The Malka Penn Award is given annually to the author of an outstanding children’s book addressing human rights issues or themes, such as discrimination, equity, poverty, justice, war, peace, slavery or freedom. Within these larger themes, the award committee is particularly eager to recognize stories about individuals – real or fictional, children or adults – who have been affected by social injustices, and who, by confronting them, have made a difference in their lives or the lives of others.


This stunning novel-in-verse is based on the true story of Sophie Scholl, who along with her brother Hans and some of his friends, formed White Rose – a secret anti-Nazi resistance movement in Germany during World War II. Sophie distributed leaflets urging fellow students to protest the horrors of Hitler's regime. Unfortunately, she and the other members of White Rose were caught, interrogated, and executed.
The novel moves back and forth in time, starting near the end of Sophie's life after her arrest, and going back through her childhood and adolescence. Despite a loving family and a budding romance, a cloud of oppression hangs over her – the relentless war, her mandatory work in a Hitler youth labor camp and an armaments factory, repeated arrests of her brother and father, increasing discriminations and deportations of Jews – until finally she's impelled to take action.
Sophie was proud of what she and the other members of White Rose did, and hopeful that her life would be an inspiration to others. Indeed, her story remains relevant today when human rights are still endangered and the need to speak out is still necessary. - Michele Palmer
2019 HONOR BOOKS


The Bridge Home
by Padma Venkatraman
published by Penguin Random House
The Bridge Home tells a story of homelessness with extraordinary depth, complexity, and honesty. Fleeing their abusive father, eleven-year-old Viji and her sister Rukku, who has developmental disabilities, make their way to the coastal Indian city of Chennai. The girls befriend brothers Arul and Muthu and adopt a stray dog. With resourcefulness and determination, they learn to navigate the challenges of finding food and shelter and protecting themselves from untrustworthy adults, and they quickly evolve into a loyal and protective family. Inspired by the stories of real children growing up homeless in urban India, the book is unsparing in its depiction of the daily danger and tragedy they face. Refusing to ignore endemic realities of abuse, sickness, and death, it also illustrates the children’s ingenuity and strength, and it leaves us with complex feelings of both mourning and hope. When read with recognition of the many children worldwide who experience homelessness and poverty, the book’s themes become universal. It is an extraordinary book for beginning discussions about the human rights of children, the forces that take them away, and the possibilities for taking them back. - Doug Kaufman


Girl of the Southern Sea
by Michelle Kadarusman
published by Pajama Press
While I have had the good fortune of traveling in Southeast Asia—in large cities as well as small villages, in wealthy areas as well as poverty-stricken ones—middle-grade readers will feel equally plunged into the pungent, frantic, and frustrating world of Nia, author Michelle Kadarusman’s young heroine. Nia battles her alcoholic widowed father while caring for her baby brother in the slums of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Longing to go to high school, Nia has her hopes dashed when her father disappears, leaving his banana fritter-selling cart in the market. Nia, ever resilient, takes over the business, continues studying, and writes imaginative folk stories in the little spare time she has. Despite embarrassing and dangerous setbacks, Nia persists towards her dream. Kadarusman pulls no punches in detailing Nia’s world, yet she infuses Nia (and a few dependable adults) with dignity and self-respect. Young readers, especially those facing situations out of their control, will find hope in this story and inspiration to persist. - Pegi Deitz Shea, author of award-winning books including The Whispering Cloth: A Refugee’s Story, Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl’s Story, and Noah Webster: Weaver of Words.


The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees
by Don Brown
published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian RefugeesThe graphic novel, The Unwanted: Stories of Syrian Refugees, by Dan Brown, is a haunting depiction of the plight of the Syrian people. He includes stories of hope, such as the reuniting of a family with their mother who had fled a year before, as well as stories of violence and desperation, such as the family who was separated by death when the boat on which they were fleeing collapsed.
By using the actual words and stories of the refugees, Brown humanizes a tragedy so vast it is hard to fathom. A sea of people were forced to leave their homeland, only to encounter hostility from neighboring countries who are overwhelmed by the numbers of refugees. He illustrates the extraordinary spirit of these refugees who continue to endure hardship after hardship. And he spurs the readers with a call to action. It is a powerful novel that mixes words and illustrations to great effect. - Joan Weir


We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices
edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson
published by Crown Books
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson, is a collection of poems, letters, and essays by Indigenous, Black, and people of color authors for the young. Contributors include Marilyn Nelson, Joseph Bruchac, Jacqueline Woodson, Margarita Engle, Hena Kahn, Jason Reynolds, and many others. Engaging issues of injustice and discrimination, the book seeks to inspire and fortify young readers, offering them assurances of their competency, brilliance, and beauty, and foregrounding the adult community’s embrace of the value and potential of youth. By engaging the reader directly, the pieces convey the urgency and consequence of our cultural moment. As Denise Lewis Patrick asserts in her essay, “You come from people who have never stopped finding a way . . .We knew you would be coming, and we are your life map in truth and spirit and memory. You are here, and we are here with you.” This profoundly moving collection, which incorporates lively illustrations and photographs, builds a sense of community by grappling honestly with the social and political obstacles to human dignity faced by the child reader. - Katharine Capshaw
JOIN US ON
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
7:00pm - 8:30pm
Meet the author of the winning book, Kip Wilson
and join the discussion on
How to Teach Difficult Subjects to Young People
Speakers will share practical tools to making history relevant for students. Author Kip Wilson will draw connections between teen activists today to the members of the White Rose resistance group who used their voices to stand up for others in Nazi Germany. She'll explain what led Sophie Scholl down this path, share some poems from White Rose, and show how important it is to encourage young people today to make a similar stand.
Participating educators will receive a free copy of White Rose!
Speakers include:
Dodd Jewish Hartford European Roots Educator Fellows:
Kimberly Ballaro, Alan Berkowitz, Crista Penrose and Rachel Torres
If you are an individual who requires an accommodation to participate, please e-mail: dodd@uconn.edu.
2018 Winner – “The Night Diary”
The winner of
the 2018 Malka Penn Award
for Human Rights in Children's Literature:
The Night Diary
by Veera Hiranandani
published by Dial Books for Young Readers
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani is set during one of the most tumultuous events in human history, the 1947 Partition of India, when that newly independent country was split in two: predominantly Muslim Pakistan and majority Hindu India. Twelve year old Nisha feels split as well. Her deceased mother was Muslim, her father is Hindu. It's become unsafe for her family to remain in their home, which overnight has turned into Pakistan. They must make a dangerous journey across the border into the new India. Nisha relates the terrors and hardships of the journey, as well as the ups and downs of everyday life, through a series of letters she writes to her mother in her diary, the only place she feels safe enough to fully express her feelings. As chaos swirls around Nisha, she ponders fundamental questions: why can't people of different religions get along? Why is there so much hate and suffering? And, most of all, where is home? Nisha documents her fears and hopes in her diary as she searches for her true home within herself and her family. Slowly, she reaches out to others in friendship, perhaps the only way to confront hate – with love.
- Michele Palmer
2018 Honor Books
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Hurricane Childby Kheryn Callenderpublished by Scholastic Press Author Kheryn Callender artfully unfolds the trials of Caroline Murphy, a 12-year-old girl who lives in the Virgin Islands. Caroline feels like an outsider during this crucial time in her young adolescence because she is hated by her classmates, her mother has abandoned her, and she has visions that wed fantasy with reality. All begins to improve when Kalinda arrives at her school and the two form a bond unlike any Caroline has experienced before. Callender subtly deals with issues of homophobia, peer pressure, abandonment, bullying, and LGBT+ identity through beautifully poetic prose. - Ellen Cavanaugh |
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Before She Was Harriet
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A Sky Full of Stars
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I Am Alfonso Jones
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2017 Winner – “My Beautiful Birds”
2017 Malka Penn Award Winner
My Beautiful Birds
by Suzanne Del Rizzo
My Beautiful Birds embodies the intention behind the Malka Penn Award: to present stories of individuals who have been affected by social injustices, and who, by confronting these injustices, have made a difference in their own lives and/or the lives of others.
Using simple, poetic language and stunning illustrations created from polymer clay and acrylic paints, the author/illustrator tells the story of a young Syrian boy fleeing war with his family.
As Sami struggles with the loss of his home and pet birds, he slowly adjusts to a new life in a refugee camp. Eventually he finds hope in a trio of wild birds, as well as by expressing his feelings through art, and by reaching out to help another refugee child.
The award was announced November 4, 2017 at the Connecticut Children’s Book Fair during a reception at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. The award will be presented this spring, at a date to be announced, at a special program at the Dodd Center.
2017 Honor Books
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Refugee by Alan Gratz
A compelling middle-grade reader about refugee children from three different historical periods, who attempt to escape persecution, poverty and war. |
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Somos como las nubes We Are Like the Clouds by Jorge Argueta Powerful and beautiful bi-lingual poems about the migration of thousands of children from Central America
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Us, in Progress: Short Stories about Young Latinos by Lulu Delacre Touching and evocative stories of immigration, deportation, prejudice and other issues facing Latinos in America |
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Submissions are now invited for the 2019 Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature.
The Malka Penn Award winner will be announced at the 2019 Connecticut Children’s Book Fair, and presented at an award ceremony held during the Spring 2020 Semester at the Dodd Center in Storrs, Connecticut. The Award winner will receive a bronze medallion and certificate, and will be invited to deliver an address to the university faculty, students, and wider community.
Eligibility |
Any book for young children (birth through age 12) originally published in North America between Sept. 1, 2018 – Aug. 31, 2019 is eligible for consideration for the 2019 Malka Penn Award. The book may be a work of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoir, or biography aimed at children below the age of thirteen. Books must be published in a physical, print form—e-books are currently ineligible for consideration.
A committee of UConn faculty, staff, and community members selects one award winner each year. In addition, up to ten additional books may be selected for special recognition. |
To Submit |
The deadline for submission for the 2019 Malka Penn Award is October 1, 2019.
To submit a book for consideration, send FIVE or more copies to: Malka Penn Award Selection Committee |
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The award is named in honor of author Michele Palmer, whose generous gift helped to establish the award. Ms. Palmer has written over a dozen books for children and adults, including three children's books under the pseudonym Malka Penn (The Miracle of the Potato Latkes, The Hanukkah Ghosts, and Ghosts and Golems).
As an oral historian at UConn's Center for Oral History, her most exciting project was co-director of “Witnesses to Nuremberg: An Oral History of the War Crimes Trials,” in conjunction with the opening of the Dodd Center in 1995.
Ms. Palmer has also curated numerous art, book, and history exhibits at UConn and elsewhere. One of her exhibits at the Dodd Center – “After Anne Frank: Children's Books About the Holocaust” – led to her establishing the Malka Penn Collection of Children’s Books on Human Rights in the Archives and Special Collections at the Dodd Center.

MALKA PENN AWARD COMMITTEE
Katharine Capshaw
Professor of English
Ellen Cavanaugh
PhD Student, Curriculum & Instruction
Kristin Eshelman
Archivist, Northeast Children's Literature Collection
Douglas Kaufman
Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction
Glenn Mitoma
Director, Dodd Human Rights Impact
Michele Palmer
Author
Susan Raab
President, Raab Associates
Pegi Deitz Shea
Author
Joan Weir
PhD Student, Curriculum & Instruction