"Share with little ones needing a gentle lullaby. (note, further reading) (Picture book/poetry. 2-6)"
An urban setting with a calming palette complements the soothing, loving tone of Hughes' poem celebrating an African-American mother and her baby.
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"The desire to live free is powerful, and this story celebrates one man's amazing journey to achieve that end. (author's note) (Picture book/biography. 5-10)"
When his wife and children are sold away, an enslaved man devises an extraordinary means of escape to the North and succeeds.
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The opening two pages of inspirational quotations from men and women both famous and not-quite serve as a de facto table of contents for a series of collages and accompanying homilies (often quite clunky ones) from the Lees.
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"The excellent annotated bibliography includes books, sound and video recordings and websites. (Picture book/biography. 5-11)"
The author of accomplished biographies about Mahalia Jackson, Fred and Adele Astaire and others contributes a gem about Fitzgerald's early life in Yonkers and Harlem.
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"Quall's lovely, textured illustrations depict realistic figures against backgrounds suffused with blues and purples. (Picture book. 5-10)"
In this substantive yet never heavy offering, an African-American girl reflects on the people in her family, wondering, after lovingly considering each: "And what will I be, Lord?
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Weatherford's compressed poetic homage to Coltrane's early influences relays biographical details through metaphors evoking sound: "Before John was a jazz giant, / he heard Grandpa's Sunday sermons, / Mama playing hymns for the senior choir, / and the scoutmaster's call to join a band."
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"It's a worthy concept for creative types and other misfits to absorb, but the author doesn't seem to understand it very well himself. (Collective biography. 9-12)"
Anchored by massive resource lists for adults in tiny type at the back, these 12 thumbnails attempt, not very successfully, to introduce to young or inexpert readers the idea of "multiple intelligences."
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"Simple charcoal drawings accompany the text and capture its emotional and geographical atmosphere. (Biography. 10-14)"
A work born out of love for the man and his poetry, this biography-in-verse pays tribute to Juan Francisco Manzano, who lived between 1797 and 1853.
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"In the end, suggesting that Jamal may one day himself be asked the same question, Grandma offers to tell him about when he was the baby on the way—and what young listeners won't want to hear their own versions of that story? (Picture book. 5-8)"
A child's question to his grandma opens a window to another time and place in this intimate, intergenerational conversation.
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Taken from a variety of sources, including speeches, letters, essays, and poetry, powerful words of eminent African-Americans tell the history of the struggles to achieve freedom and then equality.
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