(2) K-3 Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera. Chef Edna Lewis (1916–2006) brought Southern cooking to the forefront of American cuisine. Growing up in Freetown, Virginia, a place founded by her grandfather and other formerly enslaved people, Edna helped Mama Daisy make meals. With fresh fish in spring, summer garden vegetables, sweet potatoes in fall, and biscuits year-round, Edna and her mother fed their family and community. When she was fifteen, Edna moved to New York, working odd jobs such as typing and answering phones to help support her family. Her work as a seamstress was what got her noticed, however, and she was soon designing and sewing clothes for celebrities. As her star rose in the social circles of New York, she began to host and cater parties using Mama Daisy's recipes, and her food became as famous as her dress designs. She eventually opened her own Manhattan restaurant, where socialites wondered which culinary school in Paris she'd attended. "Her Paris was Freetown, the flavors of home passed down from one generation to the next." Noel make s frequent use of fragmented sentences to punctuate the methodical effort of Edna's work ("Ironing. Cleaning. Cooking. Sending the money she earned back home"). Cabrera's vivid paintings are equally at home depicting the glamour of New York society and the closeness of Freetown's community. Appended with an author's note, additional resources, and a recipe for biscuits.

Reviewer: Eboni Njoku | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera. Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) grew up on the South Side of Chicago "with little money to spare," but her childhood home was rich in volumes of poetry, which her father read aloud and which she memorized. She began writing poems at the age of seven; at eleven, dreaming of an "ecstatically exquisite" future, she sent some of her best writing out and was published in a local newspaper and then a national magazine. Years of setbacks followed--including the Great Depression, many rejections from publications, and struggles to pay the bills--but only increased her devotion to her work. She wrote about the people she knew and observed in her Bronzeville ­neighborhood--"the nonstop busyness, the hard-luck grittiness." She was a wife and mother before she got her first book of poems published, and poetry still didn't pay the bills. But Brooks ­dancing with her son in an ­electricity-less apartment upon being informed she had won the Pulitzer Prize is a quietly joyful conclusion to her search for her future. Cabrera's strong, carefully composed acrylic illustrations beautifully evoke both the joy and the hardship in Brooks's everyday life and in the life of the community that inspired her. Slade's attention to detail, vigorous prose, and judicious use of the poet's own words make this biography, and its subject, stand out. Appended with an author's note, a timeline, a selected bibliography, and source notes.

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

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera. A mother entrusts her daughter to those who will help her escape slavery. Frightened and sad, the girl is comforted by her mother's quilt, embedded with hidden messages of strength and love. The text conveys the pathos of slavery and one family's desperate quest for freedom. Atmospheric acrylic paint and textile collages extend the narrative. Reading list.

Reviewer: Henrietta M. Smith

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera. Baby Girl is learning to quilt. She finds "the heart" of her quilt in the colors, fabrics, and, especially, the stories of women who gather to sew and sing and talk. Rich naïf-style paintings in warm, deep hues bring the writing to life, reflecting its tone and spirit. An informative introduction and an author's note round out the book.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2008

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera. A child spends the summer in the Sea Islands and learns to make the traditional seagrass baskets that symbolize the African-American culture of that region. Richly colored paintings evoke setting and interpret character in a diffuse but attractive vignette of the history and traditions of a unique people.

Reviewer: Amy Lois Cohn