Your parents and your teachers try to tell you about the past. You like the stories they share, the things your grandparents did and the important celebrities that lived long ago. It’s history and it’s fun to know, so why not reach for these Black History Month books for kids ages 5 to 8…? Who doesn’t love ice cream? If you do, then you’ll love reading “Ice Cream Man” by Glenda Armand and Kim Freeman, illustrated by Keith Mallet (Random House Kids, $18.99). It’s the story of Augustus Jackson, who was born a slave in Philadelphia and worked for a…
Author: Terri Schlichenmeyer
Every day, you fly just under the radar. Nobody bothers you because they don’t know who you are and that’s just fine. As long as you can keep your head down and get stuff done, you’ll survive and thrive to work another day. You don’t need fame or fortune to have a good life. As in “The New Yorkers” by Sam Roberts, they might come someday anyhow, though. Through the years, as a writer of “quirky accounts” of New York City, Sam Roberts has come to know many people whose names have been mostly forgotten – people who, in merely…
One dollar. That’s not a lot of cash when it’s your turn to pick the tunes and you want to hear your song now. Just a buck for the juke box and everybody can enjoy what you’ve chosen. That’s not a lot for four minutes of entertainment, especially when, as in the new book “Well of Souls” by Kristina R. Gaddy, it features your favorite instrument. In 1687, the English slave ship, the Benjamin, left the coast of Loango with a cargo of 375 adults and children headed for Jamaica and lives of slavery. Three hundred sixty-nine people arrived but…
Your entire life is like a gigantic game of “Chutes and Ladders.” Shake the dice, move two steps ahead, and you hit a ladder that takes you to higher places on the game board. Three more squares, and you hit a chute that sends you back to the bottom. Life and children’s games are alike in this way: as in the new book “The Light We Carry” by Michelle Obama, the only way to win is to keep playing. Pandemic, recession, political divide, market volatility. For many months, you’ve wondered every morning what fresh chaos you’ll deal with that day.…
It’s possible. Not now, but probably later… if at all. The thing is, you’re patient and you can wait. It’ll happen eventually, one way or the other, and you’re fine with things as they are in the meantime. You’re good. Whatever you hope for, it’s possible – except when, as in the new novel “Someday, Maybe” by Onyi Nwabineli, life has other plans. She prayed that he hadn’t read the last texts she sent to his phone. Eve Ezenwa-Morrow had been angry at her husband, Quentin. She’d sent him a flurry of “where are you?” messages that escalated until she…
It looks like your ticket was purchased the day you were born. Your destination was unknown and the journey takes a lifetime, but a seat was reserved for you that no one can take away. And yet, you could change courses any time you wished, for greener pastures or safer homes. In the new book “From Underground Railroad to Rebel Refuge” by Brian Martin, your fellow travelers are good with that. Even in the earliest days, there were slaves. In 1501, says Martin, a Portuguese explorer came to the easternmost shores of what’s now Canada with at least one slave.…
Raise your hand. If something’s going to get done around here, you’re volunteering because things need to be different and you’re ready and willing to make it happen. This starts with you because, well, who else? As in the new book “Half American” by Matthew F. Delmont, there’ll be no more doing things halfway. In the time before America entered World War II, Black Americans kept their eyes on what was happening overseas, particularly in Spain. The rise of fascism during the Spanish Civil War was of particular interest to them because “fascism was Jim Crow with a foreign accent.”…
Sometimes, you burn with a white-hot anger. So many roadblocks in front of you, so many injustices, damage, and danger. One day, this old world will be yours to run, and you wonder what kind of shape it’ll be in then. Will changes be made by adults or will kids like you have to make them happen? In answer: read “We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963” by Shelia P. Moses, and put your work clothes on. For eleven-year-old Rufus Jackson Jones Jr., life on Bull Hill in Birmingham was a struggle, but his family got by. His mother worked hard…
About a size seven. That’s how big your mouth must be, because you just stuck your size-seven foot into it – which is great, because now things are awkward and you never meant harm. You want to have the right conversation about race, you strive to be respectful, and “Courageous Discomfort” by Shanterra McBride and Rosalind Wiseman can help. So your foot is back on the ground now and that didn’t feel good, did it? Probably not, but McBride and Wiseman say that discomfort is necessary for (eventually) doing good in order to make change. Recognizing that everyone has a…
You can’t not look for the whoop. When that sound registers in your brain, let’s face it: you’re gonna rubberneck. You wonder if someone you know is inside that whooping vehicle, in an accident, or worse. You might even thank a higher power that it’s not you in there. And once you’ve read “American Sirens” by Kevin Hazzard, you’ll think of the heroes in the back of that ambulance. When John Moon saw what was happening to the old homeless man on the street, he carefully stepped in, assuring the police that he could help. He knew the old man;…