 | |
| Author | Deborah Wiles |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Jerome Lagarrigue |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
Publication date | 2001 |
| Pages | 32 pages |
| ISBN | 978-0-689-87829-9 |
| OCLC | 57510775 |
Freedom Summer is a children's picture book written by Deborah Wiles and illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue. Originally published as a hardcover edition in 2001, the book is now available as a paperback from Simon & Schuster.
The novel is set in Mississippi during the summer of 1964, a summer of desegregation in the South. The story revolves around two best friends, John Henry, who is black and Joe, who is white. They do everything together, including swimming in a local creek. However, they cannot do the same in the town pool because blacks are not allowed to use the public swimming pool.
Joe is then told that a law has been passed that blacks can do everything that whites can do. He is really excited because this means that he can go to the town pool tomorrow with John Henry. The boys are more excited than ever but when they arrive at the town pool the following day, they are shocked to find that the town pool has been closed. The pool has been filled with black sticky tar as the white people in their community chose to close down the entire pool instead of facing the prospect of sharing it with their black neighbors. While the laws of the nation of changed, it becomes clear to the boys that attitudes and ideas about race will take longer to evolve.
The boys are disappointed but the book ends with a glimmer of hope as the two friends are able to enter a grocery store together that was previously for whites only.
Illustrator Jerome Lagarrigue won the John Steptoe Award for New Talent [1] for this book. In 2002 the book won the Ezra Jack Keats Award [2] for best new picture book writer of the year and best new illustrator.
Ezra Jack Keats was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He won the 1963 Caldecott Medal for illustrating The Snowy Day, which he also wrote. Keats wrote A Letter to Amy and Hi, Cat! but he was most famous for The Snowy Day. It is considered one of the most important American books of the 20th century.
The Snowy Day is a 1962 children's picture book by American author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats. It features Peter, an African American boy, who explores his neighborhood after the season’s first snowfall. Keats’ illustrations helped pave the way for more inclusive and diverse children’s literature. Keats received the 1963 Caldecott Medal for his collage artwork, which made The Snowy Day the first picture book with an African American protagonist to win a major children’s award. The book’s reception was largely positive, although some critics pointed out subtle stereotypes, such as how Peter’s mother was portrayed. Since its publication The Snowy Day has sold millions of copies and has been translated, adapted, and honored leaving a lasting impression on generations of readers.
Deborah Wiles is a children's book author. Her second novel, Each Little Bird That Sings, was a 2005 National Book Award finalist. Her documentary novel, Revolution, was a 2014 National Book Award finalist. Wiles received the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship in 2004 and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award in 2005. Her fiction centers on home, family, kinship, and community, and often deals with historical events, social justice issues, and childhood reactions to those events, as well as everyday childhood moments and mysteries, most taken directly from her childhood. She often says, "I take my personal narrative and turn it into story."
Bryan Collier is an American writer and illustrator known best for illustrating children's books. He won both the Coretta Scott King Award, as illustrator, and the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award for Uptown, the first book he both wrote and illustrated. He has won six King Awards as illustrator and he is a four-time Caldecott honor recipient.
John Steptoe was an author and illustrator for children’s books dealing with aspects of the African-American experience. He is best known for Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, which was acknowledged by literary critics as a breakthrough in African history and culture.
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Goggles! is 1969 children's picture book by American author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats published by the Penguin Group in 1998. The book is about two boys finding motorcycle goggles. Goggles won a Caldecott Honor in 1970. The illustrations consist of mellow colors created using Keats' signature style of a combination of painting and collage.
The Stamp Collector is a children's picture book by Jennifer Lanthier and François Thisdale. It was published in 2012 by Fitzhenry & Whiteside. A French language edition, Le Collectionneur de Timbres, was released in October, 2013. The theme of the book is freedom of expression.
Jennifer Deirdre Jane Lanthier is a Canadian children's author and journalist. Since August 2016 she has been the Director, U. of T. News at the University of Toronto.
Don Tate is an American author and illustrator of books for children. He is also an activist promoting racial and cultural inclusiveness in children's literature. He notes that as a child he had to read the encyclopedia to discover a multicultural world; based on the children's books of his day he "thought the world was white". He co-founded the young African American blog The Brown Bookshelf and helps run the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign to improve diversity of material in children's books.
The Ezra Jack Keats Book Award is an annual U.S. literary award.
Sophie Jocasta Blackall is an Australian artist, author, and illustrator of children's books based in Brooklyn, New York.
Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut is a 2017 picture book by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James. The book, Barnes' first picture book, is a poem describing a boy's feelings and experience while getting a haircut. James, who was not the first choice to be the illustrator, wanted the oil color illustrations to have the feel of fine art.
Thank You, Omu! is a 2018 picture book written and illustrated by Oge Mora. The story is about Omu, who cooks a stew and shares it with her neighbors; they show their gratitude by bringing her food. The book started as an assignment for a class of Mora's at the Rhode Island School of Design, where it was seen by an editor from Little, Brown. Thank You, Omu was well reviewed and a recipient of the 2019 Caldecott Honor for its illustrations. The book's mixed media drew praise for their detailed depictions of characters and locations.
Richard Gregory Christie is an American author and illustrator of picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, and album covers best known for his Coretta Scott King Award-winning books No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller, Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U. S. Marshal, and Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Only Passing Through, and the NAACP Image Award-winning Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change.
Bird, written by Zetta Elliott and illustrated by Shadra Strickland, is a picture book written in 2008. It won the New Voices Award Honor from its publishing company Lee & Low Books Incorporation.
Oge Mora is a children's book illustrator and author living in Providence, Rhode Island. She received a Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent, and Ezra Jack Keats Book Award in 2019 for her book, Thank You, Omu!.
Zeke Peña is an American cartoonist, illustrator, and writer. He has won multiple awards for illustration, including for his work in two books by Isabel Quintero; My Papi Has a Motorcycle and Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide. His work deals with themes of American history, the culture of the border region, folklore, and social justice.
