The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Bandy, Michael S. , Stein, Eric

Granddaddy's Turn: A Journey to the Ballot Box

32 pp. | Candlewick | July, 2015 | Trade ISBN 978-0-7636-6593-7 $16.99

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. The young narrator's grandfather puts on his coat and tie to vote for the first time. Before he can, the deputy humiliates him with an unfair literacy test. The plainspoken text offers a slice-of-life example of the injustices endured by African Americans during the mid-twentieth-century in a disappointingly still-timely book. Watercolor scenes of fishing and farm chores are bathed in warm greens and browns.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2015