Winner of the 2009 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, Philip Hoose's inspiring title brings much-needed focus on a brave 15-year-old girl who decided, "You just have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'" In March 1955, nine months before Rosa...
I have old emails in my inbox from Jabari Asim, when he used to be a books editor at The Washington Post. I did a couple of book reviews for him, and pitched a few more ...
How fitting to finish reading University of Michigan Professor Scott Kurashige's debut title on the 68th annual Day of Remembrance, which marks the anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which led to the imprisonment of 120,000 Americans of...
In 1848 American English, "wench" referred to "[a] colored woman of any age; a negress or mulattress, especially one in service." Among far too many southern (utterly misnamed) 'gentlemen' (as these men exhibited nothing 'gentle' in their behavior), a wench's expected service was sexual in...
I thought I should mark Lincoln's birthday today with Ho Che Anderson's epic graphic biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., who gave his legendary "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. Eighteen years in the making,...
Reading this phenomenal title four years ago was and remains for me one of the most searing literary experiences about the horrors of slavery. Something made me pull it out again and leaf through the pages, and viscerally recall 15-year-old Amari's terrifying 1738 journey across...
Today begins Black History Month ...
Once upon a time not so long ago, Americans were willing to risk their very lives for the privilege to cast their votes. Since the 1970s, just over half of U.S. citizens eligible to vote have turned out for Presidential elections (with the exception of...
Young Henry Bell's master insists that "he'll take an ax to the finger of any slave who touches a book." But before his father was sold away, he told his son that "book learning" would provide the way out of slavery. When Master Simon starts school,...
Using research originally developed by Harvard psychologist Dr. Howard Gardner about multiple intelligences which was made popular by Dr. Thomas Armstrong, author Nikola-Lisa chooses 12 achievers to show how they were each 'smart' in different, important ways. "Here are eight basic ways people can be...
Thank goodness young Augusta Savage had a supportive mother to balance out her discouraging father who crushed her youthful sculpture beneath his feet to prevent her from wasting time. "You ought to be reading the Bible instead," her preacher father insisted, "cultivating your mind, saving...
At just age 19, in the year 1773, the American slave Phillis Wheatley made her literary debut to a welcoming London audience waiting to hear from her upcoming poetry collection. Born free in Senegal, the young poet – originally named Penda Wane – was captured...
A fictionalized biography of a heroic young man born into slavery in 1814 and determined against all odds to be free. With the history of slaveowners abusing their women slaves reflected in his pale face, Henry Bibb could pass for white. Raised together with the...
A gorgeously rendered collection of poems that capture the colorful life of Nesta Robert Marley, born in 1945 to a young island girl just 18 and a 63-year-old British white man in a small town in Jamaica. Although his father quickly abandoned the young family,...
Walking home one day from school on the violent streets of Chicago, 14-year-old Cashay loses her beloved younger sister to a stray bullet. She would have done anything for her sister – she even purposefully flunked a grade so they could be in the same class. She...
The inaugural post for a historic inaugural year! While finding out so much more about our first African American president, you can also discover his Asian Pacific American cultural heritage, as well. He was born in Hawai’i, his father-figure ages 4-6 was an Indonesian man, Lolo...
A joyful celebration of all sorts of brown-tinted skin colors, reflected in the tan of a spicy masala chai to the cocoa of a frothy hot chocolate to the ochre of a bridal mehendi hand design to the coffee brown of café con leche to the adobe...
In graphic novel format just right for younger readers, Little Rock Nine deftly captures one of the most important moments in U.S. history when nine brave African American teens integrated all-white Central High School in...
An artistically gifted young boy realizes too early in his short life that fixing what he doesn't like in his pictures is much easier than trying to change what he doesn't understand about real life. He...
Something magical happens when prize-winning novelist Edwidge Danticat strings words together. From the most trivial details to breathtaking moments of enormous gravity, Danticat uses words as charms that gently beckon readers into her world and make...
