(1) K-3 Illustrated by Frank Morrison. Harper and Morrison's vibrant picture book focuses on a Black tween girl's trip through her city neighborhood on her way to a dance audition. She leaps -- sometimes exuberantly blowing a pink bubble-gum bubble in the air -- joyfully through scenes that include a subway, a street crossing, a busy playground, and other locations, with a multicultural group of people in the background. The narrator champions her neighborhood as a home to "brilliant minds" and "the birthplace of aerosol masterpieces, lyrical wordplay, and cardboard dance floors." Morrison's illustrations provide rich sensory detail and energy to support the narrator's observations of those who "sparkle under streetlamps." At the same time, words and images work collectively to challenge readers to slow down and pay attention to the wonders of city life that are easy to misunderstand or dismiss, as seen through the narrator's experience. Though the narrator says, "The streets look mean / from a birds-eye view," the text is a counternarrative for those with limited understandings of urban places that veer to the negative or deficit-based, challenging readers to "forget what you heard," look closer, and stay awhile. Harper's block (she hails from the Bronx) is alive, aptly called "my soul," and supported by Morrison's images and warm colors, a refreshing invitation to visit or imagine this memorable place.

Reviewer: Kim Parker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(1) 4-6 Illustrated by Dare Coulter. Alexander and Coulter have created a powerful counternarrative in their efforts to answer the question, "How do you tell a story about slavery?" Starting before Africans were forcibly brought to the Americas, both text and art reinforce the family structures, cultural traditions, and ways of life Africans enjoyed. When chattel slavery enters the story and white colonizers work "to steal them away / from their lives / and sell them / in America," the pain of separation and removal is poignant and brutal. The poetic text insists enslavement be explained from the perspective of humanizing the Africans and African Americans at the heart of this American story, while reinforcing motifs of agency, resistance, and flights to freedom. Coulter's mixed-media illustrations bring the text to life with a powerful combination of two-dimensional paintings and photographs of her three-dimensional ceramic and polymer clay sculptures. She juxtaposes her depictions of African Americans with drawings (in a yellow and black palette) of modern-day children grappling to understand the past and channeling their need for truth with their own desires to create change. The narrative ends on a hopeful note, encouraging the telling of an accurate story in an attempt to offer healing for a broad audience. Notes from the creators are appended.

Reviewer: Kim Parker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) PS Adapted by Ibram X. Kendi. Illustrated by Kah Yangni. In this board-book adaptation of a pourquoi story chronicled in Hurston's 1935 anthology Mules and Men, Kendi and Yangni collaborate to introduce young children to the African American folklore tradition and to Hurston's importance within that tradition. "The Creator wuz all finished and thru makin' de world," but then notices that the world looks too bare. So they add "trees and grass and flowers and plants"; when the flowers complain about feeling lonesome, the Creator goes "'round clippin' li'l pieces offa everything," thereby creating butterflies. Yangni's vibrant mixed-media illustrations span a range of settings--rural and urban, historical and current--accompanied by brilliantly colored butterflies throughout. "Butterflies were made to keep de flowers company" is the satisfying resolution. Kendi (who previously adapted a Hurston short story in Magnolia Flower, rev. 11/22) preserves Hurston's use of Black English, and his closing note provides rich historical context about both Ebonics and the importance of Hurston's work as a folklorist.

Reviewer: Kim Parker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Gordon C. James. Barnes and James reunite, after the multi-award-winning success of Crown (rev. 11/17), for this beautiful and necessary book that affirms Black boys and their right to thrive. James's vibrant oil-paint illustrations harmoniously depict Black boys in motion, in contemplation, and in full vitality as they skateboard, swim, or stand contemplatively in the outdoors. Barnes's refrain throughout the book of "I am" ("I am a roaring flame of creativity. / I am a lightning round of questions, and / a star-filled sky of solutions") is a powerful, present-tense reminder that normalizes the robust lives Black boys deserve to live, in stark contrast to the dedication page, which lists a number of murdered Black men and boys, many of whom were denied their own boyhoods. I Am Every Good Thing lets Black boys know they are loved and valued just as they are, with unlimited possibilities. Movingly, one boy affirms for himself and for the reader, "I am not what they might call me, / and I will not answer to any name that is not my own." Fortunately, Barnes and James provide us with a range of powerful, positive names to call Black boys as they urge us to see them, to love them, and to let them live their lives as they deserve.

Reviewer: Kim Parker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2020

(1) 4-6 Puberty is on the horizon for thirteen-year-old Jordan Banks, who returns in this hilarious and heartfelt companion to New Kid (rev. 1/19), the Coretta Scott King and Newbery Award–winning graphic novel. Jordan is now a year older, and a tiny bit more secure in his second year at Riverdale Academy Day (RAD) School. He still has the familiar comfort of loving parents (whose preference is for Jordan to spend his upcoming high school career at RAD rather than transfer to an art school, as he desires); and pals Liam and Drew (when the two are not embroiled in their own tensions over social class). Jordan and his friends navigate microaggressions, well-meaning but sometimes inept teachers, colorism, absentee caregivers, and other complex issues. Along the way, the trio demonstrates vulnerability, ranges of emotions, and willingness to always crack a joke--after all, they are teenage boys. Jordan's friend Drew's coming-of-age as a Black boy in a predominantly white environment is very thoughtfully explored, particularly the tension of navigating how to be an academic achiever in a context that is reluctant to acknowledge him as such. In one especially telling moment during a school visit by Black and Latinx students from underfunded "sister school" Cardi De Academy that goes terribly wrong, Drew is asked if "they let you be smart here? Or do they try to melt your wings?" Craft adeptly balances poignant questions like these with laugh-out-loud moments in the lively illustrations, making Class Act a substantial snapshot of the interior life of boys, especially Black boys who are too often not afforded such attention, love, and care.

Reviewer: Kim Parker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020