My recent post featured the important, little-known story of TEACHER HEROES in the Civil Rights movement in Selma Alabama. I hope you read the review and will check out this book. Then share the JANE ADDAMS PEACE AWARD finalist with kids and adults, far and wide. Historic figures like Reverend F. D. Reeves and groups who summoned the courage to show up and stand up need to be widely recognized and appreciated.
I concluded that post, though, with a short note and several links to titles that celebrate the equal importance of sharing books, stories, lives, and resources about contemporary figures, joyous childhood experiences, and the wholeness of BLACK LIVES.
I begin with this initial connection between schools and the teachers in them to raise the painfully true issue of the many ways in which schools do not treat all children equally. In fact, current public schools are staffed predominantly by teachers who are White and female. Too often, school routines and conventions actively erase, invalidate, or (to our shame) punish Black children more often and more severely than others.
This is true for both boys and girls, but most harmfully so for Back boys.
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| Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020 |
Their previous masterpiece, CROWN: AN ODE TO THE FRESH CUT (2018) was breathtaking in poetic voice, joyful and expressive paintings, and exclamatory content. I offered a brief review with other titles in celebration of the identities of Black boys in this post. I was far from a lone voice in singing its praises. During its award season this first collaboration earned enough awards to replace all the the stars on the cover with awards stickers, and it continues to win state and kid-choice and other recognitions in the years since.
It is not surprising that publishers would encourage further creative collaborations. Surely, though, this new picture book exceeds any expectations about what would come next. It definitely exceeded my lofty hopes.
If you were to hear even a short sample of text from this recent book on a radio program, no images available, you would certainly be grinning ear to ear and stand taller in your bones, whatever your racial or ethnic identity.
For example:
"I am
a nonstop ball of energy.
Powerful and full of light.
I am a go-getter, A difference maker.
A leader."
You can listen to a recent NPR (10/24/2020) interview with the creators HERE.
Every child (and adult) would benefit from reciting such "I-statements" to begin the day, confront challenges, introduce ourselves to others, and view ourselves taking as having a rightful place in the world.
On the face of it, an illustrator would be hard-pressed to add anything to such an empowering verse. But the art James created for these lines (and all the others) manages to magnify and internalize Barnes's potent text even further by revealing faces, scenes, perspectives, angles, and potentials of Black boys with a variety of features, skin tones, hair choices, postures, and attitudes. Each is an individual, and each interprets this brilliant text from inside out.
Interior Spread: I AM EVERY GOOD THING
Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020
In doing so, a brilliant anthem for Black males becomes an anthology of countless visual biographies. Specific and worthy and lovable lives are written in the eyes, encounters, and possibilities portrayed. Images like these provide a perfect integration of contemporary lives with the many centuries (millennia) of inheritance that produced these individuals and their stories. Whether that history is celebratory, courageous, or even tragic, it is far too often the SINGLE story of Black lives. If classroom inventories of books exploring Black lives were honestly evaluated, the bulk of titles would focus, in story and image, on the injustices, losses, endangerment, and eventual survival of people with dark skin. Most would be hauled out and shared during February, then packed away for another year. Few, if any, would reflect these exuberant, smiling, confident faces.
Interior Spread, YOU ARE EVERY GOOD THING
Jane Paulsen Books, 2020
More celebratory and adventuresome and comical books featuring contemporary Black kids have been published in recent years. Many more are in the pipeline, but not nearly enough. This is, in part, why I AM EVERY GOOD THING is a must-have title, an anchor choice for classrooms of every age and color and identity. It provides a lens through which to view existing collections and a guide for additions to family and classroom and library collections. Each of those singular and important legacy titles must be kept in context, recognizing the heroism of Black youth (and adults) who summon the inner joy to face each day with an embrace of themselves, as voiced on the closing page:
"I am worthy
to be loved."
As someone who resists answering the inevitable "What is your favorite...?" questions, I will warmly and eagerly include this among the titles on my "One of my favorite..." lists. I hope you will, too.
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