Be the Light: How She Became Angela Davis
Daria Peoples. Greenwillow, $19.99 (56p) ISBN 978-0-06-320678-6
Peoples (Mama’s Library Summers) begins a forthright account of the life of activist Angela Davis (b. 1944) with young Davis and her parents moving from a welcoming Birmingham, Ala., neighborhood to another, “Dynamite Hill,” where Black families are met with hostility: an image shows white-robed figures carrying torches as “bombs exploded.” In the face of segregation and violence, Davis is happiest in the countryside, where she chases chickens and rides horses, scenes relayed in sensate lines. Following her grandmother’s death, Davis gains “a special power: the ability to see a new world in the future.” This skill carries the figure forward, through her career as a college professor, where she passes it to her students, and then into her activism. When she’s arrested and incarcerated, Davis shares the ability with her fellow inmates, and when she’s acquitted, she weaves it throughout her work as an abolitionist. An absence of in-story context may at times lead to confusion for those not familiar with Davis’s life. Naif-style gouache artwork, meanwhile, features interacting figures against a dark expanse stippled with starlike dots. Background characters are portrayed with various abilities
and skin tones. Back matter includes an author’s note and visualization guide. Ages 4–8. Agent: Marietta B. Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (June)
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Reviewed on: 04/03/2025
Genre: Children's