A spirited account of a life devoted to service.
A civil rights activist began her quest for justice as a child.
Growing up in segregated South Carolina, Marian Wright Edelman was admonished for drinking from a fountain meant for white people—an experience that left its mark on the then-4-year-old. Her hero, the abolitionist Sojourner Truth, once responded to a white man’s dismissive remarks (“Why I don’t care any more for your talk than I do for the bite of a flea”) with an equally determined retort (“Perhaps not, but Lord willing, I’ll keep you scratching”). Calling herself a “flea for justice,” Marian fought injustice any way she could: As a child, she switched the signs on segregated water fountains, and while in college, she participated in protests at restaurants that refused to serve African Americans. As the first Black female lawyer in Mississippi, she defended activists arrested for helping African Americans register to vote. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and, after he was killed, channeled her efforts into young people’s education, establishing the Children’s Defense Fund and Freedom Schools. Bolling writes in a lively, even playful tone, frequently posing questions to her young audience, returning often to the flea metaphor, and leaving readers with a final challenge: “What will you do to make someone scratch?” Close-ups of faces—Marian’s, Sojourner Truth’s, and King’s, as well as those of the students whom Marian touched—dominate Grooms’ vivid digital art.
A spirited account of a life devoted to service. (timeline, additional information, author’s note, additional reading, source notes, bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781623545826
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
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 pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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