Way Up and Over Everything

Way Up and Over Everything

Written by: Alice McGill
Illustrated by: Jude Daly

"This African American “flying” tale details the miraculous escape of five African slaves from Ol’ Man Deboreaux’s plantation. After a day of toil in the cotton fields, Jane, a 16-year-old slave, notices that the newly arrived Africans are nowhere to be found. When the vicious overseer and the plantation owner set out to find the fugitives, Jane bravely follows and witnesses the Africans taking to the air and soaring over the rolling countryside toward their home across the sea. Jane is warned not to repeat what she has seen, but repeat it she does, as this tale of transcendence and freedom is handed down from generation to generation, until it is finally related to readers by the story’s narrator, Jane’s great-great-granddaughter. Daly’s delicate and elongated figures, small in scale against the vast watercolor landscapes of the Georgia countryside, present a bird’s-eye view of the story and suggest the enormity of such an escape. McGill finishes with a note about the origins and variations of African American flying stories."

Booklist Review

Online Resources:
http://www.theteller.com/index.html

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave

Written by: Laban Carrick Hill
Illustrated by: Bryan Collier

Elementary Grades

**2011 Coretta Scott King Award**

"To us it is just dirt, the ground we walk on... But to Dave it was clay, the plain and basic stuff upon which he formed a life as a slave nearly 200 years ago.

Dave was an extraordinary artist, poet, and potter living in South Carolina in the 1800s. He combined his superb artistry with deeply observant poetry, carved onto his pots, transcending the limitations he faced as a slave. In this inspiring and lyrical portrayal, National Book Award nominee Laban Carrick Hill's elegantly simple text and award-winning artist Bryan Collier's resplendent, earth-toned illustrations tell Dave's story, a story rich in history, hope, and long-lasting beauty."

Publishers Description

Online Resources:
http://www.labanhill.com/dave_the_potter_53284.htm

The Buffalo Soldier

The Buffalo Soldier

Written by: Sherry Garland
Illustrated by: Ronald Himler

"This heartwarming story of a buffalo soldier’s service to his country during the Indian Wars and Spanish-American War reveals the many hardships these regiments faced. The African-American buffalo soldiers, nicknamed by the Cheyenne Indians because of their curly hair and bravery, joined the six black regiments commissioned by an act of Congress in 1866.

These men, many of whom were former slaves, enlisted in the army to earn a steady income, acquire an education, and gain respect. They protected settlers from hostile Indians, rustlers, outlaws, and bandits and were known for their courage and dedication.

Told through the soldier-narrator’s voice, the details of one buffalo soldier’s life, including what he ate, where he slept, the education he gained on and off the battlefield, and how he spent his hard-earned money, help create a personal and understandable slice of history."

Product Description

Online Resources:
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/rediscoveringamerica-buffalosoldiers/
http://blackhistory.50webs.com/buffalosoldiers.html

5,000 Miles to Freedom: Ellen and William Craft's Flight from Slavery

5,000 Miles to Freedom: Ellen and William Craft's Flight from Slavery

Written by: Dennis and Judith Fradin

"Both exciting escape adventure and gripping history, this account of a husband and wife on the run from slavery traces their journey to freedom in the U.S and across the world. Ellen is a light-skinned African American, daughter of the master who raped her mother. Disguised as a wealthy Southern gentleman, she escapes with her husband, William, disguised as her slave, and they travel by train and steamboat to freedom in Boston. When their astonishing story makes the fugitive couple famous, slave catchers come after them, so the Crafts leave for England, where they continue their abolitionist work, until their return home after the Civil War. The Fradins, whose many fine histories include Ida B. Wells (2000), draw heavily on the Crafts' personal accounts to add depth and drama to the carefully documented narrative. The handsome design includes lots of photos, archival artwork, letters, and newspaper accounts."

Booklist Review

Online Resources:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html

Martin's Big Words

Martin's Big Words

Written by: Doreen Rappoport
Illustrated by: Bryan Collier

Elementary Grades

"A brief biography of Dr. Martin Luther King uses memorable words from his speeches to highlight important moments in his life. Large type and arresting collages draw the reader’s attention to Dr. King’s powerful statements. Bryan Collier grabs the reader’s emotional attention with collages made from watercolor, torn paper, and photographic images. each illustration powerfully and passionately interprets the big words spoken by Dr. King. Beginning with the strong, striking cover portrait and stained glass end papers, he conveys a reverential feeling in his art, which causes the reader to pause and think about the meaning of Dr. King’s important words."

American Library Association Review

Awards:
Coretta Scott King Honor Book, 2002
Orbis Pictus Award Winner for Outstanding Nonfiction, 2002
Caldecott Honor Book, 2002

Web Resources:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=92

Freedom on the Menu

Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins

Written by: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by: Jerome LaGarrique

"Set in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960, this picture book tells a story of desegregation from the viewpoint of one little girl. Growing up in the South, Connie understands that there are places where she and other African Americans can and cannot eat, drink, swim, and use the bathroom. But after Dr. King visits the local college chapel to preach and her older siblings become active in the NAACP, she also knows that her people are working for change.

When her brother's friends sit down at a dime-store lunch counter that refuses them service, their act of peaceful protest starts a wave of similar demonstrations that brings better times to their community and throughout the South. An author's note gives background information about the events in Greensboro that year. Simple and straightforward, the first-person narrative relates events within the context of one close-knit family. Though rather dark, the well-composed, painterly illustrations show up well from a distance. A handsome book for classroom reading, even for middle-grade students."

Booklist Review

Web Resources:
http://www.caroleweatherford.com/freedom_lesson_plan.htm

A Negro League Scrapbook

A Negro League Scrapbook

Written by: Carole Boston Weatherford

"An engaging overview, richly augmented by archival photographs. Weatherford's text covers a great deal of ground, with a summation of the history of the Negro Leagues and sections on the pitchers, hitters, utility men, various teams, and so forth. Each topic is briefly covered on a spread of text with black-and-white photos and full-color realia designed to look like a scrapbook. Topics are introduced with a few lines of verse. Beginning with a thoughtful foreword by Buck O'Neil, the book is especially successful in conveying the significance of the Negro Leagues to the black community, and in detailing the realities of segregation."

School Library Journal Review

Web Resources:

http://www.caroleweatherford.com/baseball.htm
http://www.nlbpa.com/

Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys

Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys

Written by: Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard
Illustrated by: Earl B. Lewis

"The youngest and the only girl in a family with five boys, Virgie works hard to convince everyone she is old enough, strong enough, and smart enough to attend the school set up by the Quakers for recently freed blacks in Jonesborough, TN. By the end of summer, she has convinced her family that she can make the seven-mile walk to board at school each week and willingly handle the job of "learning to be free." The story is a superb tribute to the author's great aunt, the inspiration for this book. Howard crystallizes each of the family members, setting the protagonist snugly in the midst of annoying but loving brothers and wise parents. A note provides more information about the school and family in this story."

School Library Journal Review

Awards:
Coretta Scott King Honor Book, 2001

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Written and illustrated by: Kadir Nelson

"The story of Negro League baseball is the story of gifted athletes and determined owners; of racial discrimination and international sportsmanship; of fortunes won and lost; of triumphs and defeats on and off the field. It is a perfect mirror for the social and political history of black America in the first half of the twentieth century. But most of all, the story of the Negro Leagues is about hundreds of unsung heroes who overcame segregation, hatred, terrible conditions, and low pay to do the one thing they loved more than anything else in the world: play ball.

Using an "Everyman" player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through its decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. The voice is so authentic, you will feel as if you are sitting on dusty bleachers listening intently to the memories of a man who has known the great ballplayers of that time and shared their experiences. But what makes this book so outstanding are the dozens of full-page and double-page oil paintings--breathtaking in their perspectives, rich in emotion, and created with understanding and affection for these lost heroes of our national game."

Publisher Description

Awards:
Coretta Scott King Award, 2009
Texas Bluebonnet Nominee, 2009-2010

Web Resources:
http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/

Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom

Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom

Written by: Tim Tingle
Illustrated by: Jeanne Rorax Bridges

Elementary Grades

"Dramatic, quiet, and warming, this is a story of friendship across cultures in 1800s Mississippi. While searching for blackberries, Martha Tom, a young Choctaw, breaks her village's rules against crossing the Bok Chitto. She meets and becomes friends with the slaves on the plantation on the other side of the river, and later helps a family escape across it to freedom when they hear that the mother is to be sold. Tingle is a performing storyteller, and his text has the rhythm and grace of that oral tradition. It will be easily and effectively read aloud. The paintings are dark and solemn, and the artist has done a wonderful job of depicting all of the characters as individuals, with many of them looking out of the page right at readers. The layout is well designed for groups as the images are large and easily seen from a distance. There is a note on modern Choctaw culture, and one on the development of this particular work. This is a lovely story, beautifully illustrated, though the ending requires a somewhat large leap of the imagination."

School Library Journal Review

Awards:
Texas Bluebonnet Nominee, 2008-2009
American Indian Youth Literature Award, 2008

Web Resources:
www.cincopuntos.com/pdf/crossing_bok_chitto_guide.pdf
http://suzyred.com
/2008crossingbokchitto.html

Gabriel's Horses

Gabriel's Horses

Written by: Alison Hart

"On a Kentucky plantation during the Civil War, slave Gabriel Alexander, 12, cares for his master's thoroughbred racehorses and dreams of being a great jockey, just like his dad. After Pa enlists with the Yankees, the boy also yearns to be a soldier and fight for freedom. At the core of this stirring historical novel is the question of what freedom means. Runaway slaves and freemen join the Yankee army only to dig ditches and collect firewood for white soldiers. The boy's first-person, present-tense narrative brings close the thrilling horse racing––on the plantation, at the race course, and in the war––and the African American history in all its complexity."

Booklist Review

Awards:
Texas Bluebonnet Nominee, 2008-2009

Web Resources:
http://suzyred.com/2008gabrielshorses.html

Henry's Freedom Box

Henry's Freedom Box

Written by: Ellen Levine
Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson

"Inspired by an actual 1830s lithograph, this beautifully crafted picture book briefly relates the story of Henry "Box" Brown's daring escape from slavery. Torn from his mother as a child, and then forcibly separated from his wife and children as an adult, a heartsick and desperate Brown conspired with abolitionists and successfully traveled north to Philadelphia in a packing crate. His journey took just over one full day, during which he was often sideways or upside down in a wooden crate large enough to hold him, but small enough not to betray its contents. The story ends with a reimagining of the lithograph that inspired it, in which Henry Brown emerges from his unhappy confinement—in every sense of the word—and smiles upon his arrival in a comfortable Pennsylvania parlor."

School Library Journal Review

Web Resources:
http://www.readingtokids.org/Books/BookView.php?pag=3&bookID=00000590
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collateral.jsp?id=32442

Circle Unbroken

Circle Unbroken

Written by: Margot Theis Raven
Illustrated by: E.B. Lewis

"A book about the origins of the intricate technique and art of basket making as preserved by the Africans who were brought to America as slaves and their descendants. A grandmother guides her granddaughter's hands as she teaches her the art of basket sewing. When the child asks her how she came to make baskets, the woman's answer harkens back to a time when one of their ancestors, the child's "old-timey grandfather," is being initiated into manhood in a village in Africa. Part of the rite involves being able to make a grass basket woven or coiled so tightly that it can hold water. Soon after this event, the young man is captured, transported to America, and sold as a slave at an auction in Charleston, SC. During the day he works the fields, but by night he makes baskets, and this skill is passed down from one generation to the next.

Raven's text masterfully frames several hundred years of African-American history within the picture-book format. Lewis's double-page, watercolor images are poignant and perfectly matched to the text and mood. A section at the end of the book offers information about the "coil" or "Gullah" baskets, as they are known today, as well as the regions of Africa where this art form originated."

School Library Journal Review

Web Resources:
http://suzyred.com/2005circle.html

Talkin About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman

Talkin About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman

Written by: Nikki Grimes
Illustrated by: E.B. Lewis

"In a volume that looks like a picture book...Grimes offers a many-sided portrait of the first African-American aviatrix, Bessie Coleman...The speakers range from mother to sister to field hand to flight instructor to news reporter to preacher, but teller by teller, the story moves chronologically and builds emotionally to last entry, where Bessie speaks of the joy of flying...The verse reads aloud beautifully, making this book a good choice for readers' theater or for reading aloud in conjunction with the artwork, which shows up to good advantage from a distance. Although there have been other books about Coleman, this is a fine, original portrayal."

Booklist Starred Review

Web Resources:
http://www.nikkigrimes.com/teacher.html

Elijah of Buxton

Elijah of Buxton

Written by: Christopher Paul Curtis

"The first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit, Elijah is best known in his hometown as the boy who threw up on Frederick Douglass. (Not on purpose, of course — he was just a baby then!)

But things change when a former slave calling himself the Right Reverend Zephariah W. Connerly the Third steals money from Elijah's friend Mr. Leroy, who has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the south. Elijah joins Mr. Leroy on a dangerous journey to America in pursuit of the disreputable preacher, and he discovers firsthand the unimaginable horrors of the life his parents fled — a life from which he'll always be free, if he can find the courage to go back home."

Scholastic Press

Web Resources:
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collateral.jsp?id=31083_type=Book_typeId=4743

Jazz on a Saturday Night

Jazz on a Saturday Night

Written and Illustrated by: Leo and Diane Dillon

"Ladies and gents, what a jam this will be—/an evening of jazz immortality!" And how! John Coltrane and Charlie Parker on sax, Thelonious Monk on piano, vocals by Ella Fitzgerald, trumpet by Miles Davis, drums by Max Roach, Stanley Clarke on bass! The audience is captivated and carried along on "a river of melody sketched in dim light" in this rhythmic tribute to traditional jazz.

The spreads, graphic-styled paintings rendered in deep matte tones with a suggestion of collage, switch between stage and audience, with swirling background patterns portraying the flow of music. The growing excitement of this jazz extravaganza is perfectly complemented by the joyful rhyming text. A splendid read-aloud/listen-along multisensory title, Jazz is an interdisciplinary workhorse, perfect for music, art, movement, poetry, social studies, and language-arts classes."

School Library Journal Review

Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters

Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters

Written by: Patricia C. McKissack
Illustrated by: Andre Carrilho

"Like McKissack's award-winning The Dark Thirty (1992), the nine original tales in this uproarious collection draw on African American oral tradition and blend history and legend with sly humor, creepy horror, villainous characters, and wild farce. McKissack based the stories on those she heard as a child while sitting on her grandparents' porch; now she is passing them on to her grandchildren. Without using dialect, her intimate folk idiom celebrates the storytelling among friends, neighbors, and family as much as the stories themselves."

Booklist Review

Wind Flyers

Wind Flyers

Written by: Angela Johnson
Illustrated by: Loren Long

"In spare, poetic lines, a young African American boy introduces his great-great-uncle, who was a Tuskegee airman. His uncle's love for flying begins in boyhood, when he "catches air" in jumps from haylofts and takes his first rides in a "flying barnstormer." Later he becomes a Tuskegee wind flyer and serves in World War II, and his delight in piloting lasts his lifetime. Johnson introduces the history in oblique, pared-down words. Many children will need adult help to place the story in context, and they may want to talk about the story's references to war, including a scene of planes in combat. Long's acrylics beautifully extend the evocative words. Resembling WPA murals in clearly defined, rounded figures and realistic scenes, the artwork shows thrilling expanses of sky and gives a sense, in aerial views, of what it must feel like to touch clouds from an open aircraft. Pair this title with Lynn Homan and Thomas Reilly's The Tuskegee Airmen Story (2002)."

Booklist Review

Web Resources:
www.simonsays.com/assets/isbn/.../TGP01_068984879X.pdf
www.tuskegeeairmen.org

Ellington Was Not a Street

Ellington Was Not a Street

Written by: Ntozake Shange
Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson

"In a reflective tribute to the African-American community of old, noted poet Ntozake Shange recalls her childhood home and the close-knit group of innovators that often gathered there. These men of vision, brought to life in the majestic paintings of artist Kadir Nelson, lived at a time when the color of their skin dictated where they could live, what schools they could attend, and even where they could sit on a bus or in a movie theater.

Yet in the face of this tremendous adversity, these dedicated souls and others like them not only demonstrated the importance of Black culture in America, but also helped issue in a movement that "changed the world." Their lives and their works inspire us to this day, and serve as a guide to how we approach the challenges of tomorrow."

Publishers Synopsis

Web Resources:
teacher.scholastic.com/products/.../ellington_was_not_a_street.pdf

Bring Me Some Apples and I'll Make You a Pie: A Story About Edna Lewis

Bring Me Some Apples and I'll Make You a Pie: A Story About Edna Lewis

Written and Illustrated by: Robbin Gourley

"Edna Lewis, the granddaughter of an emancipated slave who founded Freetown, Virginia, grew up to become a famous chef of southern cuisine. Inspired by Lewis’ childhood, this debut children’s book by an artist and cookbook author celebrates the growing seasons and the irreplaceable pleasure of fresh food shared with family."

Booklist Review

Web Resources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/national/14lewis.html?_r=1