Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues: The Extraordinary Life of James Baldwin

“Home is brick brown,/ Harlem, uptown,/ trains rumbling by” begins this fittingly poetic biography of writer James Baldwin (1924–1987). Cast in neutral tones and lustrous blues and browns, Law’s art opens on Baldwin caring for younger siblings in a cramped Harlem apartment, where he reads all he can despite his preacher father’s objections. Though Baldwin faces bullying and prejudice from an early age, he finds support in those who believe in his abilities, and begins to write. Moving first to Greenwich Village, then to Paris, he works “to capture/ the voice of his ancestors, stand up for oppressed people,/ and push the world to change.” Incorporating hue-based lines to introduce narrative beats (“Paris is fog gray”), Meadows slowly unveils Baldwin’s many facets—burgeoning writer; activist; Black, queer icon—across an elegantly rendered work about a man “with compassion in his heart and a pen in his hand.” Back matter includes an author’s note. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)