This is a column I couldn't have written when I began reviewing children's books a quarter of a century ago. That was before February became African-American history month. In those days I was delighted to find character of colors in children's book. Now we have cause to celebrate for African-American history books for children come in all lengths, genres, and styles.
You can start young with a picture book like Angela Johnson's "Just Like Josh Gibson" (Aladdin Paperbacks, $6.99, ages 4-8). Its story connects larger events with personal history. A little girl remembers her grandmother's fanciful talltale about Josh Gibson, "the Babe Ruth of the Negro Leagues" who "once hit a baseball in Pittsburgh so hard that it didn't come down" until a day later when Josh was playing in Philadelphia and "the ball dropped out of the sky and right into a fielder's glove." In the same rhythmic style Grandmama tells how she herself "would play all day, with everybody saying, she could do it all, hit, throw, and fly around the bases. 'But too bad she's a girl'..." Connections between race and gender are clear, but the family context and the singy quality prevent it from being a treatise. Beth Peck's energetic pastels accent the vitality of both characters and words.
Powerful history-based pictures books make an impact on children. Margot Raven's "Night Boat to Freedom" (FSG, $16.00, ages 7-10) tells the story Christmas, growing up in Kentucky "a boat trip away from Ohio and freedom". Separated from his family, he's been raised Granny Judith an older woman who dyes and weaves. Words and illustrations show the connection of colors and feelings. Granny Judith, seduced by a beautiful red cloth, followed strangers and ended up on a slave ship so that "pretty color of red turned the sad color of slavery". E.B. Lewis' colors insist themselves in blue-black scenes and monochromatic backgrounds, just as the love of Granny Judith and Christmas and their belief in freedom weaves in and out of the story.
Picture book biographies reach down to young readers in books like Ellen Levine combines story and biography in "Henry's Freedom Box" (Scholastic, $16.99, ages 5-9). "Henry Brown," she begins," wasn't sure how old he was. Henry was a slave. And slaves weren't allowed to know their birthdays." Kadir Nelson's poignant paintings show a small boy sitting on a stool, his sad eyes inviting children to understand the pathos of his life. Other emotional vignettes let children understand Henry "Box" Brown, the man who mailed himself to freedom during the Civil War. The final page shows him shedding his desolation as he climbs smiling from a box on his birthday, "March 30, 1849, his first day of freedom!"
Biographies for older children come in all lengths. Tonya Bolden, a brilliant biographer, relates "M.L.K. Journey of a King" (Abrams, $19.95, ages 10 and up) Bolden unites her story with a focus on King's determination and struggle to live with agape "a higher, harder love: a love that has nothing to do with liking a person, a love worthy of people who do you no good and even do you wrong." Her rhythms and repetitions bring beauty to biography in the same way King brought richness to his speeches. Bolden chooses powerful pictures to make King's life more real. There's celebration in his whole body as Coretta kisses him on release from a Georgia prison. His robes spread wide as he welcomes an immense crowd on the National Mall in 1957. The biography gives a new vivid picture of a man who's been the focus of so many biographies.
This year the Siebert award for best non-fiction was awarded to Ann Bausum's "Freedom riders : John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement" (National Geographic, $18.95, ages 10 and up). Wisely the author avoids event-covering by zooming in two men who were college students during this era and give personal perspective of this turning point in history. John Lewis was a black student leader of non-violence and Jim Zwerg was a white Wisconson native who became a figure-head after a brutal beating in Nashville. Inequalities in their background, their honest recounting as well as poignant photographs make this a dramatic read that shows, not tells the past. Song lyrics, resource notes, timelines, and engaging writing broaden their views and the Civil Rights events.
Gary Paulsen mixes fiction and facts to give new perspectives on the Old West in "The Legend of Bass Reeves: Being the True Fictional Account of the Most Valiant Marshal in the West" (Random, $15.95, ages 9-12). Paulsen debunks heroic figures like Billie the Kid who actually "shot men in the back, murdered his own friends, and killed a deputy guarding him as the man pled for his life". In contrast he tells the story an honorable African-American for whom so little is written that Paulsen composes a story based on the few surviving facts. He describes Reeves' growing up as a slave, brave and clever in the wilderness, years of living with Creeks in the lawless Indian Territory and finally Reeves as a free man who at fifty-one became a marshal who rode out alone three thousand times to face killers, rapists, molesters, thieves.
Times certainly have changed since I searched for people of color in children's books. Now there are too many new titles to cover in one column. For those who want more, I'm including a listing of equally wonderful titles that celebrate African-American history.
Deborah Hopkinson, "From Slave to Soldier: Based on a True Civil War Story" (Aladdin, $3.99, ages 5-8)
-Carole Boston Weatherford, "Jessie Owens: Fastest Man Alive" (Walker, $16.95; ages 8-10).
-Emily Arnold McCully, "The Escape of Oney Judge: Martha Washington's Slave Finds Freedom" (FSG, $16.00, ages 8-10).
-Hugh Brewster, "The Other Mozart: The Life of the Famous Chevalier de Saint-George" (Abrams, $18.95, ages 7-12).
-Leslie Gourse, "Sophisticated Ladies: The Great Women of Jazz" (Dutton, $19.99, ages 8-12).
-Joyce Hansen, "Women of Hope: African Americans Who Made a Difference" (Scholastic, $6.99; ages 8-12)
-Sheila Moses, "The Baptism" (McElderry Books, $15.99, ages 9-12)
-Mary Lyons, "Letters from a Slave Boy: The Story of Joseph Jacobs" (Atheneum, $15.99; ages 10 and up)