Black History

Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky

Illus. in full color. Cassie, who flew above New York in Tar Beach, soars into the sky once more. This time, she and her brother Be Be meet a train full of people, and Be Be joins them. But the train departs before Cassie can climb aboard. With Harriet Tubman as her guide, Cassie retraces the steps escaping slaves took on the real Underground Railroad and is finally reunited with her brother at the story's end.

Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation: A Three-Dimensional Interactive Book with Photographs and Documents from the Black Holocaust Exhibit

Velma Maia Thomas, the developer of the Black Holocaust Exhibit, has written a passionate yet brief account of slavery in America. Lest We Forget is packaged to mimic a multimedia exhibit: pages fold out, pop up, and often contain three-dimensional objects, such as an envelope that opens to reveal a facsimile of a receipt for a slave named Francis. The production techniques may make Lest We Forget look like a children's book, but the text offers a serious, moving depiction of how slaves lived before emancipation.

I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina 1865 (Dear America Series)

The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales

Virginia Hamilton, Newbery Medal winner and recipient of the National Book Award and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, teams up with two-time Caldecott Medal winners, Leo and Diane Dillon, in this classic collection of American black folktales, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. By turns droll, grisly, and spine-tingling, the 24 stories celebrate the indomitable human spirit, surviving under the most crushing circumstances of slavery. Traditionally, storytelling has helped people to push through sorrow and pain, especially when the stories are saturated with magic, mysticism, and fantasy. Bruh Rabbit, He Lion, Tar Baby, and other animals populate many of the stories. In others, John, the traditional trickster hero, outwits the slave owner time after time to win his freedom.

Included with this very special edition is a CD featuring the commanding voices of Hamilton and actor James Earl Jones. Eleven selections, including "The Peculiar Such Thing," "John and the Devil's Daughter," "A Wolf and Little Daughter," and "The People Could Fly," bring to life the rhythm and lyrical energy of Hamilton's text. Leo and Diane Dillon's strikingly beautiful black and white illustrations continue to mesmerize and haunt the reader. (All ages) --Emilie Coulter

"The well-known author retells 24 black American folk tales in sure storytelling voice: animal tales, supernatural tales, fanciful and cautionary tales, and slave tales of freedom. All are beautifully readable. With the added attraction of 40 wonderfully expressive paintings by the Dillons, this collection should be snapped up."--(starred) School Library Journal.  

Harriet and the Promised Land

The Civil Rights Freedom Train

Chester Comix brings history to reluctant readers! In this full-color graphic novel you will find exciting biographies of Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thurgood Marshall. A timeline across every page helps students place people and events in context. Each book can be a literacy tool (the titles across the top of each page are questions, which make great writing prompts for students) or a research source (each book has an index).

Soul Looks Back in Wonder

From Slave Ship to Freedom Road

Slavery is a difficult concept to address with children, especially because many adults would prefer to forget that period of American history. In From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, award-winning author Julius Lester takes older children (and adults) on an intense, personal journey through the slave experience. As he gently explains the factual horrors of slave-ship conditions, auction blocks, plantation life, and the risks associated with escape, Lester consistently prods young readers with probing questions: "How would I feel if that happened to me?" "Would you risk going to jail to help someone you didn't know?" "You are free, but are you?" Lester also asks us to imagine the voices and feelings of the African Americans in the illustrations--another brilliant call for active participation.

Rod Brown's paintings are achingly vivid, so much so that a few may be too powerful for younger children. Certain depictions are difficult even for adults to bear: a lynched man with the bloody blows of a whip marking his back; slaves stacked seven-high in the hold of a ship, packed onto shelves with less room than the drawers of a morgue; and black bodies bobbing in the ocean. These are horrible images, but nonetheless historically accurate and important to remember. Brown took seven years to create these startling images, and his careful attention is reflected in the paintings' power and emotion. Children may be initially startled by From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, but they will also be engaged and enlightened. (Ages 10 to 13)

With twenty-four magnificent paintings and a profoundly moving text, Rod Brown and Julius Lester depict the course of slavery, beginning with the ships sailing from Africa on the notorious Middle Passage and continuing through the Civil War. Julius Lester brilliantly interprets Rod Brown's powerful paintings, giving weight to both the historical facts and the emotions of the people. Invoking the memories of ancestors whose names they do not know, Mr. Lester and Mr. Brown show the kidnappings, auctions, and whippings. Equally important, they reveal the inner life of the slaves expressed in their secret worship meetings, their heroic escapes, and their joy--tinged with apprehension--about freedom. From Slave Ship to Freedom Road is a work of major importance.

Richard Wright and the Library Card (Richard Wright & the Library Card)

Richard Wright, African American author of Black Boy and Native Son, grew up in the segregated South of the 1920s. His formal education ended after he completed the ninth grade, but gaining access to the public library with the help of a white coworker opened up a new world of books for him, eventually inspiring him to become a writer. Richard Wright and the Library Card is a fictionalized account of this powerful story, deftly adapted by William Miller from a scene in Black Boy.

Miller--a professor of African American literature and author of the critically acclaimed Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery, A House by the River, and Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree-- masterfully builds suspense, as readers wonder how the young African American will quench his thirst for books without being busted by the local white librarian. Wright's story is perfectly complemented by the work of Gregory Christie, winner of the 1997 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award for Palm of My Heart. (Ages 5 to 9)

As a boy in the segregated South, author Richard Wright was determined to borrow books from the public library. His story vividly illustrates the power of determination in making a dream into reality.

The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children

When children give voice to their own feelings, the result can be magical. This touching and inspiring collection of poems by African-American children helps prove that point. Edited by Davida Adedjouma and lovingly illustrated by Gregory Christie, these 20 poems came out of a series of writing workshops with children who were encouraged to celebrate their lives, joys, influences and hopes. The results are pure poetry, honest, wise and encouraging: "Black is the color of some people/but people are different/differences are good because/no one else says the/same things as you." Not only will children find the poems interesting, they may just be inspired to explore their own feelings. All ages.