The creator of The Village of Round and Square Houses
sets another moving tale on African soil, this time recounting how a small village escapes a band of slave Continue reading »
This resonant, moving story spotlights both the loving rapport between a girl and her grandfather, and the story of his family's escape to freedom. Grifalconi's Continue reading »
Tos is an actual village, on the side of an inactive volcano in Central Africa. It is the village in the book's title, where women dwell in round thatch-roofed huts and men live in square ones. This Continue reading »
As with last year's Caldecott honor book, The Village of Round and Square Houses, this is a beautifully evocative tale of childhood in an African tribal setting. Through vivid color paintings and a Continue reading »
Set in the same African village as The Village of Round and Square Houses and Darkness and the Butterfly , this tale of (an older) Osa concerns her excessive pride--so great that she makes up stories Continue reading »
To tell its African story, Grifalconi's latest employs dramatically composed collages of photographic images (primarily from National Geographic ) coupled with indigenous woodcut decorations. The Continue reading »
``I had me a fit of lonely. / I was feelin' kinda blue.'' So speaks young Sissy, who grows sad thinking about her father, who died shortly after his daughter was born. The text continues in the same Continue reading »
Picture book author and illustrator Grifalconi (The Lion's Whiskers, reviewed above) displays her prowess in another genre with this heartrending novel. When their mother is hospitalized, Tommy and Continue reading »
Tiny remembers warm and wonderful times filled with laughter, stories and Daddy's ""sweet-sad"" trumpet playing as he holds his hat over the horn to ""soften the sound."" But when he stays away to Continue reading »
With any luck, Santa's sack will be filled with copies of this gem of a picture book. Grimes (Meet Danitra Brown)
offers glimpses of Christmastime from a Continue reading »
Coming into the world one stormy night, Thunder Rose, heroine of this original tall tale, is the first child "born free and easy" to her African-American parents, who (an author's note Continue reading »
SALT IN HIS SHOES: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream
Deloris Jordan
Michael Jordan's mother and sister team up for an inspirational story about this athlete's earliest on-court efforts. "The authors offer authoritative insight into the hoopster's Continue reading »
At once personal and universal, Shange's poem, "Mood Indigo" (published in her 1983 poetry collection, A Daughter's Geography
), serves as the Continue reading »
PW
called this tale of a hopeful young ballet dancer who complains of her too-big feet and too-long legs "inspirational," adding that "Nelson Continue reading »
With an unmistakable reference to the story of Moses, a captive discovers a boy floating in a basket. The collaborators here "use superhuman elements to distill all-too-human truths, and Continue reading »
As far as the J. Carver Worthington Andersons, descendants of giants, were concerned, "big things were best!
" But when their son Hewitt is born normal Continue reading »
The popular spiritual finds new life as a picture book celebrating diversity and community. An African-American boy is at the heart of the lyrics featured here experiencing the song's Continue reading »
This follow-up to Salt in His Shoes
, which dabbles in the subject's less successful flirtation with baseball, may disappoint fans of the earlier book. The Continue reading »
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
Kadir Nelson
In his first outing as author as well as illustrator, Nelson (Ellington Was Not a Street
) delivers a history of the Negro Leagues in a sumptuous volume that no Continue reading »
Nelson's (We Are the Ship)
jacket portrait of Coretta Scott, monumental and tender at the same time, sets the tone for this intimate picture biography. The Continue reading »
As every alumni of children's chapel can attest, this vacation Bible school favorite is about the most fun you can have in church. Nelson (Coretta Scott
, Continue reading »
Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson
Sharon Robinson
The daughter of the baseball legend recalls the moment when she fully understood the courage it took for her father to break baseball’s color barrier. Jackie Robinson never learned to swim Continue reading »
While Nobel Medalist Wangari Maathai has been the subject of two earlier picture biographies (Jeanette Winter's Wangari's Trees of Peace
and Claire Continue reading »
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
Carole Boston Weatherford
In this gorgeous, poetic picture book, Weatherford (The Sound that Jazz Makes ) depicts Harriet Tubman's initial escape from slavery and her mission to lead others to freedom as divinely inspired, Continue reading »
A Nation's Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis
Matt de La Pena
Nelson's (Mama Miti) photographically realistic, luminescent oil paintings bring to life this lyrical tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis. Focusing on Louis's 1938 rematch against German Max Continue reading »
The creators of Brothers of the Knight here offer an inspirational story of a hopeful young ballet dancer who complains of her too-big feet and too-long legs: ""I was too big for the boys to pick up, Continue reading »
Salt in His Shoes: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream
Deloris Jordan
Michael Jordan's mother and sister team up for an inspirational story about this athlete's earliest on-court efforts. Nelson (Big Jabe) is also a strong player here; he contributes animated art, Continue reading »
Folklore and history give an uncommonly rich patina to this freshly inspiring original tale set in slavery times. Readers will immediately recognize that Nolen (Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm) has set Continue reading »
The Twelve Dancing Princesses have nothin' on the 12 sons of Reverend Knight, a Harlem preacher. Narrating the tale in a chatty if somewhat rambling voice, the family dog, Happy, explains that this Continue reading »
Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans
As in We Are the Ship, Nelson knits together the nation's proudest moments with its most shameful, taking on the whole of African-American history, from Revolutionary-era slavery up to the election Continue reading »
There’s something exhilarating about viewing Nelson’s (Heart and Soul) paintings of Dr. King and the March on Washington while reading the words of the speech King gave that day; it’s hard to imagine Continue reading »
Nelson’s (I Have a Dream) large, luminous, and almost photographic paintings make this an extremely powerful picture-book biography of South Africa’s first black president. The wordless cover alone Continue reading »
In a skillfully crafted story about the literal and allegorical fruits of the seeds we plant, Nelson (Baby Bear) introduces a group of animals whose farmyard garden becomes a source of food, strife, Continue reading »
Nelson’s (If You Plant a Seed) dazzling paintings bring life and power to Naberhaus’s (Boom Boom) understated patriotic tribute. Several spreads place dramatic American scenery Continue reading »
Kadir Nelson is at an enviable point in a brilliant career. Two-time Caldecott Honoree, he is the go-to illustrator for an array of Hollywood stars with picture book Continue reading »
The Fairy Tale Fan Club: Legendary Letters Collected by C.C. Cecily (The Fairy Tale Fan Club #1)
Richard Ayoade
In a comical introduction, C.C. Cecily, Senior Secretary of the Fairy Tale Fan Club, describes at length fielding “Where are they now?”–type queries from curious humans to fairy Continue reading »
This strangely moving, legend-like story told in two parts starts with Laki, a very old, blue, hulking creature, whose world is upended when small, child-like, orange Hekla Continue reading »
The Hill: Inside the Secret World of the U.S. Capitol
Kate Andersen Brower
Taking up more than 1.5 million square feet and boasting more than 600 rooms, plus its own subway system, barbershop, and dining options, the U.S. Capitol proves a fascinating Continue reading »
A 17-year-old learns a devastating secret regarding her insular hometown in this Ray Bradbury–esque paranormal
fantasy from Thomas (Seton Girls). In Streetlight, the Have-Nots Continue reading »