The Power of Her Pen: The Story of Groundbreaking Journalist Ethel L. Payne

“Here she sits/an old woman/tired and worm/her legs still/her back achy … but before wrinkles formed” she was a young woman who could walk for miles, worked for women’s right to vote and much, much more. This unique and touching introduction to Harriet Tubman is lovingly revealed and handsomely illustrated.

When Langston and his father move from Alabama to Chicago, he discovers the poet after whom his mother named him. And unlike the segregated library back home, he can freely use the library. Set during the Great Migration, the boy’s emotions, successes, and challenges remain contemporary. 

For Rosa and her family, Emancipation means education and schooling. The child’s narration accompanied by richly hued illustrations, reveals the strength in community and the power of learning in the face of adversity and opposition in a post-Civil War South.

Marshall Taylor’s bike stunts get him a job at the famous Indiana bike shop Hay and Willits. But he’s meant for even bigger things — namely the 1899 World Cycling championship — where his skin color attracts as much attention as his domination on the racetrack.

A window into a child’s experience of the Great Migration. Climbing aboard the New York bound Silver Meteor train, Ruth Ellen embarks upon a journey toward a new life up North — one she can’t begin to imagine. Stop by stop, the perceptive young narrator tells her journey in poems, leaving behind the cotton fields and distant Blue Ridge mountains.

She was named after a white actress of the time, but this young Black girl’s life took a very different path. Claudette Colvin became a 15-year-old activist who refused to give up a bus seat to a white woman — before Rosa Parks. This early chapter biography makes a difficult and complex time and life accessible to younger readers. Look for additional titles in this thoroughly researched, well conceived, and thoughtfully presented series.

A girl explains how her family once hunted whales but now use their family-owned boat to take tourists out to whale watch. Illustrations in color show the contemporary narrator and boat, while sepia-toned images depict the history. Interesting bits of African American history are embedded in this engaging, educational, and accessible story.

A young Frederick Douglass narrates this handsome, moving, and authentic story of his early life as a slave, his desire to learn, and plans to escape slavery. The child who grew up to be an abolitionist, memorable writer, and orator knew that words — reading — would set him free.