With Books and Bricks: How Booker T. Washington Built a School

Slade highlights Washington’s devotion to education by focusing on his role in the creation of a schoolhouse for black students in Tuskegee, Ala., which would eventually grow to become Tuskegee University. The construction process is arduous: digging for clay to bake bricks was difficult enough; thousands of bricks were ruined when two kilns Washington built broke. Squirrely pencil lines and milky watercolors lend an ephemeral quality to Tadgell’s art. The focus on the hard work at the heart of accomplishment makes this story especially rewarding and relatable; a closing quote from Washington drives home the underlying message: “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life, as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” Ages 7–10. Illustrator’s agent: Christina A. Tugeau. (Sept.)