It’s almost time for lights out. Just before that, though, you have a ritual: you wash your face, brush your teeth, put on your jammies, crawl into bed, and get a bedtime story. Then it’s lights out until morning but before your good-night kiss tonight, ask for one last thing. Ask for “Dark Was the Night” by Gary Golio, illustrated by E. B. Lewis. In a tiny Texas town in 1897, little Willie Johnson was born on a bright, sunny January day. Willie’s family didn’t have much money, and so when he was a small boy and his parents noticed…
Author: Terri Schlichenmeyer
Your birthday card had a Black History postage stamp on it. As always, it was from Grandma and though it’s kind of corny, you look forward to it ever year: a blue or red envelope outside, a sentimental saying with a few bucks tucked inside. Other than bills, ballots, and ads, she’s the only person you know who snail-mails anything, but in “Dear Justyce” by Nic Stone, help can be delivered, too. The first time Vernell LaQuan Banks ran away, he was nine years old. His mother’s new man had been beating her again and though Quan hated leaving his…
To relax, or not to relax? Why not? Whatever. Your hair has gone through several stages of change: you’ve braided, straightened, curled, permed, and loc’d, put it beneath a turban, a durag, scarves, wigs, and kangols. It’s been shaved, picked, plucked, pulled back, and done up. Therewere times when you fought your own hair, and you don’t want your children to go through that. So look for “Glory” by Kahran and Regis Bethencourt, and call the kids. As photographers, Kahran and Regis Bethencourts say that they consider themselves “cultural storytellers” who believe that Black culture has been “under-celebrated.” For far too…
Your favorite player loves getting buckets. And that’s good – that’s the goal of the game, after all, right? It’s called basketball because that’s what you’re supposed to do: put the ball in the basket, dunk it right in the bucket. You might need help to do that now, but practice, and maybe you’ll be a pro someday. Maybe you’ll be like the players in “Swish!” by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Don Tate. Ka-thumpa, ka-thumpa, ka-thumpa. that’s what people heard all day, if they lived near Chicago’s South side. It was “those boys” and their basketballs, doing “nonstop layups, all-net…
You can’t stand to watch another happily-ever-after movie again. You’re done with all those romancy novels, tender songs of love, and dreams of flowers every Valentine’s Day. Statistically speaking – and being realistic – that stuff isn’t in the cards for you, and in “Black Women, Black Love” by Dianne M. Stewart, you’ll see how this might have happened. About a decade ago, the Census Bureau released a sobering fact: nearly three out of four Black women in America were not married. More than half of those women had never even been to the altar and, says Stewart, it wasn’t…
Save the Earth! You’d agree to that. Who doesn’t want to enjoy a bright, airy afternoon with cotton-ball clouds? Of course, you’d happily leave your grandchildren those shirt-sleeve kinds of days, thunderstorm evenings, clean air and water. That’s what you’d choose if you could –though, as you’ll see in “An Environmental History of the Civil War” by Judkin Browning & Timothy Silver, things weren’t always so sunny. In all the battles that occurred in the Civil War, just one campaign – the Mud March of January, 1863 – was named after the weather in which it happened. It was the…
“Excuse me. It’s my time to talk.” Ugh, it’s frustrating when someone doesn’t honor your voice or respect your ideas. When it’s your time to speak, they should at least be quiet, and you shouldn’t feel bad for wanting to be heard. Speak up! As in the new book “Reclaiming Her Time” by Helena Andrews-Dyer and R. Eric Thomas, one politician had no problem doing so. Born and raised in poverty, little Maxine Carr had one thing most kids in the 1930s and 40s didn’t have: she had the certainty that if she didn’t open her mouth to speak up,…
Things could always be worse. You didn’t sleep well last night, your day started earlier than usual, and traffic, ugh; then you forgot your lunch and lost a bag of chips in a vending machine, and you never did catch up. You had a rotten day but look on the bright side: you’re above ground and breathing and, as in “We’re Better Than This” by Elijah Cummings with James Dale, someone had your back. Throughout most of his life, Elijah Cummings’ parents were his guidelights. “Neither had much education,” he wrote; they were sharecroppers who moved north so that…
Did you see that? Sure you did. You couldn’t miss it, actually, because you can spot hatred, discrimination, and bad trouble a mile away. You know when something’s wrong and you saw it; saw it coming, in fact, and you weren’t alone. In “Begin Again” by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., you’ll know that a warning was sounded decades ago. Every day, it seems like you catch the news and you cringe. “It is exhausting,” says Glaude, “to find oneself… navigating a world rife with deadly assumptions about you and those who look like you… for no other reason” than the…
It starts early-on. At first, it seems spontaneous: parents who enjoy their interests naturally display those passions to small children who are dragged along for the ride. The child observes and absorbs until one day, parental interest becomes child’s obsession. And in “The Truths We Hold” by Kamala Harris, that’s how a politician is made. Supporters can almost see the trajectory in the history: Kamala Harris’s parents, both highly educated immigrants, instilled a sense of independence in their daughter and both remained supportive of her choices, even as they divorced. Harris’s mother, especially, gave Harris lessons in strength and activism…