Patricia C. "Pat" McKissack was a prolific African American children's writer. She was the author of over 100 books, including Dear America books A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl;Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North; and Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl. She also wrote a novel for The Royal Diaries series: Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba. Notable standalone works include Flossie & the Fox (1986), The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural (1992), and Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? (1992). What is Given from the Heart was published posthumously in 2019.
The quilts of Gee's Bend are quilts created by a group of women and their ancestors who live or have lived in the isolated African-American hamlet of Gee's Bend, Alabama along the Alabama River. The quilts of Gee's Bend are among the most important African-American visual and cultural contributions to the history of art within the United States. Arlonzia Pettway, Annie Mae Young and Mary Lee Bendolph are among some of the most notable quilters from Gee's Bend. Many of the residents in the community can trace their ancestry back to enslaved people from the Pettway Plantation. Arlonzia Pettway can recall her grandmother's stories of her ancestors, specifically of Dinah Miller, who was brought to the United States by slave ship in 1859.
Flossie & the Fox is a 1986 picture book by Patricia C. McKissack about a girl, Flossie, who takes some eggs to a neighbor, meets a fox on the way and manages to outwit it. In 1991, a film adaptation of the book was made with the author narrating.
Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? is a 1992 children's biography by Patricia and Frederick McKissack. It tells the story of African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist, Sojourner Truth.
A Million Fish ... more or less is a 1992 children's picture book by Patricia McKissack. It is about a boy of the bayou, Hugh Thomas, who has a fishing adventure.
Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters is a 1994 Children's book by Patricia McKissack and Frederick McKissack. It is about the preparations and workings around the Christmas season on a slave plantation in 1850s Virginia.
The All-I'll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll is a 2007 picture book by Patricia McKissack and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. It is about a girl, Nella, living during the Great Depression who amazingly receives a doll for Christmas, initially doesn't share with her sisters but then relents after discovering that it's not fun to play by herself.
Run Away Home is a 1997 book by Patricia McKissack. Set in the late 19th century, it is about an African-American girl, Sarah Jane, who finds an Apache boy in the family barn and the subsequent affects on their lives.
Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers is a 1999 book by Patricia McKissack and Frederick McKissack about the involvement of African-Americans in the history of whaling in the United States.
Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North is a 2000 book by Patricia McKissack about a girl, Nellie, who from 1919 records her thoughts and experiences in a diary including her home in rural Tennessee, as a part of The Great Migration, and her new home in Chicago. It is part of the Dear America book series.
Days Of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States is a 2002 book by Patricia McKissack and Fredrick McKissack which sets out the history of Abolitionism in the United States.
A Friendship for Today is a 2007 book by Patricia McKissack about the life of a girl, Rosemary Patterson, attending one of the first integrated Missouri schools during the 1950s.
Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts is a 1996 book by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack.
Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues is a 1994 book by Patricia McKissack and Fredrick McKissack, Jr. It tells the history African-American and Latin American involvement with baseball in the United States.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a 1997 retelling of Rudyard Kipling's classic story by Jerry Pinkney about a mongoose that protects a family from two cobras. The book won a Caldecott honor in 1998 for its illustrations.
Ma Dear's Aprons is a 1997 book by Patricia McKissack about the relationship between a son, David Earl, and his mother, Ma dear.
Scraps of Time: 1928, A Song for Harlem is a 2007 book by Patricia McKissack about a girl, Lilly Belle, who spends the Summer of 1928 in Harlem attending a writers' workshop led by Zora Neale Hurston.
Young, Black, and Determined: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry is a 1998 book by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack. It is a biography of the playwright and activist, Lorraine Hansberry.
Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl is a 2003 picture book by Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by James Ransome. It is a retelling by Hamilton, in the Gullah dialect, of the classic story of Bruh Rabbit outwitting Bruh Wolf.
The White Cat and the Monk: A Retelling of the Poem "Pangur Bán" is a 2016 children's picture book by Jo Ellen Bogart and illustrated by Sydney Smith. An adaption of an anonymous ninth century poem, it is about the friendship between Pangur, a cat and a monk, told over the course of one night, and the fulfillment they both receive by morning.
