Carole Boston Weatherford, Author , illus. by Kadir Nelson. Hyperion/Jump at the Sun $15.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-7868-5175-1
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, and achieved by steadfast faith and prayer. The...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, Eric Velasquez, Illustrator Walker & Company $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8027-8720-0
Molding her rhymed text to the rhythms and cadences of ""This Is the House That Jack Built,"" Weatherford (Juneteenth Jamboree) distills an entire course in music history, tracing the roots of jazz back to its origins in Africa and up to its current
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, Eric Velasquez, Illustrator , illus. by Eric Velasquez. Walker $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8027-9550-2
Weatherford (Moses
) addresses her poetic tribute to Jesse Owens's remarkable performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics to the athlete himself: "Go from cotton fields to city sidewalks,/ from sickly child to keen competitor,/ from second-class
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, Eric Velasquez, Illustrator , illus. by Eric Velasquez. Walker $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8027-9688-2
Tough-minded and poetic, this biographical sketch draws much of its power from what it leaves unsaid, obliging readers to align themselves closely with the narrator. The speaker is Matthew Henson, who joined Robert Peary in planting the flag on the...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, Amy Bates, Illustrator , illus. by Amy Bates. Marshall Cavendish $16.99 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7614-5636-0
After citing previous presidential promises, such as when Kennedy promised to land a man on the moon, Weatherford (Racing Against the Odds
) moves on to Barack Obama's promise to his daughters that they can get a puppy. While their father...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by James E. Ransome. Bloomsbury, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-8027-2368-0
Weatherford (In Your Hands) and Ransome (The Nutcracker in Harlem) show readers how lessons from the life of Martin Luther King Jr., translated into simple maxims, remain relevant. Alternating between decisive moments in King’s life and a...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Brian Pinkney. Atheneum, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4814-6293-8
A mother dreams about the future as she cuddles her newborn son, Omari. The next few years will be defined by an intense physical connection—“I kiss your scrapes and scratches/ and wipe your occasional tears,” writes Weatherford (Freedom in Congo...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Elizabeth Zunon. Atheneum, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4814-6824-4
Weatherford (Freedom in Congo Square) and Zunon (Don’t Call Me Grandma) vibrantly capture the setbacks and triumphs of African-American performer Lena Horne, tracing her rise from a Brooklyn childhood to a singer and actress who faced persistent...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Raul Colón. Knopf, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-375-85606-8
Weatherford and Colón create a rapturously described, evocatively illustrated account of the life of groundbreaking African-American opera singer Leontyne Price. Her musical path began in the segregated South where, as a child, she was inspired by...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Jamey Christoph. Albert Whitman, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8075-3017-7
Weatherford’s (Leontyne Price: Voice of a Century) spare, lyrically formatted prose combines with Christoph’s (the Origami Science Adventures series) stylized illustrations to tell the story of 20th-century African-American Renaissance man Gordon...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Jeffery Boston Weatherford. S&S/Atheneum, $16.99 (96p) ISBN 978-1-4814-4938-0
Weatherford (Voice of Freedom) again wields the power of poetry to tell a gripping historical story, reinforced by dramatically shaded scratchboard illustrations by her son, making a notable debut. Gentle yet stirring, Weatherford’s 40-plus free-vers
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Sarah Green. Albert Whitman, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8075-1699-7
Dorothea Lange was always drawn to photography, but it wasn’t until the Great Depression that she became inspired to tell human stories through her camera. Weatherford (Freedom in Congo Square) writes eloquently of Lange’s creative drive and...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, R. Gregory Christie, Illustrator , illus. by R. Gregory Christie. Scholastic $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-439-49522-6
Written in verse, this moving story narrated by a 10-year-old African-American girl in 1921 in the rural South follows a community's efforts to build a desperately needed school. Weatherford (The Sound That Jazz Makes
) takes her inspiration for
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by R. Gregory Christie. Albert Whitman, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8075-7650-2
Christie’s handsome paintings of Harlem’s Sugar Hill neighborhood bring warmth to Weatherford’s catalogue of the African-American artists who lived there in the 1920s and ’30s. Weatherford’s bouncy verse establishes a backbeat (“Sugar Hill, Sugar...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by R. Gregory Christie. Bonnier/Little Bee (S&S, dist.), $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4998-0103-3
Located in what is now the Treme neighborhood, Congo Square was the one place where the slaves and free blacks of New Orleans were allowed to gather on Sundays, a legally mandated day of rest. There they could reconnect with the dance and music of...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, Eric A. Velasquez, Illustrator , illus. by Eric A. Velasquez. Marshall Cavendish $17.99 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7614-5465-6
In this stirring biography of Scott, the only black race car driver to win a NASCAR race, Velasquez’s expressive pastels showcase the driver’s determination and resourcefulness as he “quit school and drove a cab to put his sister...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, London Ladd, Illustrator , illus. by London Ladd. Marshall Cavendish $17.99 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7614-5632-2
Written in punchy, fragmentary sentences, Weatherford's (Racing Against the Odds
) profile of Oprah Winfrey's preschool years underscores the values and ambition that fueled her success. Living with her grandparents in a rundown...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, Leonard Jenkins, Illustrator , illus. by Leonard Jenkins. Dial $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-2987-2
Weatherford (Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins
) again bases her tale on a true incident of prejudice in mid-20th century America. As the summer of 1955 begins, the young African-American narrator cheerfully observes, "All my baseball...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, Jerome Lagarrigue, Illustrator , illus. by Jerome Lagarrigue. Dial $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-2860-8
Weatherford (Remember the Bridge
) offers a fresh and affecting interpretation of a pivotal event in the civil rights movement. In 1960, four young black men sat down at a segregated Greensboro, N.C., Woolworth lunch counter and asked to be served,...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, Semadar Megged, Designed by . Philomel $17.99 (53p) ISBN 978-0-399-23726-3
This strikingly designed volume, originally begun as a graduate school photo-essay project, traces 400 years of African-American history by pairing Weatherford's (The Sound that Jazz Makes) poetry with period photographs and engravings. The...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, Yvonne Buchanan, Illustrator Lee & Low Books $14.95 (0p) ISBN 978-1-880000-18-2
Starring a likable girl named Cassandra, Weatherford's debut introduces readers to Juneteenth, which commemorates the events of June 19, 1865. On that day Texas slaves learned about their emancipation-an astonishing two and a half years after...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, Author, Dimitrea Tokunbo, Illustrator Boyds Mills Press $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-56397-084-9
Carol Boston Weatherford observes the urban scene through the eyes of a child in Sidewalk Chalk: Poems of the City, illus. by Dimitrea Tokunbo, a collection of 20 original works. On the street where ""dreams take root/ in concrete"" readers watch
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Eric Velasquez. Candlewick, $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-7636-8046-6
In graceful free verse, Weatherford delivers a remarkable tribute to Arturo Schomburg, the Afro-Puerto Rican historian, collector, and activist who unearthed the hidden history and achievements of “Africa’s sons and daughters.” In addition to...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Jeffery Boston Weatherford. Atheneum, $18.99 (208p) ISBN 978-1-6659-1362-1
The Weatherfords—a mother-son duo—pay tribute to their enslaved ancestors’ pain and resilience across generations in this moving collection of illustrated poems, inspired by Alex Haley’s Roots. Hoping to learn more about her family history, the...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Frank Morrison. Atheneum, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4814-7206-7
Morrison’s vibrant, sometimes haunting oil paintings join Weatherford’s spare, rhyming couplets to delineate the birth and reach of the famed hymn “Amazing Grace.” Dynamic spreads highlight the life of Reverend John Newton, the Englishman who penned
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Frank Morrison. Crown, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-593-30634-5
Beginning with images of chattel slavery and ending with spreads showing Black luminaries, the creators offer an absorbing rendition of the legendary spiritual: a legacy in song and portraiture that depicts Black Americans’ achievements across an...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Frank Morrison. Candlewick, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-536-21554-0
In this thoughtfully conceived picture book, Boston Weatherford centers MacNolia Cox (1923–1976), who achieved celebrity status in 1936 after becoming the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee, thus qualifying for the National...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Bryan Collier. Atheneum, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-5344-2636-8
Born in the rural South and hired out to farmers at age seven, Charles Albert Tindley (1851–1933) had a thirst for learning. He learned to read from newspaper fragments and walked miles to church, where reading was celebrated: “As I read the Bible...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Floyd Cooper. Carolrhoda, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5415-8120-3
Without glossing over important facts, Weatherford (Dreams for a Daughter) tells the historical events of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in language appropriate for young readers. Rhythmic free verse text highlights a thriving community in segregated...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by E.B. Lewis. Astra, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-63592-387-2
Boston Weatherford’s affectionate letter from the cradle of humankind begins, “I am the mother of all humanity,/ I have a long history and a longer memory./ Most of all, I remember you,/ my offspring of all colors/ in all corners of the earth.”...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Michele Wood. Candlewick, $17.99 (56p) ISBN 978-0-7636-9156-1
A powerful assortment of colors, textures, and artistic styles illustrate this true story of how Henry “Box” Brown escaped enslavement in 1849 via a harrowing journey inside a sealed crate. “Inside/ One/ Box/ To/ Flee/ Another,” explains one of the...
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Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, illus. by Byron McCray. Holt, $19.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-250-77950-2
Boston Weatherford and Sanders detail the often unsung contributions of Bayard Rustin (1912–1987) to the civil rights movement in this picture book biography, which alternates his life story with pivotal scenes leading up to the 1963 March on...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Ashley Evans. Crown, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-059-365016-5
Exemplifying how “whatever she did, wherever she was, Ketanji Brown Jackson rose to the top,” Boston Weatherford starts each spread of this high-level biography with a nod to Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise”—the poem that Brown Jackson (b. 1970) quoted
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Khalif Tahir Johnson. Quill Tree, $19.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-06-291103-2
“How do you tell a story?” begins this thoughtful tribute to writer Toni Morrison (1931–2019), born Chloe Ardelia Wofford. Starting with Morrison’s family’s move north as part of the Great Migration, Boston Weatherford (Kin) highlights the child’s...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Frank Morrison. Little Bee, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4998-0411-9
With short, rhyming lines and dramatic portraits of performers, the creative team behind How Sweet the Sound: The Story of Amazing Grace offers a dynamic introduction to hip-hop. “I was not raised on rap, but I was rooted in the African American...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Chris Hsu. Little Bee, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4998-1189-6
Weatherford’s picture book biography of groundbreaking stateswoman Nancy Pelosi recounts how her upbringing and family life informed her career priorities. The succinct narrative highlights Pelosi’s childhood in a religious and political Italian...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Jeffery Boston Weatherford. Millbrook, $19.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5415-6040-6
In this stirring profile, the mother-son author-illustrator team center Mary Lucille Hamilton (1935–2002), a Black civil rights activist and educator whose 1964 Supreme Court case, Hamilton v. Alabama, ensured that people of color would be addressed
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Frank Morrison. Atheneum, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-5344-5228-2
Riffing on the memorably sung spelling of Franklin’s hit “Respect,” each spread of this picture book biography pairs a single word with a rhyming couplet to trace the sweep of Franklin’s life: “T-A-L-E-N-T/ Young Aretha’s solos soar with artistry./...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Brian Pinkney. Atheneum, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5344-5198-8
“As I cradle you, look in your eyes,/ the ancestors peer back at me./ Your gaze says softly,/ I want to know everything.” A Black mother follows her maturing daughter from infanthood in Weather-
ford’s (Unspeakable) heartfelt lines. The parent...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Laura Freeman. Random House Studio, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-593-30650-5
Interspersing direct quotations throughout, Weatherford offers a thoughtful biography of Black civil rights advocate and congressman Elijah Cummings (1951–2019), who represented Maryland’s seventh congressional district from 1996 until his death....
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Eric Velasquez. Candlewick, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-5362-1297-6
In comprehensive first-person free verse and oil portraiture, Boston Weatherford and Velasquez reverently draw the life of multifaceted performer, athlete, and activist Paul Robeson (1898–1976) via four acts: Youth, Artist, Activist, Erased....
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Reggie Brown. Candlewick, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-536-22041-4
Using spare rhyming lines, Boston Weatherford pens an engaging, affirmation-filled ode in this communally focused picture book inspired by the #BlackBoyJoy meme. As the pages open with a rising sun (“Bros glow”), a child and a dog walk to a...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Ekua Holmes. Candlewick, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-763-69794-5
Boston Weatherford (Bros) pens a lyrical ode dedicated to the CROWN Act movement in this visually stunning celebration of African hair and heritage. The work begins, per back matter, with a reference to Black women holding the titles of five beauty...
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Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Edwin Fotheringham. Calkins Creek, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-6626-8041-0
Vollis Simpson (1919–2013) grew up on a North Carolina farm “fixing things before he could read,” writes Boston Weatherford. When an injury in his 60s forced him to close his successful machine-repair shop, he was as “bored as a two-by-four,” until...
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Mavis Staples and Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Steffi Walthall. Rocky Pond, $19.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-593-62469-2
Staples and Boston Weatherford collaborate to recount the extraordinary musical life of Mavis Staples (b. 1939). Raised in a strict household rooted in faith, Staples began singing gospel music alongside family at her uncle’s church. Pages that...
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