Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/reading-matters-celebrating-childrens-books-about-race/5024954/
The late Julius Lester was a writer and educator, a photographer and musician, a keeper of folktales and a passionate lifelong advocate of literature for black children by black authors and illustrators. In 2005, he published “Let’s Talk about Race,” a way to share with kids his belief that it’s our stories, rather than the color of our skin, that make us who we are. To Lester, it’s when we hear each other’s stories that we begin to understand each other. What’s your name? Are you tall? Do you like to laugh? Where do you live? I like pancakes, do you? The stories and poems and feelings we share illuminate reality in ways that the daily news never can.
“Let’s Talk about Race” by Julius Lester, illustrated by Karen Barbour (HarperCollins, 2005) Ages 6 – 10.
“The Undefeated” is a powerful poem by Kwame Alexander, magnificently illustrated by Kadir Nelson. It is an “ode to the dreamers and doers,” a hymn of praise to African Americans – those who were unafraid, unflappable, those whose pain was unspeakable. It’s about those who were undiscovered but unlimited. Nelson’s portraits of Black American heroes, and Alexander’s melding of the words ...