(2) K-3 Illustrated by Jacqueline Alcántara. This lyrical look at the young life of an enigmatic musician follows Prince through his challenging youth and shows how community support helped him channel hard times into music. The rhythm of Joy's (Choosing Brave, rev. 9/22) poetic text matches the rhythm of Prince's early life, feeling sometimes disjointed as he drifts through a tumultuous childhood and suddenly becomes steady as he finds his way to the style that became known as the Minneapolis Sound. Alcantara's (most recently, illustrator of Climb On!, rev. 5/22) washes of watercolor echo the text's progression, starting with more muted blue tones including peeks of Prince's iconic purple, eventually resolving into a glorious celebration of deep purples as his music develops. Joy's telling of Prince's childhood will resonate with young people who use art to find meaning in difficult days. An author's note relates biographical information more directly; back matter also notes Joy's own connection to Prince and his music and includes a family-friendly playlist of his songs.

Reviewer: Laura Koenig | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(1) 4-6 Illustrated by Janelle Washington. This powerful picture-book biography reverently portrays the life of Mamie Till-Mobley (1921–2003), whose defiant act of bravery following the 1955 murder of her son, Emmett, brought a spiritual essence to--and helped ignite--the civil rights movement. Joy's (Black Is a Rainbow Color, rev. 1/20) lyrical free-verse narrative opens on August 31, 1955, when "the sheriff set out to dig a grave...to hide the crime in the mud of Mississippi...But Mamie did the harder thing. She said, 'No. You send my son home.'" The text then goes back to Mamie's childhood outside of Chicago, where the family moved from Mississippi during the Great Migration. She excelled in school, graduating at the top of her class, and later married Louis Till. They had a baby, Emmett, whose bout with polio left him with a stutter. One summer, relatives invited Emmett to spend time with them in Mississippi. Mamie said no, fearful of the Jim Crow South. Although she finally agreed, still, "Sometimes a mother gets a feeling, an ache deep down in her soul--a warning." The heart of the story is what happens following Emmett's brutal murder. Mamie's resolve not to let her son be forgotten leads her to a crusade of social justice and advocacy--not only for Emmett but for "sons and daughters still living." Washington's dramatic paper-cut art, featuring bold black-and-white silhouettes and figures on brown backgrounds with blue, brown, and red tissue-paper accents, perfectly captures the courage and dignity of the subject. Rich back matter includes author and illustrator notes, a playlist, a timeline, and a bibliography.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Ekua Holmes. A young girl sits on her stoop contemplating the colors of the rainbow, then notes, "But my color is black...and there's no black in rainbows." There is, however, black in a crayon box, black in nature ("a feather in snow"), and black in fun ("the bottoms of summertime feet"). And the black of Black culture is rich indeed, as the succeeding pages show. The rhyming text uses familiar symbols and motifs (black-eyed peas, a cooking skillet "for bread to fry," blues music) as well as allusions to specific examples of African American art, music, poetry, and literature ("Black are the birds in cages that sing") to create a mosaic of a community and culture that survives and thrives. Holmes's illustrations use heavy lines and strong colors with soft touches of collage detail to represent everyday children as well as the iconic figures referenced in the text. Details in the back matter increase the book's value: there's a playlist; an explication of selected phrases ("Robe on Thurgood's Back"; "Dreams and Raisins"); several poems by Langston Hughes and Paul Laurence Dunbar; "A Timeline of Black Ethnonyms in America" (from Negro to black to Black); and a bibliography (for adults). A treasure trove of positivity, strength, and pride for anyone seeking to uplift and educate young people.

Reviewer: Autumn Allen | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2020