Review by New York Times Review
These works of biography and historical fiction immerse young readers in the 19th- and 20th-century struggles for equal rights. MY NAME IS TRUTH The Life of Sojourner Truth By Ann Turner Illustrated by James Ransome 40 pp. Harper/HarperCollins Publishers. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 6 to 10) CHASING FREEDOM The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, Inspired by Historical Facts By Nikki Grimes Illustrated by Michele Wood 53 pp. Orchard Books/Scholastic. $18.99. (Picture book; ages 5 and up) THE CASE FOR LOVING The Fight for Interracial Marriage By Selina Alko Illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko 40 pp. Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic. $18.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 9) AT HOME IN THE world. The first time I heard this expression, I reveled in the very idea of it. It felt like the perfect life goal for all humankind: a feeling of complete belongingness and freedom, unconstrained by society's perceptions of your capabilities, wherever you happen to be - at home or in public. The phrase resonates in three new picture books that highlight issues of race, gender and justice. These stories - about Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, and the Loving v. Virginia case that struck down laws prohibiting interracial marriage - all have main characters with a steadfast determination to change their lives. They are willing to fight their known hell for an unknown, possibly harsher fate. In each book, the law looms as a character, too, a force that can save lives or kill spirits. And all three books are, in different ways, interracial tales, reminding us that diverse coalitions have always worked together to achieve racial progress. Isabella Baumfree, later known as the legendary preacher and orator Sojourner Truth, was born a slave. Her parents watched helplessly as each of their 12 children was sold off, sent away and never seen again. "My Name Is Truth" begins with an unflinching look at slave life, its harshness and brutality. In one illustration, Isabella is shown standing among sheep, waiting to be sold, as two white men haggle over her price (they settle on $150). After being bought and sold several times, Isabella decides to run away. By running free, she claims herself: "I owned myself now /I was not a slave." She took a new name to go with her new life: Sojourner Truth, because she traveled about, speaking the truth. She earned her name as she went around the country, exhorting abolition and gender equality. Ann Turner's story does not make reference to Truth's famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, a welcome omission. Though it has come to be considered Truth's signature lecture, historians have questioned whether she spoke those exact words, and it has overshadowed her decades-long contributions to the abolitionist movement, becoming a one-note encapsulation of her life's work: "Sojourner Truth. 'Ain't I a Woman?' The end." I hope this invigorating picturebook biography will encourage young people to learn more about Truth, and read some of her speeches. James Ransome's watercolor illustrations are a fine match for Turner's straight-to-the-heart narrative. He captures the shifting heft of Truth's life - the backbreaking labor, the delight of sleeping on a bed for the first time, the power of her sermons over listeners. Some of his illustrations go beyond the words to portray a cosmic, seemingly preordained life of service for Truth. "Chasing Freedom" is another beautiful, richly detailed book, a work of historical fiction that imagines a friendship between Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony. Both women spent their lives working to end slavery and secure equal rights for women. Nikki Grimes's choice of format is notable. The story unfolds in a series of onepage vignettes, each building upon the previous one, as the two women meet for tea one afternoon and look back on their lives and work. This structure allows Grimes to introduce readers to movement leaders of the day. We see Frederick Douglass (who helped Tubman hide slaves in his home), John Brown (who told Tubman of his plan to raid Harpers Ferry) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (who founded women's groups with Anthony). Grimes's layered history uncovers the public lives and private ruminations of Tubman and Anthony. In their conversation, set in 1904, the pair talk womanhood and protest. They nod as they discuss the ugliness of gender inequity. Tubman's stories reveal her determination - most notably her 10-year slave rescue mission - and her laments. She expresses sadness (not regret) that her work travels ended her marriage. Anthony's stories, too, detail the cost of her commitment - being vilified by the press, being shouted down at meetings, having doors slammed in her face. Along with presenting absorbing portraits of both women, this story of cross-racial friendship will allow older elementary-school readers to see connections between the abolitionist and women's rights movements. Each of Michele Wood's illustrations is a museum-worthy visual treasure. Her people are surrounded by rich-hued block quilt designs, embedded with symbols, including washboards, drums and crosses. This is a book that works on all levels. "The Case for Loving" tells the story of Mildred and Richard Loving, who fell in love young and hard. She was black and he was white, and in 1958 it was illegal for them to wed in Virginia. They were able to marry in Washington, D.C., but after returning home they were arrested and charged with "unlawful cohabitation." The judge gave them a choice: jail or banishment from Virginia. They moved to Washington, but later took their fight to the Supreme Court and won. The Lovings did not consider themselves pioneers or crusaders for interracial marriage. In a 1966 Life magazine interview, Richard said: "We are not doing it just because somebody had to do it and we wanted to be the ones. We are doing it for us." Still, they helped change history, and their story is given an added dimension as it is told through the lens of an author and an illustrator who are themselves an interracial married couple. Sean Qualls and Selina Alko collaborated on the skillful artwork that carries the story forward. Pages depicting good times feature symbols of childhood innocence - hearts, flowers, peppermint candies and butterflies. But when the law intervenes to delegitimize the couple's love, the pages are more stark and spare - showing the shock of being arrested and the isolation of their city living. Alko's calm, fluid writing complements the simplicity of the Lovings' wish - to be allowed to marry. Some of the wording, though, strikes a sour note. "Richard Loving was a good, caring man; he didn't see differences," she writes, suggesting, implausibly, that he did not notice Mildred's race. After Mildred is identified as part black, part Cherokee, we are told that her race was less evident than her small size - that town folks mostly saw "how thin she was." This language of colorblindness is at odds with a story about race. In fact, this story presents a wonderful chance to address the fact that noticing race is normal. It is treating people better or worse on the basis of that observation that is a problem. All told, "The Case for Loving" is an engaging and important story, one that invites young people to think about the connections between love, law and justice. Along with "My Name Is Truth" and "Chasing Freedom," it reminds us that for some the struggle to be at home in the world - truly free - has always been a mighty and hard-fought one. ? KATHERYN RUSSELL-BROWN, a professor of laW at the University of Florida, is the author of the picture book "Little Melba and Her Big Trombone."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [February 1, 2015]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Many children's books tackle landmark events in U.S. history, but this one is an especially needed addition. The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, the interracial couple whose fight for the right to be married led to the Supreme Court's ruling that ended anti-miscegenation laws, is relayed here as a love story that does not sugarcoat the virulent racism of the time. After traveling just beyond their Virginia home to wed in nearby D.C., the couple's return was greeted by a home raid, arrest, and a declaration that their love was unlawful. After a long court struggle, however, the Lovings were free at last to live happily (and legally) ever after. Familiar expressions such as these are cleverly inserted through the narrative, drawing attention to everyday language that was not so ordinary for the Lovings. Gentle painted background scenes are overlaid with bright collages of flowers, birds, and hearts, lending a playfulness to the otherwise sober story. An author's note grounds the Lovings' story in the present as Alko recognizes that her own interracial marriage is part of the trajectory of change, which continues today in the LGBTQ community's fight for equality. Inspirational, never heavy-handed, and appropriate for just about everyone.--Chaudhri, Amina Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In their first picture book together, the husband-and-wife team of Alko (B Is for Brooklyn) and Qualls (Freedom Song) skillfully chronicle a vital moment in the civil rights movement, telling the story of Richard and Mildred Loving. Because interracial marriage was illegal in their native Virginia in 1958, the couple married in Washington, D.C.; after returning to Virginia, they were jailed for "unlawful cohabitation." The Lovings settled in D.C. and had three children before returning to Virginia in 1966, when "Brand-new ideas, like equal rights for people of all colors, were replacing old, fearful ways of thinking. Alko adeptly streamlines the legal logistics of the Lovings' groundbreaking Supreme Court case, which found prohibitions on interracial marriage to be unconstitutional, emphasizing the ethical and emotional aspects of the story. Hearts, stars, flowers, and facsimile family photos dot the warm mixed-media illustrations, visually underscoring the love that kept the Lovings' union strong. An author's note provides added context (including the contributors' closeness to the subject, as an interracial couple themselves), while drawing parallels to ongoing efforts to legalize same-sex marriage. Ages 4-8. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-5-This debut picture book by husband and wife team Alko and Qualls gives the story of Mildred and Richard Loving its due. The couple first met and fell in love in Jim Crow Cedar Point, VA, in 1958, but because Richard was white and Mildred was African American and Cherokee, they were not permitted to marry under Virginia law. The pair did contract nuptials in Washington, DC and eventually had several children, but they weren't content to leave the discriminatory law uncontested. In legal proceedings that led to a Supreme Court case, their union was finally upheld as constitutional. The charming and cheerful mixed media illustrations are done in gouache and acrylic paint with collage and colored pencil, a perfect marriage of Alko and Qualls's art styles. While the text is uninspired in moments, it shines with a message that is universal: "They won the right to their love. They were free at last." Back matter includes an author and artist's note explaining the importance of this topic. A much-needed work on a historical court case that made the ultimate difference on mixed race families that will resonate with contemporary civil rights battles. Put it on the shelves next to Duncan Tonatiuh's Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation (Abrams, 2014) and Joyce Carol Thomas's Linda Brown, You Are Not Alone: The Brown v. Board of Education Decision (Hyperion, 2003).-Shelley Diaz, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
The 1967 Supreme Court case that legalized interracial marriage throughout the country is here given a picture-book accounting. Richard Loving was white, Mildred Jeters skin was a creamy caramel; despite their different racial backgrounds, they fell in love and married, only to be arrested for miscegenation when they returned to their Virginia hometown after the wedding. Its a story about adults and with potentially much legalese, but Alko does a mostly admirable job of shaping the love story and the legal proceedings for a young audience. There is, however, a haziness about skin color and racial identity throughout the book that can be unclear, with lyrical references to people of every shade bumping confusingly with colored, and black; meanwhile, the term interracial marriage is used but not defined. While the book is honest about the obstacles the Lovings faced, its message and tone are optimistic, the feel-good atmosphere reinforced by the pencil, paint, and collage illustrations by Alko and Qualls (themselves partners in an interracial marriage). With soft, worn shades providing a gently old-timey aura, even a scene like the police busting in on the sleeping couple is sufficiently dramatic without being frightening. Frequent festoons of hearts and flowers, nice but overly decorative, help, too. Sources and a suggested reading list are appended. roger sutton (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Biography and autobiography intertwine in this account of the landmark case of Loving v. Virginia. Richard Loving, pale-skinned and vulnerable to sunburn, and Mildred Jeter, a brown-skinned woman of African-American and Cherokee descent, fell in love in 1958. But in the state of Virginia, miscegenation was illegal and punishable by imprisonment. They traveled to Washington, D.C., to marry legally, but when they returned and moved in together, the local police arrested and jailed them. This story makes palatable for young readers a painful, personal and true story of the injustices interracial couples suffered as recently as 60 years ago. Alko and Qualls reveal the double-layered nature of this story with a photograph of themselves; this was the perfect story for a collaboration since their journey echoes the Lovings'. In the backmatter, Alko cites the current statistics on gay marriage and hopes that "there will soon come a time when all people who love each other have the same rights as Sean and I have." The "Suggestions for Further Reading" mentions both earlier books in the same tradition, such as Arnold Adoff and Emily Arnold McCully's Black is Brown is Tan (1973, 2002), and contemporary ones that detail other civil rights struggles. Despite the gentle way this book unfolds, the language and images deal a blow to racist thinking and just might inspire the next generation of young civil rights activists. (artists' note, sources) (Informational picture book. 4-9) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
