@Booklist_Briana made a Pinterest board for my February Booklist Quick Tips for Schools and Libraries column: Focus on STEM: Black History Makers.
(And my Booklist editor @gillianengberg added a thumbnail of the cover of my forthcoming picture book Up! Up! Up! Skyscraper (Charlesbridge, May 2017) to the byline.)
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
In her outstanding new book Pathfinders, Tonya Bolden shares the remarkable stories of sixteen African Americans who pursued their dreams, excelling in careers ranging from entrepreneur to race car driver, bank founder to spy.
Pathfinders: the Journeys of 16 Extraordinary Black Souls
by Tonya Bolden
Abrams, 2017
preview on Google Books
Amazon / your local library
ages 10-14
*best new book*
This collection of short biographical sketches will inspire today’s young people to go after their dreams. Bolden profiles a wide range of leaders from math and science, business, the arts and legal fields. With each profile, she helps readers understand both the achievements and the challenges:
“Over the centuries countless blacks in America have done amazing things against the odds. Had big, bold dreams, pursued passions. Caught up with their callings. Charted courses to success. Pathfinders.”–preface to Pathfinders
Bolden’s short biographical sketches are engaging and quick to read; timelines and background information help round out the overall picture. This would be terrific to read aloud at home or in class, highlighting different career paths these remarkable individuals pursued.
Read more at my post on Great Kid Books. ©2017 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books
Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and his sacrifice for Civil Rights
by Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace
352 pages; ages 12 & up
Calkins Creek, 2016
So why is a biography of some white guy being featured during Black History month? Because Jonathan Daniels worked for voting rights, and it’s still an issue.
Still. An. Issue.
Rich and Sandra Wallace have produced an information-packed (and very heavy) volume that explores the life and times of Jonathan Daniels, a white cleric from New Hampshire who answered the call from Martin Luther King, Jr. to join blacks in their struggle for voting rights. It was dangerous, in the 60s, to challenge the segregated ways of the south.
This book follows Daniels’ life from childhood in Keene, NH through college in Virginia Military Institute, through his entrance into service in the ministry. In 1963 Daniels, studying at the Episcopal Theological School, had been serving residents in Providence, RI. He believed that the church should be active in promoting social change, and even joined the March on Washington. When Martin Luther King, Jr, asked for help, Daniels responded.
In addition to being an intriguing biography, the text and photos present documentary evidence of the struggle that black people faced. Even though they had the right to vote, segregation and southern laws prevented them from casting ballots. The Wallaces put history into context using multiple points of view.
The photos and primary documentation is invaluable. They also include a note on their research and forensic analysis of a photo. Also provided are a timeline, bibliography, resources for those who want to investigate further, and source notes for quotes. The only thing I wish had been done differently is to present text on white pages; black print on blue is difficult to read.
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2017 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.
Lift Your Light a Little Higher: The Story of Stephen Bishop: Slave-Explorer
by Heather Henson (Author) and Bryan Collier (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Grab your lantern and follow the remarkable and world-famous Mammoth Cave explorer–and slave–Stephen Bishop as he guides you through the world’s largest cave system in this remarkable homage to the resilience of human nature.
Welcome to Mammoth Cave. It’s 1840 and my name’s Stephen Bishop. I’ll be your guide, so come with me, by the light of my lantern, into the deepest biggest cave in all of the United States. Down here, beneath the earth, I’m not just a slave. I’m a pioneer. I know the cave’s twists and turns. It taught me to not be afraid of the dark. And watching all these people write their names on the ceiling? Well, it taught me how to read too. Imagine that. A slave, reading. But like I said, down here I’m not just a slave. I’m a guide. I’m a man. And this is my story.
Snippet:
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Underground Railroad: navigate the journey from slavery to freedom
by Judy Dodge Cummings; illus. by Tom Casteel
128 pages; ages 9-12
Nomad Press, 2017
This book opens with an explanation of what slavery is and what the abolitionist movement was. It will help readers glimpse what life was like for enslaved people, and how they fought the system that shackled them.
The cool thing about this book: it’s like going on a field trip into the past. As with any expedition, you’ll want to grab your notebook and pencil to record ideas, observations, and reactions as you work through the activities.
There are 20 activities, starting with how to interpret statistics. Though graphs and statistics help put huge numbers into perspective (11.3 million enslaved men, women, and children brought to the Americas) they are impersonal. So how do you put a human face on the people who suffered?
Other activities include making a hoe cake, creating your own abolitionist broadside, writing coded messages, and learning navigation skills. Through the reading, we get to know Frederick Douglass, Isaac Hopper and his society of abolitionists, black businessmen who put themselves in danger to help fugitives, and Harriet Tubman. Excerpts of primary sources and links to online primary sources help connect readers to historic events.
Shackles From the Deep: tracing the path of a sunken slave ship
by Michael Cottman
128 pages; ages 10 & up
National Geographic Children’s Books, 2017
Michael Cottman is an African-American journalist and deep sea diver. So when he learns of artifacts found in a shipwreck off the coast of Key West, artifacts from a slave ship, he wants to dive right in and learn more. His curiosity takes him on an excellent adventure to uncover the mystery surrounding the ship, Henrietta Marie.
The ship sank in the early 1700s, but it wasn’t until 1972 that anyone had found it. And that discovery came about when a treasure hunter was seeking a different wreck. Instead of gold, he found shackles small enough to imprison a child.
When Cottman was invited to help with the underwater memorial at the site of the slave ship, he decided he wanted to learn more: who owned this ship? Who made the shackles and cannons? Who was the captain? The crew?
He wanted to retrace the route the Henrietta Marie took from London down to the west coast of Africa, and then to the Americas. He came to realize that slavery, for a ship captain back in the 1600s – 1700s was simply a business. African people weren’t referred to as humans but as cargo. Not only is this a great adventure and mystery – it’s a true story.
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2017 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.
Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song
by Gary Golio (Author) and Charlotte Riley-Webb (Illustrator)
Booktalk: The audience was completely silent the first time Billie Holiday performed a song called “Strange Fruit.” In the 1930s, Billie was known as a performer of jazz and blues music, but this song wasn’t either of those things. It was a song about injustice, and it would change her life forever.
Discover how two outsiders–Billie Holiday, a young black woman raised in poverty, and Abel Meeropol, the son of Jewish immigrants–combined their talents to create a song that challenged racism and paved the way for the Civil Rights movement.
Snippet:
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
As students learn about the American Colonies and the road to the American Revolution, many wonder why the founding fathers could not address the fundamental contradictions between slavery and the freedom that the patriots sought.
Gretchen Woelfle’s new book, Answering the Cry for Freedom, is an excellent resource examining the way thirteen African Americans took up their own fight for freedom during the Revolutionary War and the establishment of our country–by joining the British and American armies; preaching, speaking out, and writing about the evils of slavery; and establishing settlements in Nova Scotia and Africa. I highly recommend this both as classroom resource and for students’ independent reading.
Answering the Cry for Freedom: Stories of African Americans and the American Revolution
by Gretchen Woelfle
illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
Calkins Creek / Boyds Mill Press, 2016
Google Books preview
Your local library / Amazon
ages 9-13
In the late 1700s, as the American colonists began to protest the tyranny of British rule, slavery existed in every one of the thirteen colonies. African Americans–both free and enslaved–listened as talk of freedom and the natural rights of men grew. How did they react? What did they say and do? As Woelfle writes, this collection of short biographies tells a “hidden chapter of the American Revolution.”
In short, well-organized chapters, she helps readers understand the complexities of their choices and they way these courageous men and women resisted the tyrannical customs and laws that kept slavery part of our nation for much too long. Striking silhouette illustrations by R. Gregory Christie draw readers in and provide a visual hook.
Read more about this excellent nonfiction book at Great Kid Books.
©2017 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books
A Spy Called James: The True Story of James Lafayette, Revolutionary War Double Agent
by Anne Rockwell (Author) and Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Told for the first time in picture book form is the true story of James Lafayette, a slave who spied for George Washington’s army during the American Revolution. But while America celebrated its newfound freedom, James returned to slavery. His service hadn’t qualified him for the release he’d been hoping for. For James the fight wasn’t over; he’d already helped his country gain its freedom, now it was time to win his own.
Snippet: The war officially ended in 1783 with American victory, but there was no victory for James. While he received credit for his spying during the war, these activities didn’t earn James the freedom he expected. Such freedom was reserved for black soldiers in the American army, not spies.
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Last Monday, January 30th, was Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution. I didn’t know much about Fred Korematsu’s story before reading this brand-new book, Fred Korematsu Speaks Up, written by Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi and illustrated by Yutaka Houlette. I’m so thankful, now, that I do.
I think that you will be, too.
The book shares the story of Fred, and second-generation Japanese American living on the West Coast during World War II, when the United States forced immigrants and citizens alike into internment camps. Fred resisted the order, and was jailed. The ACLU took up his case, which he eventually lost. He lost more than just the case. Many Japanese Americans turned on him, and he was officially considered a convicted felon. More than 40 years later, the ACLU decided to try his case again after finding new documents showing that the government had lied in his original case… and this time they won, setting an important precedent going forward. Fred knew what was happening was wrong and stood up against it. He was a changemaker.
Here’s an excerpt from the main text:
There are a couple of books that came out in the fall celebrating the lives and stories of black men and women who played a role in the American Revolution. One of these was James Lafayette, whose story is told in the picture book, A Spy Called James: the true story of James Lafayette, Revolutionary War double agent by Anne Rockwell; illus. by Floyd Cooper (ages 7-11; Carolrhoda Books).
We know the names of those leaders who led our emerging country through the Revolutionary War: Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, Franklin, Jefferson… But, as Anne Rockwell writes, “America would not have won independence without the courage of thousands of people whose names never became famous.”
James, enslaved by a farmer named William Armistead, had heard that an enslaved man could win freedom by fighting for the colonies. Armistead allowed him to join Lafayette’s army where, under orders, he dressed in tattered clothing and presented himself to Cornwallis and Benedict Arnold as a runaway slave. James would gather information and sneak it back to Lafayette.
James was so good at “serving” Cornwallis that the British general asked him to spy on the Americans. And so James began the dangerous job of being a double agent.
The war officially ended in 1783, but for James there was no victory. While blacks who served as soldiers were granted freedom, James’s work as a spy didn’t earn him that reward. Eventually Lafayette heard about this gross injustice and wrote a letter to the US government. James adopted the last name Lafayette and became a farmer.
A thicker, heavier volume includes stories of more black men and women who played a role in America’s Revolution: Answering the Cry for Freedom by Gretchen Woelfle; illus. by R. Gregory Christie (ages 9-12; Calkins Creek,)
Gretchen Woelfle has gathered 13 stories of little-known African American preachers, writers, soldiers, organizers, and enslaved workers. Some escaped to freedom with the British; others fought for freedom at home.
Stories include James (the spy), poet Phyllis Wheatley, Ona Judge who was owned by Martha Washington, and John Kizelle who escaped to Nova Scotia and later worked to end the slave trade in Africa. After reading these stories you’ll ask: Why haven’t we heard about these courageous people before?
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2017 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.
Nonfiction Monday 