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NO BAD NEWS by Kenneth Cole

NO BAD NEWS

by Kenneth Cole & illustrated by John Ruebartsch

Pub Date: May 1st, 2001
ISBN: 0-8075-4743-3
Publisher: Whitman

A trip to the barbershop turns around an African-American lad’s attitude toward his neighborhood in this purposeful but unpreachy debut. As Marcus walks down shabby, nearly deserted streets, past litter and weeds, closed stores, men drinking from brown paper bags, hearing sirens and honking horns, his spirits sink lower and lower. Seeing his long face, the people hanging out in the barbershop tell him to keep his chin up and look for the good news instead: this close, hardworking family; that pretty garden; over there a man and his son who repair old bicycles to give away to local children. Milwaukee resident Ruebartsch illustrates Marcus’s journey with bluntly realistic black-and-white photos, parts of which become hand-colored as Marcus, making his way home and seeing his community in a new light, resolves not just to observe the good news, but to make some of it himself. It’s an unabashed pep talk, overlaid with just a veneer of story, but Cole, a clinical psychologist, speaks directly to the concerns of many young people, and rightly suggests that real change comes from within. (Picture book. 7-9)