So Many Years: A Juneteenth Story

“How would you dress/ after so many years/ of mending your clothes with rags?” begins Wynter in this affecting, question-oriented look at Juneteenth’s past and present. As the queries continue (“How would you sing/ after so many years/ of writing your songs in code?” and “How would you eat/ after so many years/ of making your meals from scraps?”), Caldecott Honoree Pumphrey alternates images of enslaved people with scenes of Juneteenth festivities across the years. Thickly stroked acrylic-on-hardboard illustrations incorporate lyrics from spirituals alongside glimpses of a larger-than-life figure interacting with and sometimes holding the scenes in their hands. And as the pages turn, the questions are answered with aptly exclamatory lines: “Oh, how you would dress!// Oh, how you would sing!// Oh, how you would eat!” It’s a moving tribute that converses with history’s resonances while moving forward in time. A contextualizing note and lyrics to “Lift Every Voice and Sing” conclude. Ages 4–8. (May)