In 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson pushed for one week in February to become Negro History Week to “inspire exploration and study of important African-Americans.”
Nowadays, Black History Month is a celebration that inspires a range books about heroes and heroines who serve as the kinds of models Woodson wanted the world to know about.
FICTION
Two picture book heroines from long ago provide strong examples for today's children.
In “Most Loved in All the World” (Houghton, ages 8-10) by Tonya Cherie Hegamin we meet an unnamed slave girl who lovingly rubs salve into her mother's hands cut by field work and watches her Mama sew pieces of material that have been “handed down from the Big House.” We see through her innocent eyes and know the child has no idea her mother is working on a quilt to guide others to freedom. But readers will be surprised by the startling and tender climax as the mother sends her “most loved in all the world” child off to escape with others. Illustrator Cozbi Cabrera blends cloth-collaged quilt patches with pastels to convey time, place and feelings.
Patricia C. McKissack's Coretta Scott King Award winner “Goin' Someplace Special” (Aladdin, ages 8-10), originally published in 2001, is based on the author's memories of Nashville in 1950. Graced by Jerry Pinkney's realistic watercolors, which capture sights, sounds and emotions, the story follows little Tricia Ann as she travels through a Jim Crow city to “someplace special.” Her excitement and pride erode as she encounters various indignities. But her happiness is restored when she reads the sign at her destination: “Public Library: All Are Welcome.”
THE ARTS
Two new books celebrate the poetry of Langston Hughes.
In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (Disney, ages 5-up), E.B. Lewis interprets the depth of rivers and poetic meaning with his sensitive, perceptive watercolor paintings of places and people evoked so powerfully by Hughes' somber, sonorous 10 lines.
Charles Smith Jr.'s photography illustrates Hughes' poem “My People” (Atheneum, ages 4-up). Embracing Hughes' intention to celebrate African-Americans, Smith assembles striking portraits of people of “differing shades and ages” with “skin color as bright as the sun and as dark as the night.” Black backgrounds accentuate details and expressions, from poignant wrinkles of an aged face to the crinkle-eyed excitement of young children.
Tree-time Coretta Scott King Award winner Ashley Bryan's photo-filled autobiography memorializes life, art and nature. The cover of “Ashley Bryan: Words to My Life's Song” (Atheneum, ages 7-10) shows the author-artist with his arms spread wide, as if he is opening up his world to readers. Indeed he is. Luxuriant double-page spreads portray his current life on Little Cranberry Island, Maine, his past, and the many forms of art he has discovered along the way. The book is vivid, his words clear and evocative, and his varied art vibrant and stirring.
EXLPORATION
“Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-Discoverer of the North Pole” by Deborah Hopkinson and Stephen Alcorn (Peachtree, ages 7-10) blends image and word to recall a man who displayed perseverance, courage and kindness as he trekked through hostile environments. In verselike blocks of text, Hopkinson explains that Henson grew up “in a time when poor black boys like him had few chances to roam the next county, to say nothing of another country, the seven seas or the top of the world.” As our hero heads to the pole, Alcorn's illustration capture his awe, showing the explorer following a golden path and stars and standing under a sunset orb in the white Inuit world.
POLITICS & SOCIAL JUSTICE
Three recent books dramatically describe poignant heroes of the Civil Rights era.
In “Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation” (Greenwillow, ages 7-10), the wife and husband team of Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney mingle history and music to tell the story of the Montgomery bus boycott. Using the image of a bird, they tell how Jim Crow “strutted” up to Rosa Parks on the bus with a “peck, peck, peck” that echoes the bus driver's wagging finger. They show how black residents of Montgomery walked “with dogged feet. With dog-tired feet. With boycott feet. With Boycott blues” until Jim Crow's “bony wings started to ache. … His peck, peck, peck began to lose it's point” as segregation slowly crumbled. Wild whirls of Brian Pinkney's oppressive black lines that resemble crow feathers vanish and reveal the golden pride of those riding on the buses and blue skies of hope.
A book with a very long title — “As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel's Amazing March Toward Freedom” by Richard Michelson, illustrated by Raul Colon (Knopf, ages 8 and up) — tells the story of two people who grew up oceans apart but were inspired by parents who assured them “You are just as good as anybody!”
Striking parallels appear throughout. We see Abraham flee Poland after Hitler's “No Jews Allowed” signs start appearing; we watch young Martin become sickened by “Whites Only” signs in the South. When Martin's call for brotherhood comes, who better to answer than this compassionate rabbi who dedicated his life to the fight for equality and justice? Colon's pictures illustrate postures and faces that embody the resolve and bond of these two men who marched together is Selma, Ala., in 1965.
AND FOR THE FUTURE ...
"Yes We Can! A Salute to Children from President Obama's Victory Speech” (Scholastic, ages 5-10). Yes, the speech was stirring, but Obama's words swell in strength when paired with pictures of the President with children — children held on shoulders listening to him, a child fist bumping, babies in oversize Obama T-shirts and the President reaching out to hold the hands of children in crowds. Inspiring words and portraits speak to future leaders about what they might achieve.
