Welcome to the website of JG Annino.
“BookNerd” self-portrait C. JGAnnino, in gift hat from dear DIH, her longtime newsroom pal
You may be visiting for details on the book, She Sang Promise: The Story of Betty Mae Jumper. It’s a much-awarded project, with outstanding artwork from Lisa Desimini and a heart-felt letter to readers from Moses Jumper, Jr. It was created in consultation with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. [TO ORDER]
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The LOC National Book Festival picked JG Annino’s, SHE SANG PROMISE, award-winning feminist/social justice title [National Geographic & Scholastic] to represent her state. JG is a 5-year thriver following an advanced kidney cancer diagnosis, two surgeries, radiation & immunotherapy. JG fends off kidney dialysis & spars with cancer via dark humor, light laughter, hiking in Florida, doodling, photography, poetry & star-studded family/friend/physician supports. Besides SSP, her other titles include FAMILY FUN in FLORIDA, FLORIDA”S S FAMOUS ANIMALS & SCENIC DRIVING FLORIDA [Falcon/Globe Pequot] completed after a career publishing in Florida newspapers as a reporter, photographer, features writer & editor.
An Artist’s Way advocate, JG Annino’s sparks boost creativity for many ~~ from Elder memoirists, to grade school Poets-in-the-Making. Her days scrubbing dishes at a residential sailing academy, or serving as newspaper editorial page editor, bracket a mix of memorable jobs. Experiences on the edge include surviving a fall from a boulder & losing consciousness while hiking lovely Mt. Katahdin, and quite separately & with a host of help, thriving with kidney cancer.
The Library of Congress selected her lyrical picture book, She Sang Promise, for the National Book Festival, naming it one of 52 great reads for families.
Photography C. by Jan Godown Annino. DR CARLA C. HAYDEN, Librarian of Congress, speaking at Florida A & M University’s historic MEEK-EATON Black Archives & Research Center.
JG is a devoted walker with her wonderful husband, public interest law professor Paolo, joined often by their daughter Anna. Gardening on their small suburban spot of sweet earth provides organic rosemary & basil & along with well-established lemon, fig, & avocado fruits. The kumquats & bananas haven’t fruited, yet, but these big green presences ensure tropic leaves for where green tree frogs hunt bugs in summer. Where the creatures overwinter ~ North Florida can dip to 19 degrees F in January or February ~ remains a mystery. When Son-in-Marriage Petar is part of a day, it’s even more of a groovy adventure. “Window in the woods” photograph, C.JGAnnino, allrightsreserved
Gratitude flows to Anhinga Press, Birmingham Arts Journal, Falcon/Globe Pequot, National Geographic, many newspapers and magazines, Milkweed Editions, MoSt Poetry Center, Scholastic, Tiny Seed Journal & especially, Today’s Little Ditty, for publishing her works.
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Other notations include a recommendation by the American Library Association, the National Council on the Social Studies & Social Justice Books.
If not already in touch, reach JGAnnino through leaving a comment on this site’s most-recent blog post [ at the Home page] and leave contact email in that comment, which is moderated so it doesn’t automatically post. Also find JG on instagram at jganninoauthor. JGAoffice @ gmail dot com [not a direct link.] Appreciations.
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For ideas on classroom connections.
With esteemed children’s poetry/literature expert, my mentor, the late, great Lee Bennett Hopkins, member of the Florida Artists’ Hall of Fame & recipient of uncountable outstanding honors.
Jan Godown Annino’s child wanderings covered New Jersey wildflower fields and Florida shelly island beaches. As a kid she took piano lessons, sang in choirs, was late to learn bike-riding, never advanced beyond Guppy in water skills, but she doodled, published a protest letter to the editor at age eight, put on marionette shows and, edited her high school newspaper.
Jan has tutored college students in writing skills, taught memoir writing to seniors and met daily deadlines at community newspapers. She washed dishes in a residential sailing camp, sang songs to babies at a nursery school and worked one summer as a clerk in a state employment office.
With her family she enjoys growing fruiting pollinator trees from seed in her North Florida backyard. Her favorite hobby is to walk into town, walk into deep woods, or walk long by a salty undeveloped shore.
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She Sang Promise is an illustrated book about Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, an outstanding Native American exemplar who Jan knew for years as a friend, before she authorized bringing her spectacular story of poverty, prejudice & accomplishment to young readers. She was a creator of her tribe’s original arts & culture festivals. Jan was fortunate to meet Betty Mae Tiger Jumper when the elected leader of her tribe traveled for a First People’s / Native American festival at Tallahassee Museum, the award-wining outdoors natural history spot bordering a treasured cypress swamp. That day Betty Mae Tiger Jumper sold her own handmade textile art & that of others, artwork JG had long-admired. But the two mainly talked about the stack of newspaper’s the Tribe Elder offered on her table. She was editor of this award-winning publication, The Seminole Tribune.
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*She Sang Promise won the Florida Book Awards. It is beautifully illustrated by artist Lisa Desimini, with a heart-felt letter to readers by Moses Jumper, Jr. a poet & creator of the chapbook, ECHOES IN THE WIND. The She Sang Promise picture book is an American Library Association top 10 for feminist studies & represented Florida at the national Library of Congress Book festival.
* A catalyst for JG’s recent poem making was an Honorable awarded her, via the Florida State Poetry Association 2020 contest, judged by former Oregon State Poet Laureate Tiel Aisha Ansari, author of THE DAY OF MY FIRST DRIVING LESSON & creator other distinctive poetry chapbooks.
* The Florida Humanities Council awarded Jan’s work an independent scholar grant in non-fiction research/writing, which led to her writing a one-act play about a tough young woman from Iowa who moved to Florida in the 1950s and fell in love with a rural live oak tree, buying land to preserve it & live beside it, at her hand-built purpose-built cottage, Lichgate. The wonderful Atlantic Center for the Arts provided me JG an associate artist-residency in nonfiction, with former Washington Post book eitor, Michael Dirda.
More author facts students may want for reports:
* Jan’s community news career for Knight-Ridder & Gannett papers brought her an insanely odd set of experiences, such as being locked inside Death Row to interview a condemned man & going up in the air with a helicopter pilot to count bald eagle nests. Despite being shy of heights I’ve shimmied up a sailing mast for reporting work. JG has also gone underground into a cave ignoring a touch of claustrophobia. Every so often the bliss assignment rolled in – sandcastle contest, kitty interview, meeting her heroes – Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter.
* Jan worked as a youth employment counselor in a state agency, as a classified adv. clerk, as a nursery school staffer where she sang babies to sleep & awake & as a community college grammar tutor.
* It’s tough for JG not to avoid snapping photographs – especially signs, wild creatures & unique places.
PROGRAMS
Betty Mae Jumper is an especially good fit for Women’s History Month presentations. Mrs. Jumper wrestled alligators & did much more to secure her place in history. She survived death threats as a child and began kindergarten at middle-school age. She said her greatest achievement was obtaining an education. She was the first woman elected a leader of her Tribe. Jan knew Mrs. Jumper for 20 years before she wrote a book about her. Mrs. Jumper is featured the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame, among many other lifetime honors.
Quoted, about SHE SANG PROMISE:
“…her writing is superb. There is a poetry to her words…” SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
From Lenita Joe, Library Media Specialist:
“In her presentation to our fourth and fifth graders at Sealey Elementary, Ms. Jan brings to life the important history story of the first woman elected leader of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Betty Mae Tiger Jumper. The children are fascinated to see the artifacts Jan shares as well as the fact that we are in Tallahassee with a school (FSU) that has the Seminole name. They are delighted to learn more about Florida and the rich culture of our Native American tribes. The children also learn from her enthusiastic encouragement, about non-fiction research and writing as she shares how she wrote the book. I wish she had the opportunity to present her book, “She Sang Promise,” from the National Geographic Society, more often. She is truly an asset to our educational program at Sealey and will continue to be invited to share her knowledge with our students. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Bookseedstudio 