28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World - Hardcover

Smith Jr., Charles R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1596438207 ISBN 13: 9781596438200

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press, 2015

Synopsis

Each day features a different influential figure in African-American history, from Crispus Attucks, the first man shot in the Boston Massacre, sparking the Revolutionary War, to Madame C. J. Walker, who after years of adversity became the wealthiest black woman in the country, as well as one of the wealthiest black Americans, to Barack Obama, the country's first African-American president.

With powerful illustrations by Shane Evans, this is a completely unique look at the importance and influence of African Americans on the history of this country.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles Smith Jr. is a celebrated author, poet, and photographer. He has created more than twenty books, including award-winning book Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali and Black Jack: The Ballad of Jack Johnson. He currently lives in Poughkeepsie, New York, with his wife, Gillian, and three kids, Sabine, Adrian, and Sebastian.
Shane W. Evans has illustrated numerous books for children, including Black Jack: The Ballad of Jack Johnson, Underground, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, and We March, recipient of three starred reviews and named a Jane Addams Honor Book, all for Roaring Brook Press. He lives with his family in Kansas City, Missouri.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 2–5—Smith tells readers in an author's note that he has "always had a love-hate relationship with Black History Month." Together with Evans, he presents 28 brief descriptions of crucial people or events in black history, ranging from 1770 to the present. Text formats include poetry, quotations, eulogies, and plays on numbers (a countdown recognizes astronauts Guion Bluford and Mae Jemison). The poetry stands out for its use of concrete form (the poem about tennis players Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe bounces across the page) and its wordplay (singer Marian Anderson's poem incorporates one of her best-known songs). Expanding on Evans's highly textured Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom (Roaring Brook, 2011) and other works, the collage-style art matches line and color palettes to the mood of each event (for example, Martin Luther King Jr. is shown speaking against a background of outward-expanding lines of yellows and oranges). The physical book sometimes becomes part of the illustration, as when the gutter separates a black family from a white one on the pages about the separate but equal doctrine, and the boundaries between words and pictures are sometimes blurred, as when Jackie Robinson literally hits words such as inequality and prejudice out of the park. A final 29th day challenges readers to make history for themselves, and a bibliography invites further exploration. Highly recommended as a reference book, an example of poetic forms, and a work of art.—Jill Ratzan, I. L. Peretz Community Jewish School, Somerset, NJ

About this edition

• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1596438207
• ISBN 13: 9781596438200
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 56
• Illustrator: Evans Shane W.