Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 
I don’t have illustrations for you today, dear Imps, as I normally do. But I want to take a moment to highlight a book that will be on shelves next week — This Is Your Time (Random House), written by civil rights activist and icon Ruby Bridges.

This is a short (64 pages) and small but powerful book. Ruby Bridges, as you know if you know your American history, was the first Black student—at the age of six—to desegregate an all-white elementary school. We’ve all seen the images of Ruby being escorted by four federal marshals on her first day at William Frantz Elementary in New Orleans on November 14, 1960. Ruby was the subject of the Norman Rockwell painting on this book’s cover.

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Black Heroes of the Wild West: Featuring Stagecoach Mary, Bass Reeves, and Bob Lemmons, released by Toon Graphics last month, is the first book that James Otis Smith has both written and illustrated. It’s a book that shines a light on Stagecoach Mary, Bass Reeves, and Bob Lemmons—in three separate sets of comics. But there’s also a good deal of additional information provided, particularly in the book’s detailed backmatter. It all adds up to a book that gives readers a perspective on U.S. history that is not often seen and spotlights Black figures in history that have been routinely overlooked. The caption for the painting A Dash for the Timber (1889), which is included in the book’s introduction, says it all: ” … [R]enowned painter of the West Frederic S. Remington shows cowboys as a group of white men. In fact, a large number were Mexican or Native American, and as many as one-third were African American.”

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I love to be a part every July of the Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature’s (CCYAL) “Best of the Best” conference at the University of Tennessee, in which I gather with other librarians and book critics to discuss the most outstanding books we’ve seen in that year. Because of the pandemic, we didn’t gather this year. But after asking each of us presenters to name a few favorite books of the year, the CCYAL still created a list. If you’d like to see everyone’s recommendations (books published, generally speaking, in the latter part of 2019 and first half of 2020), the list is here. You can also click on the image above to be taken to the list.

Happy reading!

“Some words, when they CONNECT with the right people, become almost like potions or spells. These words become magical. That’s the way it was with Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and verbs. She understood, almost intuitively, how and why verbs are not just words about being, but doing. Verbs are words that move the world forward.”

 
Let’s take a look today at a new picture book about politician Shirley Chisholm, who made history in 1968 by becoming the first black woman elected to the United States Congress. This biography—Shirley Chisholm Is a Verb! (Dial, July 2020), illustrated by Rachelle Baker—comes from author Veronica Chambers, who writes in a closing “personal note” that, as a child growing up in Brooklyn, she remembers seeing posters (“SHIRLEY CHISHOLM FOR CONGRESS”) in her neighborhood. She writes that “because of Shirley Chisholm, I thought, ‘I could be a congresswoman.’ After all, I passed a picture of a woman who looked a lot like me, who had that job.”

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I’m pleased today to welcome illustrator Kristy Caldwell to 7-Imp as part of a blog tour for Deborah Hopkinson’s Thanks to Frances Perkins: Fighter for Workers’ Rights (Peachtree, August 2020). Hopkinson frames this biography of the groundbreaking workers-rights advocate, who served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor (the first woman appointed to a presidential cabinet) for twelve years, with “math questions” for the young readers at whom the book is aimed: “How many yeras will it be until you turn sixty two?” and “What year will that be?” You’ll want to thank Frances Perkins, Hopkinson writes, when you get to that age.

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A spread from Kwame Alexander’s award-winning The Undefeated,
illustrated by Kadir Nelson: “… who shine / their light for the world to see
and don’t stop / ’til the break of dawn.”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
Here’s something a bit different today: I’m pleased to welcome a guest post from Dean Schneider, who teaches English and history at Ensworth School in Nashville, Tennessee. In his 45-year teaching career, Dean has taught in a variety of schools; served on several book award committees, including the Newbery and Caldecott; and written for several magazines.

Dean is a friend, and during a recent (socially-distanced, of course) visit, he told me about the books he has planned for a history course he’ll teach this school year. I am always interested in hearing Dean talk about his work—he’s an outstanding teacher, and his students are lucky to have him—but I was especially intrigued by what he had to say about teaching during a pandemic and how he wants books to remain in the forefront. As a school librarian by training, I often seek the thoughts of talented teachers like Dean. (For instance, see this recent piece from Donalyn Miller on the importance of continuing to read aloud to students during these uncertain, unsettled times of returning to school during a pandemic.) And when Dean agreed to let me host his thoughts here at 7-Imp, I was delighted.

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“My message is very simple: Economic growth and progress must add to
human happiness, not take away from it.”
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)

 
Today, dear Imps, I have an unusual picture book import for you. The World’s Poorest President Speaks Out was originally published in Japan in 2014 and will be on American shelves in mid-August, thanks to Enchanted Lion Books. Translated by Andrew Wong, edited (in the original Japanese edition) by Yoshimi Kusaba, and illustrated by Gaku Nakagawa, it is a picture book adaptation of Uruguay President José Mujica’s 2012 speech to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, during which he asked: “Can we really talk about the solidarity of humankind and kindness to each other, or even togetherness, when we are constantly competing to outdo each other?”

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(Click image to see spread in its entirety)

 
I’ve some spreads today from Lift as You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker (Margaret K. McElderry Books, June 2020), written by Patricia Hruby Powell and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. This is a picture book biography of civil rights activist Ella Baker, who taught countless African Americans—but particularly those not in the elite or middle class—about their voting rights and how to exert their invididual voices in the name of freedom. And, as Powell writes in the book’s closing note, “because she worked behind the scenes and didn’t care about the spotlight, nor believed in following a charismatic figure or being followed, she is less known than she should be.”

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“Here is Keith Haring painting a mural with hundreds of children in Tama City, Japan. Keith draws the outlines and the kids fill them in with their own designs.”
(Click spread to enlarge)

 
Note that today’s book, as the subtitle tells us, is “a” story of legendary artist Keith Haring. It’s not “the” story of Keith Haring, because it’s not as if only one story could capture his life and his spirit. This subtle word choice is one of many thoughtful details that went into the creation of this spectacular picture book biography.

Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring (Enchanted Lion, May 2020), written by Matthew Burgess and illustrated by Josh Cochran, opens with the spread pictured above, which so perfectly communicates the essence of Keith’s artistic vision—and legacy. At this page turn, we then meet Keith as a child. …

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I had the pleasure of chairing the 2020 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards with fellow judges Sujei Lugo and Leo Landry. The awards were announced yesterday. The books we fell in love with are pictured here, but you can head here to the Horn Book for more details.