Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: maya-castro

  • NELLIE BLY Book Awards for the Best Non-Fiction Investigative and Long Form Journalism Works – 2019 CIBAs

    NELLIE BLY Book Awards for the Best Non-Fiction Investigative and Long Form Journalism Works – 2019 CIBAs

    Nellie Bly Awards

    Congratulations to the First Place Category Winners and the Grand Prize Winner of the Nellie Bly Book Awards for Investigative and Journalistic Non-Fiction Works, a division of the 2019 CIBAs.

     

     

     

     

    The CIBAs Search for the Best in the Nellie Bly Book Awards!

    Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring investigative works, long-form journalism, and reporting/correspondence. The CIBA judges are seeking the best journalistic works in social science, data-driven reports, equality and justice, ethics, human rights, activist groups, crimes and corruption, environmental, whistle-blowers, health and medicine, and politics. We love them all.

     

    The 2019 Nellie Bly Awards First Place Category Winners and the Nellie Bly Grand Prize Winner were announced at the Virtual Chanticleer Authors Conference that was broadcast via ZOOM webinar the week of September 8-13, 2020 from the Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Washington.

    Sean Dwyer, author of A Quest for Tears: Overcoming a Traumatic Brain Injury, 2018 Journey 1st Place Category Winner.

    This is the OFFICIAL 2019 LIST of the Nellie Bly Awards First Place Category Winners and the Nellie Bly Grand Prize Winner. 

    2019 is the FIRST year of the NELLIE BLY Book Awards – a non-fiction division of the CIBAs! 

     

    Congratulations to These Authors who Inaugurate the Nellie Bly Book Awards! 

    • T.S. Lewis – The Why of War: An Unorthodox Soldier’s Memoirs
    • Maya Castro – The Bubble: Everything I Learned as a Target of the Political, and Often Corrupt, World of Youth Sports
    • John Hoyte – Persistence of Light
    • Judy Bebelaar and Ron Cabral – And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown
    • Patrick Hogan – Silent Spring – Deadly Autumn of the Vietnam War
    • Gordon Cross, Robert Fowler, Ted Neill – Finding St. Lo: A Memoir of War & Family

    The Nellie Bly Awards
    2019 Grand Prize Winner is:

    Shaping Public Opinion:

    How Real Advocacy Journalism Should Be Practiced

    by Janice S. Ellis, Ph.D.

     

    Cover of Shaping Public Opinion by Janice S. Ellis, PhD. A burning typewriter sits in a series of concentric circles

     

    How to Enter the Nellie Bly Awards?

    We are accepting submissions into the 2020 Nellie Bly Awards until  November 30, 2020. 

    All CIBA Division Winners for 2020 will be announced at CAC 21 on April 17, 2021.

    Don’t delay! Enter today! 

    A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in October. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

    If you have any questions, please email info@ChantiReviews.com == we will try our best to reply in 3 or 4 business days.

     

  • THE BUBBLE: Everything I Learned as a Target of the Political, and Often Corrupt, World of Youth Sports by Maya Castro – NonFiction, Youth Sports, Soccer

    THE BUBBLE: Everything I Learned as a Target of the Political, and Often Corrupt, World of Youth Sports by Maya Castro – NonFiction, Youth Sports, Soccer

    Maya Castro, the daughter of a Puerto Rican father and Anglo mother, mixes memoir and personal essay styles in a passionate narrative describing her experiences as a minority soccer player on an elite, mostly white, high-school soccer team.

    Castro joined her middle-school soccer team in seventh grade, in order to avoid dodgeball in regular PE. She soon finds playing soccer better than “roller-coaster rides, a sugar-rush, or a present on Christmas day.” From that innocuous beginning, playing the game becomes her passion, and by the end of middle school, she develops advanced skills in the sport.

    At the end of eighth grade, Maya opts to transfer to a high school in a different part of town which has a highly-rated soccer program, where she hopes to learn more about the sport and further improve her skills. That decision leads to personal growth as an athlete but also results in a painful, profound loss of innocence relative to the roles and motives of adults associated with this program dominated by school politics, “entitled” students, and hints of racism.

    Castro cites detailed descriptions of events and her perceptions. These often engender reader empathy and raise reader awareness of the emotional fragility of early adolescence. They also suggest that a “wink and a nod” are still alive and well in many areas of competitive team sports.

    This story works well and carries with it a social statement. The voice is strong and unique, often written in vernacular. It reveals interesting aspects of the author’s personality—passion, humor, and a well-defined sense of right and wrong–someone the reader would like to know, and someone we will want to hear from again.

    Maya relates her experiences to those of other athletes whose stories have recently been “front page” news. She provides a strong indictment of individuals who “… overlook misconduct (for their own personal gain) rather than correct it.”

    Her concluding words will resonate with many parents, coaches, and fans. “The sooner the ‘grown-ups’ on the sidelines understand that to overlook corruption, in all of its stages of severity is to enable it, the safer and more meaningful the youth athletic environment will be.”

    The Bubble:  Everything I Learned as a Target of the Political, and Often Corrupt, World of Youth Sports by Maya Castro is a strong statement, reflective of one young woman’s experience in youth sports, a treatise that coaches, parents, and young players will do well to note. Recommended.