Provides annotations of the winning and honor books, biographies of prominent African American authors and illustrators, and interviews with Jerry Pinkney and author Walter Dean Myers.

“We free now, baby,” mama whispers as we bounce and sway with the wagon’s twists and turns over roads of clay through the land that oppressed us to a new world, a brand new day. The dynamic author/illustrator team of Toyomi Igus and Michele Wood has come together again to produce I See the Rhythm of Gospel, a sequel to the Coretta Scott King Award-winning I See the Rhythm. Readers of all ages will be captivated by this informative and inspirational blend of poetry, art, and music that relates the history of gospel music as reflected through the journey of African Americans from their arrival as slaves in America to the election of our first black president, Barack Obama.

A biography of the minister, orator, and crusader for equal civil rights who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Winner of the Coretta Scott King Book Award For young readers comes a poetic commemoration of the life of an 18th-century slave, from a past poet laureate and three-time National Book Award finalist For over 200 years, the Mattatuck Museum in Connecticut has housed a mysterious skeleton. In 1996, community members decided to find out what they could about it. Historians discovered that the bones were those of an enslaved man named Fortune, who was owned by a local doctor. After Fortune’s death, the doctor rendered the bones. Further research revealed that Fortune had married, had fathered four children, and had been baptized later in life. His bones suggest that after a life of arduous labor, he died in 1798 at about the age of 60. The Manumission Requiem is Marilyn Nelson’s poetic commemoration of Fortune’s life. Detailed notes and archival photographs enhance the reader’s appreciation of the poem.

Emma cares for Mr. Butler's daughters and has been promised that she will never be sold as a slave. When he breaks his promise and sells her on auction day, Emma runs away, gets married and eventually gains her freedom in Canada.

Gathers together the best African American children's literature.

An African-American child resents and then misses a little foster brother. One day my momma told me, "You know you're gonna have a little friend come stay with you." And I said, "Who is it?" and "For how long?" That's when Stevie moved in with his crybaby self. He played with my toys and broke them, and he left dirty footprints all over my bed. But then Stevie left again, and I missed him. I missed playing Cowboys and Indians on the stoop and watching cartoons in the morning. Maybe. . .just maybe, Stevie wasn't so bad after all. Notable Children's Books of 1940–1970 (ALA) "Best of the Best" Children's Books 1966–1978 (SLJ) 1978 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award Society of Illustrators Gold Medal Children's Books of 1969 (Library of Congress) Children's Books of the Year 1969 (CSA) Black Americans – Minority Groups List (BL) Notable Books for the Portrayal of the Black in Children's Literature (Top of the News) Select Children's Books of 1969 (Publishers Weekly) Brooklyn Art Books for Children 1974