Book Review # 7

Book: Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford

Illustrator: Ekua Holmes

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

Copyright Date: 2016

Lexile: 820

This is an absolutely beautiful illustrated picture book about the life of Fannie Lou Hamer. I

was not aware of Fannie Lou Hamer until about 4 years ago when I came across her speech

in a Congressional testimony through a video posted by the American Experience PBS

YouTube channel. I immediately looked her up after watching the clip of her speech but I found

out more about her through this book by Carole Boston Weatherford. And the illustrations by

Ekua Holmes are a perfect compliment to the images Weatherford's words create. It is no surprise

that Holmes was awarded a Caldecott honor and the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe award for

New talent for this debut work. It is well deserved. This is one of the best nonfiction picture books

I've ever read. I love the way the author has told Fannie Lou Hamer's story through free verse

poetry. She also has done a remarkable job of conveying these poems in the voice of Ms Hamer.

It's a beautifully told tale of an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement, someone more

people should know about.

Fannie Lou Hamer’s story starts with her birth in the Mississippi delta, the youngest of 20 children,
Fannie Lou had to drop out of school after sixth grade to work in the cotton fields. She married

Perry Hamer and adopted two daughters after being tricked into having an operation to prevent

her from being able to have children. In 1962, she attended her first voter registration meeting,

unaware that blacks even had the right to vote.

Within the year she was deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement, losing her job and her home

as a result. Imprisoned and badly beaten, she refused to give up her work, eventually becoming a
national spokesperson for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and addressing the 1964
Democratic National Convention about voter discrimination. Fannie Lou also worked to improve
conditions in Mississippi, organizing cotton pickers and starting a Head Start program. She died in

1977. There’s a lot of information in this book, and even older students may need some historical

context to understand all of Hamer’s contributions. But it can be read in a classroom or parents can

read it to their children to discuss it along with the today’s similar problems.

Book Review #6

Book: Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Author: Doreen Rappaport

Illustrator: Bryan Collier

Publisher: Hyperion Books

Copyright Date: 2001

Age Range: 5-8 years old

Lexile: 610

This biography is a beautifully illustrated look at the life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This book would be an excellent introduction of Dr. King to a group of children ranging in age

from 5-8 years old. The author, Doreen Rappaport is known for writing about a multicultural

history, where she focuses on not-yet-celebrated American as well as well-known figures.

Here are some other titles that Rappaport write that you could also read along with this title:

Helen’s Big World: The Life of Helen Keller

Abe’s Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln

Eleanor: Quiet No More

To Dare Mighty Things: The Life of Theodore Roosevelt

Elizabeth Started All the Trouble

Frederick’s Journey: The Life of Frederick Douglass

Freedom River (also illustrated by Bryan Collier)

When Martin was young and he saw signs that said, “Whites only”; his mother would tell him “you

are as good as anyone”. This encouragement from his mother would help Martin grow up to play

a great part in history during the Civil Rights Movement. Martin was also grew up listening to his

father at church preach which had a profound impact over him. He said, “When I grow up I’m going

to get big words, too”, and he did.

Black Americans protested for equal rights but white politicians ordered them to stop and when they
refused they were arrested. Eventually more Americans were listening and actually understanding

what was going on in the South. His words were hear all around the world as they listened to his

dream that all people around the world will one day treat each other as brothers and sisters no

matter the color of their skin.

The author uses a beautiful collage style that draws the reader in with his realistic images. She also

uses King’s original text from writing and speeches. This book is a great way to introduce a young

one to an historical figure and an important time in history.

Book Review #5

Book: Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine

Author: Laurie Wallmark

Illustrator: April Chu

Publisher: Creston Books

Copyright Date: 2015

Age Range: 5-8 years old

Lexile: 730

In this book, the author Laurie Wallmark details the life of Ada Lovelace. Ada grew up with
very educated parents, Lord and Lady Byron, and was fortunate to receive a good education.
The book then talks about how Ada was a child fascinated by numbers, which her mother
encouraged her to pursue her education. Young Ada is fascinated with inventions such as a
flying machine and writes, tirelessly, to calculate the the wings’ power. Ada contracts a bout of
measles that leaves her temporarily blind and paralyzed but her brilliance does not dim in these
times. Her mother drills young Ada with math problems, which Ada can see in her head, even if
she is not able to physically see them.

The books then discusses how the young Ada at the age of 17 meets the inventor Charles
Babbage who was 41. Babbage is so impressed with the young woman that her invites her
to his laboratory. This friendship was so inspiring that these two souls found solace and common
ground within each other through their desire for knowledge. Babbage shows her his Difference
Engine and then his plans for his Analytical Engine, which prompts Ada to write an algorithm that
becomes the world’s very first computer program.

The book’s final page tells how Charles Babbage never built his Analytical Engine, so Ada
never got her see her program run. But she was a woman who was born too early because
her efforts with Charles Babbage’s inventions had created a new profession of computer
programming. This would not come to pass for over 100 years after Ada had written her algorithm.

This book is beautifully illustrated and would be a great addition to a library’s juvenile
biography section. This book could be put into a STEM display so children can learn
about how women can excel in STEM fields. The readalikes listed below could also be
used with this book in a STEM display or could be read before a school age Scratch Coding
program.

Readalikes:

Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code (People Who Shaped Our World) by Laurie Wallmark

Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: The First Computer Programmer by Diane Stanley

Margaret and the Moon by Dean Robbins

Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor by Robert Burleigh

Hello Ruby: Adventures in Coding by Linda Liukas

Hello Ruby: Journey Inside the Computer by Linda Liukas

Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating

Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World by Laurie Lawlor

Book Review #4

Book: Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad

Author: Ellen Levine

Illustrator: Kadir Nelson

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Copyright Date: 2007

Age Range: 4-8

Lexile: 380

I was not aware of this story prior to this picture book, but it is an incredible and inspiring story.
This book tells the true story about a young slave named Henry and his experiences living in the
South. The book starts with an introduction to Henry Brown and we find out that he doesn’t know
how old he is because nobody had kept records of slaves’ birthdays. But he dreams about his
freedom but this dream grows further from him when he is sold to work in a warehouse and torn
away from his family. Henry grows up and falls in love but the same situation happens to his wife
and children when they are sold off in a slave market and he never sees them again. Then one day,
he gets the idea of mailing himself to the North and he finally gets his freedom after an arduous
journey.  

This is a Caldecott Honor Book and after reading this book to your child or to a group of children,
you could partner it with a picture book about Harriet Tubman. After reading both books, you could
talk about the Underground Railroad and maybe read about the different ways that people escaped
the South and how people from the North helped them. You could also track Henry’s journey on a
map with the children.

 

This book was well illustrated but there were some pages where it was difficult for me to read
the text on the page. I would assume the illustrator had intentionally used darker colors and also
the text color to convey the terrible situation that Henry was in the South. The illustrator then uses
brighter colors on the last page when Henry finally ends his journey in Philadelphia. The author’s
note at the end of the book was a good additional source for some more information on what was
happening at the time that Henry had shipped himself to the North.

Readalikes:

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson

Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman

Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco

The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom by Bettye Stroud

Book Review #3

Book: Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black
and White America

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford

Illustrator: Jamey Christoph

Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company in Chicago, Illinois

Copyright Date: 2015

Age Range: 4-8

Lexile reading level: 840

This book tells the story of how a young Gordon Parks grew up in the
Midwest and trials that he faced growing up in the early to mid part of
the 20th century as a black man. He is born the youngest of fifteen
children. He was originally born a stillborn but a dip in ice water shocks
his heart to beat. Gordon would go on to become one of the first black
directors in Hollywood; his most famous movie was Shaft in 1971. But
prior to his success as a photographer, writer and director; he was growing
up poor  and looking for work. He then bought a camera for $7.50 and this
move changed his life forever. He got a job working for the government in
Washington D.C. and when he got to our nation’s capital, he noticed the
segregation all throughout the city and decided to photograph the injustice
that he witnessed.

Gordon Parks is shown prejudice against his race at a very early age
when his teacher tells the class, “You’ll all wind up porters and waiters.”
The sad part of the story is that the next page says that Gordon did eventually
go to take jobs as a waiter and porter because those were some of the only jobs
offered to African Americans during that time in America. This book offers a very
limited view on Gordon’s early life. The story quickly moves to Gordon as a young
man looking for work.

Gordon Parks’ boss tries to focus his attention to Ella Watson, a cleaning
lady in the government building. Ella is supporting her family on her low
wage and Gordon soon takes a series of photos of Ella and her family. Most
famously, he took the picture entitled American Gothic with Ella holding a
mop and broom. This photograph is a reimagining of Grant Wood’s American
Gothic painting. Gordon’s picture states in his version that this lone woman is
supporting her family with her tools that she has, a broom and a mop.

I am grateful to the author of this book to offer the story of Gordon Parks
to young children. I had seen Gordon Parks’ movies Shaft and Leadbelly when
I was a teenager several years ago but I had never looked into the director of
those films. This book tells children how important the image of injustice is to
showcase and present to the public. This title should be offered in a collection
because it is a different look at an American life that is not typically talked about
to young children.

Similar Book Titles:

Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills by Renee Watson

When the Beat was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop by
Laban Carrick Hill

Dorothea Lange: The Photographer Who Found the Faces of the Depression
by Carole Boston Weatherford

Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by
Javaka Steptoe

Jake Makes a World: Jacob Lawrence, A Young Artist in Harlem by
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts

Book Review #2

Book: Separate is Never Equal:Sylvia Méndez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation

Author: Duncan Tonatiuh

Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers

Publication Date:2014

Age Range: K-3

Lexile Reading Level: 870

This book tells the little known story of Sylvia Méndez and her family’s experience with segregation in the California school system in the 1940s. Many people are aware of the Brown vs. Board of Education trial that declared segregation as unconstitutional and that was almost 10 years after this book’s story. The story starts with Sylvia as a young girl starting a new school where she is getting picked on for the color for her skin. An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, Mendez was denied enrollment to a “Whites only” school. Sylvia’s parents took action by organizing with their community and filing a lawsuit in the federal district court. The end result was an end to the era of segregated education in California.

This is a good book to read to young children because it demonstrates through its straightforward narrative how there was an injustice in the school system and then the family fights back when they keep asking “But why?”.

It’s important to instruct kids how they can make a difference if they fight for what they believe is wrong like how the Méndez family fought back after being mistreated for the color of their skin. This story deserves to be more widely known and thanks to Duncan Tonatiuh, hopefully this story will be.

This book definitely needs to be apart of the collection since this story is so unknown to the majority of the public. This is the only children’s picture book about the Méndez family and their fight to end segregation in the California school system. Also a lot of books about segregation during this time period is about African Americans in the South. So putting this book in the collection gives some additional perspective to the long and arduous struggle for equality. As the education specialists in the trial argued, the segregation of children creates feelings of superiority in one group and inferiority in another.

I liked the way that Tonatiuh organized this book by putting a flashback in the beginning of the book to tell the story. You could ask children about or explain the concept of flashbacks after reading the book aloud. An additional resource you would be able to add is the following video Voices of History: Sylvia Méndez.

Awards

Américas Award Winner 2015

Pura Belpré Award, Honor, Illustrator 2015

Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award 2015

IRA Notable Books for a Global Society Winner 2015

NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book 2015

Robert F. Sibert Medal, Honor Book 2015

ALA Notable Books for Children, Middle Readers 2015

Jane Addams Award Winner, Young Readers 2015

SLJ Best Books, Nonfiction 2014

Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014, Picture Books

Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature, Best Multicultural Books of 2014

New York Public Library, 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, Nonfiction 2014

Cybils Awards Finalist, Nonfiction for Elementary & Middle Grades 2014

Similar titles:

Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull and illustrated by Yuyi Morales. Harcourt, 2003.

Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words by Karen L. Abouraya and illustrated by L.C. Wheatley. StarWalk Kids Media, 2014.

Side by Side: The Story of Dolores Huerta and César Chávez/ Lado a lado: la historia de Dolores Huerta y César Chávez by Monica Brown, illustrated by Joe Cepeda. Rayo, 2010

The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles and illustrated by Greg Ford. Scholastic Paperbacks, 2010

The Upside Down Boy/El niño de cabeza by Juan Felipe Herrera and illustrated by Elizabeth Gomez. Lee and Low Books, 2006.

A Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson and illustrated by Eric Velazquez. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2007.

Busing Brewster by Richard Michelson, illustrated by R.G. Roth. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2010

That’s Not Fair! / ¡No Es Justo!: Emma Tenayuca’s Struggle for Justice / La lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la Justicia by Carmen Tafolla and Sharyll Teneyuca and illustrated by Terry Ybáñez. Wings Press, 2008.