In this version of a speech delivered during a 1996 rally at the Lincoln Memorial, the founder of the Children’s Defense Fund asserts the rights of children, then challenges readers to do more to nurture and preserve those rights. For visual counterpoint, Yorinks incorporates photographs, mostly of young people, plus a huge variety of painted and printed fabrics into quilted illustrations; young readers left behind by the high rhetoric (“Each and every American child adds or subtracts, multiplies or divides America’s problems and potential”) will linger over the bold, intensely expressive designs. Edelman invokes Lincoln, Jesus Christ, and Harriet Tubman, then closes with an ironic prayer and a suggestion list of child-centered community activities. The book is poorly designed, with text and art disappearing into the gutters, but the message is important, and forcefully seconded by the illustrations. (Picture book. 12+)
