, behind the scenes and out in the ballparks. Every detail is revealed, starting with that sad day in 1911 when the governing body of the National Association of Baseball Players voted unanimously to bar any club that signed an African-American. Meet the many players, including George Stovey, Sol White, and Welday Walker, who blazed the way for Jackie Robinson to integrate major league baseball in 1947. Feel the frustration felt by the players when they were denied hotel rooms and restaurant service while on the road. Every image and tale also conveys the joy of the game and the pride these men felt in playing professional baseball.”

“First published in December 1853, Clotel, or The President’s Daughter was written amid then unconfirmed rumors that Thomas Jefferson had fathered children with one of his slaves. The story begins with the auction of his mistress, here called Currer, and their two daughters, Clotel and Althesa. The Virginian who buys Clotel falls in love with her, gets her pregnant, seems to promise marriage—then sells her. Escaping from the slave dealer, Clotel returns to Virginia disguised as a white man in order to rescue her daughter, Mary, a slave in her father’s house. A fast-paced and harrowing tale of slavery and freedom, of the hypocrisies of a nation founded on democratic principles, Clotel is more than a sensationalist novel. It is a founding text of the African American novelistic tradition, a brilliantly composed and richly detailed exploration of human relations in a new world in which race is a cultural construct.”

“When the Supreme Court decision to desegregate public schools was handed down in 1954, the course of American history was forever changed. Linda Brown, You Are Not Alone: The Brown v. Board of Education Decision is a collection of personal reflections, stories, and poems from ten of today’s most accomplished writers for children, all young people themselves at the time of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Included are Michael Cart, Jean Craighead George, Eloise Greenfield, Lois Lowry, Katherine Paterson, Ishmael Reed, Jerry Spinelli, Quincy Troupe, Joyce Carol Thomas, and Leona Nicholas Welch. With a compelling introduction by editor Joyce Carol Thomas and stunning pastel artwork by Curtis E. James, this collection celebrates the hard-earned promise of equality in education.”  Grades 6-12

There are a lot of great happenings at the store in the next few weeks.  The final touches on  J’Way Cafe are underway and we will be serving some of Boston’s best Memphis BBQ (more info on that soon!).  We also have some fabulous authors scheduled to visit the store in February, including Bay Windows columnist Judah Leblang, rapper and motivational speaker Omékongo Dibinga and writer Deahn Berrini.  Visit our Upcoming Events page to stay on top of all store news and events!

Store Highlights
This week, the international community commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is a universal commemoration in memory of the victims of the Jewish Holocaust. On January 27, 1945, the largest Nazi death camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau (Poland) was liberated by Soviet troops. There have been many books written about the Holocaust, including Jane Yolen’s award-winning book The Devil’s Arithmetic, the story of 12-year-old Hannah who is brought back to a 1940’s Polish village, where she relives the same horrors that had bothered her when her relatives talked about their Holocaust experiences. “[Hannah] is transported to a village in Poland in the 1940s, where everyone thinks that she is Chaya, who has just recovered from a serious illness. She is captured by the Nazis and taken to a death camp, where she is befriended by a young girl named Rivka, who teaches her how to fight the dehumanizing processes of the camp and hold onto her identity. When at last their luck runs out and Rivka is chosen, Hannah/Chaya, in an almost impulsive act of self-sacrifice, goes in her stead. As the door to the gas chamber closes behind her, she is returned to the door of her grandparents’ apartment, waiting for Elijah. Through Hannah, with her memories of the present and the past, Yolen does a fine job of illustrating the importance of remembering. She adds much to children’s understanding of the effects of the Holocaust, which will reverberate throughout history, today and tomorrow.”

If you didn’t know already, we are getting pretty tech savvy here at the store.  We now have a YouTube Channel where you can view interviews with authors who visit the store.  For those of you who want to see all the fun we have at our events, we now put up photos on our Flickr web album.  You can also subscribe to its RSS feed in order to be among the first  to see what’s going on here.  And for the Twitter addicts, and you can follow us at @jwbooks.  Jamaicaway Books & Gifts owner Rosalyn Elder now has her own blog, where she talks about the importance of nurturing young readers.  Links to all of our social media tools are on the right side panel of this site.

Store Highlight
If you are a fan of British mysteries, you should check out Jacqueline Winspear’s Messenger of Truth: A Maisie Dobbs Novel. “London, 1931. The night before an exhibition of his artwork opens at a famed Mayfair gallery, the controversial artist Nick Bassington-Hope falls to his death. The police rule it an accident, but Nick’s twin sister, Georgina, a wartime journalist and an infamous figure in her own right, isn’t convinced. When the authorities refuse to consider her theory that Nick was murdered, Georgina seeks out a fellow graduate from Girton College, Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator, for help. Nick was a veteran of World War I, and before long the case leads Maisie to the desolate beaches of Dungeness in Kent, and into the sinister underbelly of the city’s art world. In ‘Messenger of Truth,’ Maisie once again uncovers the perilous legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to recollect itself. But to solve the mystery of Nick’s death, Maisie will have to keep her head as the forces behind the artist’s fall come out of the shadows to silence her. Following on the bestselling Pardonable Lies, Jacqueline Winspear delivers another vivid, thrilling, and utterly unique episode in the life of Maisie Dobbs.”

Authors Without Borders members also came by the store recently and had some advice for aspiring writers.

Store Highlight
Next week Americans will celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor and media personality Michael Eric Dyson wrote the poignant book April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death and How it Changed America. “…While he was standing on a balcony at a Memphis hotel, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and fatally wounded. Only hours earlier King ended his final speech with the words, ‘I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promised Land.’ Dyson examines how King fought, and faced, his own death, and how America can draw on his legacy in the twenty-first century. April 4, 1968 celebrates the leadership of Dr. King, and challenges America to renew its commitment to his vision.”

Have you ever thought of writing a book?  Now is the time to make it happen.  The store will be hosting a panel discussion on the business of publishing books Friday, January 8 at 7PM. Panelists will consist of members from Authors without Borders, a diverse group of authors founded in 2008 who are dedicated to the craft of writing.  Authors Willie Pleasants, Michael DeCicco, Alberta Sequeira, Joyce Keller Walsh and Patricia Perry will discuss their personal literary journeys and advice on navigating the publishing world, such as books and technological innovation, agents vs. traditional publishers vs. self publishing and marketing their books.

Maybe your new year’s resolution is to expose your children to another culture.  Carolina Gomez comes back for our monthly installment of Children’s Spanish Reading Time Saturday, Jan. 9 at 10:30AM. This is a great opportunity for children (and parents) to learn about the Spanish language and embrace Hispanic culture. Future installments will occur every first Saturday of the month, starting in February at the same time.

Store Highlights
It is also time to get organized with new calendars, and the store has a wide selection to choose from, including the calendar A Journey into 365 Days of Black History: Working for Change. With images from the Library of Congress, this calendar tells 12 stories of black people who have made a difference in the world, such as writers Zora Neale Hurston and Claude McKay, former South African President Nelson Mandela, labor rights activist A. Philip Randolph and boxer Jack Johnson.

Losing weight is also a perennial new year’s resolution. We have some great books on getting on the good health track, including Calorie Queens: Living Thin in a Fat World. “Jackie Scott and her daughter Diane had tried just about every diet under the sun, from low-carb to low-fat, sometimes losing weight but always gaining it back. Frustrated, they decided to figure out why popular diets failed them and came up with Eucalorics – a practical eating plan based on taking in the number of calories needed to maintain a healthy weight. This is not a starvation diet, nor is it a fad. In fact, it’s not really a diet at all. It’s about learning how to eat well for a lifetime from two real women who have been there and are making it work.”