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Picture books interpret Black History for young readers
REVIEWS BY ROBIN SMITH Sometimes it is a challenge to figure out how to share the difficult history of slavery and prejudice with children. Parents and teachers searching for a solution will find these books a good starting point.
By Angela Johnson Simon & Schuster, $16.99 32 pages ISBN 9780689848797
Paths to freedom
By Ellen Levine and Illustrated by Kadir Nelson Scholastic, $16.99 40 pages ISBN 9780439777339
By Margot Theis Raven and E.B. Lewis Farrar, Straus, $16 40 pages ISBN 9780374312664
Leading the fight
By Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson, Illustrated by Benny Andrews Lee & Low, $17.95 40 pages ISBN 9781584302506
Robin Smith is a teacher in Nashville.
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"Great-great-uncle was a wind flyer. A smooth wind flyer, a Tuskegee wind flyer." The first words of Wind Flyers soar off the page just like Uncle soared from the side of a barn when he was seven years old. Whether you already know the long, storied history of the Tuskegee airmen or are just learning about them, this new book by Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Angela Johnson brings to life the struggles faced by African-American servicemen in World War II. But Johnson's book is more than a history book—it is also a celebration of the joy of flight and following one's passion, even when the rest of the world would keep you from it. Artist Loren Long's graceful acrylics beautifully illustrate the heartache of longing and the joy of success. Perhaps a whole new generation of readers will now discover the moving story of the Tuskegee airmen and the importance of following a dream.
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A few years ago, I was talking with a writer who asked what stories I, as a second-grade teacher, wanted for my students. I told her my students loved stories about lesser-known figures in history, the "brave ordinary folks." Henry, of Henry's Freedom Box, is just the sort of person I had in mind. Henry "Box" Brown was one of the Underground Railroad's most famous runaways, but his story is an unfamiliar one for many modern students. Henry's Freedom Box, written by Ellen Levine and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, will change that. In 1849, a few months after his wife and children were sold away, Henry decided he was through with being a slave. Finding a large shipping crate, he came up with a plan to mail himself from Richmond, Virginia, to William Johnson, an abolitionist who lived in Philadelphia. Henry poured a bottle of oil of vitriol on his hand, causing an injury that meant he could not work for his master and, with the help of sympathetic white men, traveled 350 miles during 27 hours inside the box. Nelson's prodigious talent imagines what Henry must have endured while crammed inside the box and how he looked after the ordeal. Never shying away from the horrors of slavery, Levine's text dramatically portrays the pull of freedom.
Margot Theis Raven and E.B. Lewis team up again in the beautiful and evocative Night Boat to Freedom. Inspired by the WPA's Slave Narrative Collection, Raven brings us the story of Granny Judith and her grandson, Christmas John. In their previous collaboration, Circle Unbroken, Raven and Lewis told the history of the basket weavers and rice growers of South Carolina, so it is interesting that Grandma Judith's passion is another craft: fiber. She spins and dyes thread and wool. It was her love for color and fiber that led to her capture by slavers: She was lured by a beautiful piece of crimson flannel. And it is her love of color and fiber that keeps her spirits up and leads to her own escape from slavery. When 12-year-old John is asked by his grandmother to row across the river from Kentucky to Ohio to meet a man who is sheltering slaves, he is terrified. But, his grandmother's determination and the look on the face of the young slave Molly sustain John as he rows into the night, toward the lighthouse and the ringing bell. Black, blue and gray are the colors of the night, and Lewis' palette conveys the darkness and sense of fear perfectly. Molly is just the first of many slaves that John rows to freedom. All the while, Grandma Judith works on a patchwork quilt commemorating the freed slaves and, on the night of John's last trip, she adds red, the color she wants him to wear to free himself. Can he leave her behind? Of course not, and in a glorious celebration, Lewis paints the triumphant woman, exulting in her quilt and its colors of freedom, on free soil at last. Night Boat to Freedom is an emotional tribute to the strength and bravery of the many who worked and traveled the Underground Railroad.
For all the books about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks in publication for children, there are precious few books about other major players in the struggle for civil rights. John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement, written by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson and illustrated by Benny Andrews, introduces young readers to Lewis, born into an Alabama sharecropping family and, since 1986, a U.S. representative from Georgia. What lifts this book from simply being a tribute to a civil rights leader is the extensive timeline and the distinctive illustrations by the late Benny Andrews. In oil and fabric collages we see ordinary white folks taking a bat to Lewis' head and later, to illustrate the 1965 riot on Bloody Sunday, Andrews uses perspective and silhouettes to show the reader the terror of the brave people who stood up to the authorities. The strong subject matter makes this a perfect picture book to share with older readers and adults who want to learn more about the history of race relations in this country and the power of individuals to fight for their rights and the rights of others.