This month we celebrate the triumphs and remember the struggles of the Black community. Using the past as inspiration and the present as a springboard, children’s authors commemorate historical heroes and their contributions toward the fight for racial equality. We’ve gathered a selection of recent fiction and nonfiction titles, including the story of a woman who served mouth-watering food with a side of justice; a little-known Tennessee town’s movement to vote; an exploration of race and recent events in America; and more.
Picture Books and Biographies
Tracey Baptiste, illus. by Tonya Engel. Dial, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-593-32640-4. Ages 6–8.
When 15-year-old Claudette Colvin boarded a segregated bus on March 2, 1955, she had no idea she was about to make history. This picture book biography pays tribute to her pivotal role in the civil rights movement. The book received a starred review from PW.
The Faith of Elijah Cummings: The North Star of Equal Justice
Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Laura Freeman. Random House Studio, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-593-30650-5. Ages 6–9.
Best known as a voice for people of color and an advocate for equal opportunity, Elijah Cummings was a warrior for equality and change. Weatherford and Freeman introduce this politician and civil rights champion, detailing his inspiring story. The book received a starred review from PW.
Adrea Theodore, illus. by Erin K. Robinson. Holiday House/Porter, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-4257-7. Ages 4–8.
Life can be hard for the only brown girl in a classroom full of white students. When the teacher talks about slavery or the civil rights, she can feel her classmate’s looking and hear the whispers about her on the playground. She wonders, is that all you see when you look at me?
Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth: Educator, Feminist, and Anti-Lynching Civil Rights Leader
Michelle Duster, illus. by Laura Freeman. Holt/Godwin, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-250-23946-4. Ages 4–8.
Wells challenged the racist and sexist norms of the late 19th and early 20th centuries through her writing and speaking. Faced with criticism and threats to her life, she never gave up. This true story is told by her great-granddaughter, Michelle Duster, who has been recognized for her activism and fight for contemporary racial justice.
Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth
Alice Faye Duncan, illus. by Keturah A. Bobo. Thomas Nelson, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4002-3125-6. Ages 4–8.
Every year, Opal looked forward to the Juneteenth picnic. She knew from Granddaddy Zak’s stories that Juneteenth celebrated the day that the news of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation finally reached Texas in 1865. But Opal didn’t always see freedom in her Texas town. Then one Juneteenth day, an angry crowd burned down her brand-new home. Could Opal bring about national recognition of Juneteenth?
Seeking Freedom: The Untold Story of Fortress Monroe and the Ending of Slavery in America
Selene Castrovilla, illus. by E.B. Lewis. Calkins Creek, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-63592-582-1. Ages 7–10.
On the night that Virginia secedes from the Union, three enslaved men approach Fortress Monroe. Knowing that Virginia’s secession meant they would be separated from their families and sent farther south to work for the Confederacy, the men decided to plead for sanctuary. And they were in luck.
Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Mara Rockliff, illus. by R. Gregory Christie. Random House Studio, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5247-2064-3. Ages 4–8.
Georgia Gilmore was cooking when she heard the news that Rosa Parks had been arrested. The radio urged everyone to stay off city buses for one day in protest. Throughout what became a 13-month boycott, Gilmore served up her fried chicken, spicy collard greens, and sweet potato pie, eventually selling them to raise money to help the cause.
Yolanda Gladden, as told to Tamara Pizzoli, illus. by Keisha Morris. HarperCollins, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-301116-8. Ages 4–8.
This autobiographical picture book presents the untold story of an African American girl who lived during the shutdown of public schools in Farmville, Va., following the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The book received a starred review from PW.
Middle Grade
Evicted! The Struggle for the Right to Vote
Alice Faye Duncan, illus. by Charly Palmer. Calkins Creek, $18.99 (64p) ISBN 978-1-68437-979-8. Ages 9–12.
Duncan examines the little-known Tennessee’s Fayette County Tent City Movement in the late 1950s and reveals what is possible when people unite and fight for the right to vote. Conveyed through interconnected stories and told through the eyes of a child, this tale shines light on this forgotten history.
Segregated Skies: David Harris’s Trailblazing Journey to Rise Above Racial Barriers
Michael Cottman. National Geographic Kids, $18.99 (128p) ISBN 978-1-4263-7197-4. Ages 9-12.
After years of flying B-52 bombers in the U.S. Air Force, David Harris applied to be a pilot for commercial airliners, an opportunity no other African American before him had ever been afforded. After receiving rejection after rejection, he finally signed on with American Airlines in 1964. But this success was just the beginning of another uphill battle for equal treatment.
Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler
Ibi Zoboi. Dutton, $16.99 (128p) ISBN 978-0-399-18738-4. Ages 10 and up.
Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose. Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning civil rights movement, Butler experienced an American childhood that shaped her into a groundbreaking science-fiction storyteller.
When Winter Robeson Came
Brenda Woods. Penguin/Paulsen, $16.99 (176p) ISBN 978-1-5247-4158-7. Ages 10 and up.
When Eden’s cousin Winter comes for a visit, it turns out he’s not just there to sightsee. He wants to figure out what happened to his father, who disappeared 10 years earlier from the Watts area of L.A. The cousins set out to investigate together, and what they discover brings them joy—and heartache.
YA
Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin. Atheneum/Dlouhy, $19.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-5344-3946-7. Ages 12 and up.
Author Reynolds and artist Griffin, friends and previous collaborators, explore race and recent events in America through a poetic multimedia partnership told in three “breaths.” See our In Conversation with Reynolds and Griffin. The book received a starred review from PW.
Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor’s Life
Marilyn Nelson. Little, Brown/Ottaviano, $18.99 (128p) ISBN 978-0-316-29802-5. Ages 14 and up.
Savage was arguably the most influential American artist of the 1930s. A gifted sculptor, she was commissioned to create a portrait bust of W.E.B. Du Bois for the New York Public Library. After being denied an artists’ fellowship abroad on the basis of race, Savage worked to advance equal rights in the arts. This biography in verse received a starred review from PW.
