AFRO-INDIGENOUS: Black History In Need of Representation

HEARTDRUM, 2025

I can imagine no better creators to share the stories and images of contemporary youth whose family tree is rooted in both Black-and-Indigenous ancestors than the team behind STRONGER THAN. The shared voices of poet-extraordinaire NIKKI GRIMES and Choctaw member-storyteller STACY WELLS provide a genuine family account of brothers with such heritage. As notes from both authors and further material in back matter indicate, there are few if any other stories in picture books that explore a heritage  so often reported in Black families, even when tribal or clan connections are not traceable. Sadly, Native and Black individuals (and communities) share the history of oppression and societal exclusion (and much worse), which sometimes led to friendships, marriages, and blended  communities of mutual support.

In this story, the brothers are descendants of survivors of the Trail of Tears and the Tulsa Race Massacre. Through a family-storytelling style, the brothers AND readers learn about both periods and persecutions in America history. They also learn of the strength of their family, recognizing their courage to continue despite tragedy, and, as a result, gaining in confidence and identity. 

Illustrations by E. B. Lewis not only imbue the current and historic story members with individuality and personality. The powerful images are bathed in masterful shifts of color and tone, shadow and light, conveying the interiority of the boys and their family as if music is swelling, soothing, or pounding in the background. The moods and tones, their shifts and transitions, make this account feel like an impactful film. 

This storytelling is launched by the recurring nightmares for one brother, a pattern that has him dreading bedtime. Most stories about nightmares, monsters under the bed, and things that go bump ih the night are aimed at younger audiences with many employing an amusing or comical approach to ease anxiety. This, by contrast, is a story aimed at school age readers and above, with depth and detail that connect across subject areas in integrated curricular studies.

We need contemporary stories of strong Black boys as well as Native People whose heritage stories were rarely shared and even now are facing attempts at erasure. The publisher, HEARTDRUM, is actively working to bring these satires to the shelves, including authenticity and language that readers of any background will welcome and learn from within the context of quality literature. I hope you'll take time to read and consider this new, award-winning picture book, then share it widely. 

LULLABY FOR THE KING: A Glorious New Picture Book

 

Nikki Grimes

 When NYTimes best-selling author/poet Nikki Grimes writes any book for any audience, I pay attention. I hope you do, too. Her titles for middle grade, older youth, and adults have produced legions of avid fans. Count me among them. Her picture books, though, are my favorites. If you missed my recent post about a breathtaking, heart-wrapping release is HERE.

Her text always enchant my ears with their lyrical musicality, whether rhymed or free verse. Each word earns its place on the page and invites multiple re-readings by families, librarians, teachers, and young readers. Her text, from beginning to end, encompasses masterful storytelling, powerful imagery, emotional connections, and inspiring insights. Take every aspect of the above praise and add to it the importance of the subjects she addresses and I'll stand aside while you rush to your library or add her work to your personal wishlists and gift requests.

Beaming Books. October 10, 2023 

LULLABY FOR THE KING  is, on first glance, a glorious celebration of the birth of Christ, making it a wonderful choice for the Christmas season. That was my expectation as I opened the cover. (Look at that magnificent cover. More about the illustrator Michelle Carlos later.) That's all it took for me to recognize how much more this new offering provides for readers with any (or no) Christian background.

The glory of this seemingly simple story unfolds on magically colorful double page spreads, each featuring a member of the animal kingdom who've received word of the birth of a king. They spontaneously form a caravan that travels "through wilderness, uphill and down, for hours that spun into days". Each has selected a unique gift to deliver when they eventually arrive.

Page by page, stanza by stanza, Grimes writes in concise free verse  graced with luscious word choices, eloquent gift descriptions, ear-pleasing assonance, and rhythm that reflects the steady pace of a determined caravan of familiar and less-familiar animals of land, water, and air. 

The suspension of any hint of predator-prey relationships provides that inspirational element I referenced above. This is not a simple lion-and-lamb connection, but one of the power of sharing a higher mission and values. Their arrival  does not signal the conclusion, only setting the stage for the deeper aspects of this original tale. The pages that follow their arrival celebrate the role of SOUND, from the nightingale's gift of song, to the notes of instruments given as gifts, to the choir of angels hovering above the manger. The final page turn features the animals assembled at the feet of the holy family, the lullaby text and notes above them, with that translucent choir of angels topping the page. The simple verse and melody convince me that this will become a favorite new Christmas carol for many.

Attempting to illustrate such a magnificent manuscript must have been intimidating, but artist Michelle Carlos created images and scenes that matched and even elevated the power of this story, page after page. Using a mesmerizing balance of realistic detail and srurreal colorations, each scene reinforces Grimes's imaginative descriptions of gifts and creatures as well as the mood of reverence and anticipated celebration that drives this caravan forward. The endpapers are the exception to the interior vibrant eruption of color. Instead the opening end papers, nearly identical to the final papers, are rendered in subtle desert shades and tones, nearly monochromatic,  that allow the entire caravan to proceed through dessert sand valleys and dunes. Their black silhouettes and shadows emphasize the variety and distinct differences among them. The opening papers include their later-described gifts in each figure, while the closing papers show the animals proceeding without those elements. The opening sky in this scene glows with an infusion of fuchsia-tones, while the sky in the closing papers is a swirl of new-day blue. 

Now, about my prior claim of the universal appeal and theme of this book, despite its clearly Christian/Christmas story. I hope that my praise in the above notes makes it clear that excellence of this level is not subject to boundaries or discrete identities. The glory of the language itself and the beauty of the illustrations make it a treasure in any hands. More deeply, the sense of higher purpose, peaceful cooperation, and the value of individuality and potentiality provide inspiration to anyone, any age. Another universal concept is the way in which beauty (both visual and musical) invites us to savor and explore, again and again. This will certainly be true, regardless of backgrounds, with readers across ages and holiday seasons making fascinating new discoveries on each page and in each image with each return. A great example is the happy discovery of this elegant design for the hard case under the paper cover:

Hard Case Cover ("undie award conciliate!)

The release for this is October 10, 2023, but it can be ordered in advance from then publisher, HERE, from indie bookstores HERE, or at online sales sources. I have no doubt that the initial printing could sell out before the holidays arrive, so make sure you get your own copy and copies for gifts as soon as possible.

A WALK IN THE WOODS with a Brilliant Creative Team

Neal Porter Books, 2023
Holiday House Publishing

I've been eagerly awaiting a chance to read and closely consider this recent release by what can only be called a "dream team" of talent: Nikki Grimes, Jerry Pinkney, and Brian Pinkney. Stars and raves have accumulated in the short time since its release. Those will continue to pour in as award season approaches. (You can bet on it!). With these stellar names attached and such widely reported praise, it's not a book that "needs" my support or encouragement for readers to seek it out. 

Even so, I'm compelled to join the chorus of praise for so many reasons. Some creators' names guarantee my interest. These three, individually, would each do so. In combination, anything resulting from their collaboration would be irresistible. 

A WALK IN THE WOODS adds to that appeal an evocative natural setting. A wooded area rich with personal and cultural history, wildlife, flora, and glimpses of the Hudson River is the stage for fraught subject matter: a son's grief over the death of his father. The cover reveals that the illustration approach is both familiar and unique for those of us who have read every picture book illustrated by either Jerry or Brian Pinkney. The father of this remarkably talented duo, Jerry, died in October, 2021. Given the pace of publication/production for picture books I imagined this might well be his final project, and perhaps one that involved his son, Brian, intentionally, possibly due to failing health. That assumption was from my unknowing distance. As the release approached the true story-behind-the-story was shared widely, revealing the truth of this book's origins and completion. 

Author/poet Nikki Grimes has been a close friend to illustrator/author Jerry Pinkney and his family for fifty years. It was only in recent years that they realized they had never created a book together and set out to change that fact. I won't reveal more about the genesis of this story and intended art, nor of the way the project was interrupted by Jerry's death. That backstory has become readily available, and both Grimes and Jerry's son Brian Pinkney shared details and their personal responses to the process in backmatter notes. The work itself is breathtakingly beautiful in theme, narrative, poems, and illustrations. Learning about the mystical sequence of events weaving through the lives of these people and the life of this book gives me chills. I suspect it will for you, as well.

The book opens with an inset illustration and a double spread of the father/son subjects, followed by a single page spread of the grieving boy at his desk with his mother behind his shoulder- all before the title page is displayed. Those images and the following pages are a response to the writing completed by Grimes, with the tight sketches and layouts completed by Jerry before his passing. These form the scaffolding for son Brian's color applications: painted swirls and focused blends of hues, tones, and movement that lift those sketches from line art to living, lovely illustrations, filled with emotion and tension. An illustration/book design bonus is that the gorgeous jacket covers a richly detailed sketches on the hard case front and back. 

The story opens with the pictured son longing for some message of inspiration from his deceased father, reflecting the pain and struggle of loss in his expressions and postures that enhance and support the poignant text provided by Grimes. The original sketches took into account each page design with single, double, and three-quarter page art spreads, allowing the text for each passage and page to resonate with its own pace and power. The lyrical narrative and the treasured poetry/sketch samples (found following the father's message and map of the woods) are direct, delicate, and deep-spirited.

Grief is evident throughout, but healing and hope move the boy and the readers throughout their journey through the woods. The final single spread reflects that opening spread of the boy with his mother behind his shoulder. In this case, though, the grief of both son and mother appear to be eased by examining the treasures left behind. The tender wisdom of the boy's father is apparent, knowing how to draw his son back to their shared walks, to reveal and remember what he could find in those paths and encounters, providing important traces of their shared experiences.

It is not possible to separate my praise for the text from the images. Grimes has demonstrated her gift for evoking and exploring the deepest emotions of young people throughout her career. The symbiosis of her sensitive lyrical language and both Pinkneys' lovingly completed illustrations is utterly powerful. I often take joy in teasing apart details and examples from fine works, considering the alchemy of creation. Despite my eagerness to examine this book carefully and share my reactions with readers, the magical quality of its language and lilting illustrations makes me reluctant to describe or excerpt any element of its contents. It deserves to be read as a whole, to be treasured as the work of art it is.

 My analysis about text or images doesn't begin to do justice to the direct messages from Grimes and Pinkney in those back notes, nor would I dare synthesize or paraphrase any examples from the remarkable walk and resulting moments of change. Experiencing this book in totality on its own merit is the way to appreciate it. Even so, it's not giving anything away to quote a closing line from the book:

"Dad knew I needed this walk in the woods."

For those who have dealt with grief (most of us), and those rare few who have not yet faced it directly, this is a must-have read and collection addition. I spent about an hour in an indie bookstore this week, where I found several copies of WALK IN THE WOODS on prominent display. After browsing only a short time, they had all been purchased before I returned to the shelf. Don't miss out.

And now let's hear it for WOMEN!

Whether March came in like a lion or a lamb where you live, it ushered in Women’s History Month here in the USA. Initiated as Women’s History Week back in 1981, this annual spotlight has a short track record considering that females have outnumbered males in this country for decades.

If you read my post at the start of February regarding Black History Month you can safely assume those same sentiments apply to this month’s designation.

*sigh of resignation*

In the interest of sharing picture books deserving of a place on any bookshelf any time of the year, let’s look at three titles featuring six amazing women- three history-makers and three authors, all women of distinction in their own right.

When Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming was released last spring I posted a detailed review for the Center for Children’s Literacy. Since its release it has garnered four starred reviews and the coveted SCBWI Golden Kite Award for non-fiction. It’s a comprehensive and authoritative biography that reads like the best of fiction and features extensive photographic and archival images.

Nikki Grimes offers another impressive portrait in Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman (illustrated by E. B. Lewis). Grimes, acclaimed for her poetry and fiction, infuses energy, emotion, and insight into the story of Bessie’s short but influential life. This book has the distinction of winning a Coretta Scott King Honor for the text and medal for the illustrations.

Rounding out this high-flying trio of picture book inspiration is Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride, by Pam Munoz Ryan, (illustrated by Brian Selznick). Ryan depicts an evening at the White House dinner at which Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt slip away to share a night flight over Washington. They return and cap off a memorable evening when Eleanor slips behind the wheel of her brand new car to drive Amelia around Washington. Ryan’s notes in the back indicate the blend of research and imagination underlying her award-winning title.


All three are set in a time before Women's History Month was conceivable, paving the way for those of us who came after. Together they depict an era in which barriers of race and gender were far beyond overt and offensive, to say the least. That familiar old saw, "Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it", hovers over all of us. These three titles offer a line-up of impressive women from that time, each of whom deserves our attention on any day or month of the calendar.


And don't overlook the authors who brought these stories to us, three very impressive women by any measure.


So who do you nominate as an author or history-maker of note?