Young activists in search of role models will find much to admire in this tough, courageous woman.
A tribute to a tireless African American journalist and crusader for social justice.
Presenting her subject as a woman who learned the importance of doing “the right thing” from her parents and tallying her achievements up to the eve of World War I, Johnson mentions her anti-lynching campaign in passing but really focuses on her women’s suffrage work—and in particular her defiance of the racist stance taken by Alice Paul and the all-white National American Woman Suffrage Association. Quoting Paul’s “despicable” assertion that the planned Washington, D.C., march of 1913 “must have a white procession, or a Negro procession, or no procession at all,” the author heatedly comments that the Association “did not care about African American, Asian American, or Mexican American women. They were not concerned about Indigenous women, whose ancestors were the first to live on this land.” Nonetheless, once the march began, Wells stepped out of the crowd of spectators and “did the brave and bold and truthful thing” by joining her state’s contingent uninvited. The bold stare Wells directs out from the climactic final scene challenges viewers to realize that when it comes to gender and racial equality, there’s still work to be done.
Young activists in search of role models will find much to admire in this tough, courageous woman. (photos, timeline, source lists) (Picture-book biography. 6-9)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780316322478
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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