SOUL STEP

In this collaboration from mother-daughter team Rhodes and McWilliams, a Black girl learns about step dancing.

The young narrator and her mom live in a neighborhood where “not many people look like us.” Mama’s disheartened when she’s racially profiled by police, but she channels her pain into steppin’. What’s that? A series of family friends fill the child in. One of Mama’s sorority sisters, Dr. Jameson, tells her that step is rooted in the history of slavery, but it really took off when Black college students formed their own fraternities and sororities. Aunt Sharifa confides that for her, step was both a way to find solace as a bullied child and to celebrate big wins. Miss Mae, a community organizer, tells the child that step is “a megaphone for resistance.” Above all, the protagonist realizes, step is an expression of strength and solidarity in difficult times. The tale ends with the child joining a step team and finding her own sisterhood. Rhodes and McWilliams have crafted a lively, rhythmic narrative, punctuated by onomatopoeia, that will have readers chanting along: “STOMP, CLAP, FLIP, FLAP, GO HARD, SNAP BACK!” Fluid illustrations accompany the text, which balances the heartache Black women and girls face with the triumph of sisterhood. Backmatter offers more information on step’s origins and continuing influence.

A joyful tribute to the ways in which Black women use culture and connection to both survive and thrive.