I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Carole Boston Weatherford in Roxbury, Massachusetts last year. I was struck by her quiet elegance and dignity. Her books reflect that too. Carole Boston Weatherford is on the left. Ekua Holmes is on the right. I didn’t realize how many #BlackHistoryMonth stories that would have remained largely untold…
Category: African American Children’s Books
Civil Rights Movement through Art and Books for Kids
Today, I wanted to look at the Civil Rights Movement told through art and children’s books. Both are powerful communication tools both to educate and as a means to connect with emotionally with what happened. Lillian’s Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by Jonah Winter & Shane W. Evans How…
Children’s Books Celebrating Natural African American Hair
You might recognize Furqan from our Multicultural Children’s Book Day poster! Robert Liu-Trujillo created the artwork for our event. When Rob gave us sketches for the poster, we didn’t know the boy in the flat top was a character in his book; he just appealed to us and we picked him right away! I’m thrilled…
Civil Rights Movement Book Giveaways! #BlackLivesMatter
I’ve been seeing tweets about the Tuskegee Airmen that have been passing away. NPR has an article on Roscoe Brown: Remembering Tuskegee Airman Roscoe Brown, Educator And Civil Rights Trailblazer. He recently passed away in July at age 94. I wouldn’t have noticed the tweets, had I not been fortunate to read Carole Boston Weatherford’s excellent novel…
Meeting Voices of Freedom: The Fannie Mae Hamer Author and Illustrator
It was an honor and a thrill to meet author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Ekua Holmes of Voices of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. Did you know that Voices of Freedom won: 2016 Caldecott Honor Book 2016 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book 2016 John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award…
African-American Female Musicians Picture Books
March is Women’s History Month so I’ve started off with a video of a musician that is new to me, Hazel Dorothy Scott, a jazz prodigy who was prominent during the 1930s and 1940s. I could not find a picture book biography on her (yet) but here’s hoping that someone will write out. In the…
Gordon Parks: Black History Month
Parks at the Civil Rights March on Washington, 1963 from Wikipedia I had seen a photography exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts last year and had taken a few photos of Gordon Parks photos because they seemed really important somehow. I knew nothing about Gordon Parks then. In researching female pioneering musicians, I came…