Hillary Rodham Clinton praised her 1998 book 33 Things Every Girl Should Know in a speech at Seneca Falls, NY on the 150th anniversary of the first Women's Rights Convention.

“I didn’t see myself or my people in history.”[3] Even when her uncle, whom she describes as “a history freak,” tried to introduce her to black history in Harlem, she often found herself thinking, “I don’t care.”[3] A rare exception was that she enjoyed the Little House on the Prairie television program, though today she suspects that she probably enjoyed it “for the props” or its “old-timey” aspects.

[4] Bolden has suggested that, along with the multicultural setting of her childhood, her study of Russian in higher education deeply influenced her writing.

They were living proof that it’s never too late to learn.”[9] Although she intended to earn a doctorate and become a professor of Russian literature,[4] it was while in graduate school that Bolden's work began appearing in print, at first mainly through freelance projects,[4] notably in Black Enterprise magazine.

I do not think I ever turned down any writing jobs no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.”[11] Bolden's first major book project, a young adult novel adaptation of Vy Higginsen’s musical Mama, I Want to Sing, was published in 1992 by Scholastic.

She explains:I write because I am the beneficiary of the prayers, hopes, and labors of generations, of people I never knew who braved water cannons, police dogs, burning crosses on lawns, so that I might have wider opportunities.

I write because my parents, born poor and into the world of Jim Crow, seeded in me a love of reading and for school and for learning and for striving for excellence.

I’ll never forget what a psychologist told me years ago: At about the age of four or five most African American children begin to wonder why the world does not like them.

[15] One box of Bolden's papers (consisting of production materials for three of her books) has been donated to the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota Libraries.

In 2016, Bolden received the Nonfiction Award for Body of Work from the Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC.

[2] Awards for individual books: Mama, I Want to Sing Just Family And Not Afraid to Dare: The Stories of Ten African-American Women 33 Things Every Girl Should Know: Stories, Songs, Poems, and Smart Talk by 33 Extraordinary Women Strong Men Keep Coming: The Book of African-American Men Rock of Ages: A Tribute to the Black Church Tell All the Children Our Story: Memories & Mementos of Being Young and Black in America Portraits of African-American Heroes Wake Up Our Souls: A Celebration of Black American Artists The Champ: The Story of Muhammad Ali Maritcha: A Nineteenth Century American Girl Cause: Reconstruction America, 1863-1877 M.L.K.