The Difference Of One

Often you read the title of a book initially unaware of its specific content.  And, even though the punctuation does not indicate a question, you have questions.  You are also pondering probable answers to those questions.

We lost John Robert Lewis on July 17, 2020.  He was a man who never sought it, but was wrapped in a mantle of light and honor for his lifetime of accomplishments.  Certainly, there must be a lengthy list of truths to follow the first five words in this title.  Possibilities were whirling through my mind.   Because Of You, John Lewis: The True Story Of A Remarkable Friendship (Scholastic Press, June 7, 2022) written by Andrea Davis Pinkney with illustrations by Keith Henry Brown supplies us with a story each generation wishes for the next.  We wish for the world to be a better place for all and we wish for those who follow us to continue working toward that better place.

His name is as bright as the dawn filled with stars.

Tybre Faw.

Tybre Faw has a wish as radiant as his name.  He wants to meet Congressman John Lewis and shake his hand.  Hailing from Johnson City, Tennessee, Tybre has been schooled by his grandmothers and the Black Lives Matter movement.  This is a child filled with purpose and hope.

Upon first learning about John Lewis, Tybre reads all he can about this friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  He reads about his youth as a sharecropper's son and preaching to his family's chickens.  He reads how John Lewis wanted to meet Dr. King.

He reads about John Lewis receiving the nickname of 

"Good Trouble". 

He reads about John Lewis's activities during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.  He reads how John Lewis writes a letter to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and gets a bus ticket in return.  It is a bus ticket so John Lewis can meet Dr. King.  This is how their friendship begins.  This is how they both give memorable speeches on August 28, 1963 in Washington, DC.  This is why the duo are walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on what is now called Bloody Sunday.

After Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s passing, John Lewis knew he needed to keep his friend's endeavors alive.  Each year he marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  This year, 2018, Tybre Faw has persuaded his two grandmothers to make the seven hour drive from Johnson City, Tennessee to Selma, Alabama.  In anticipation, he waits for John Robert Lewis to exit the Brown Chapel AME Church.  He wishes.  He keeps wishing.  He holds a sign thanking the congressman.

A wish comes true.  A hand is grasped.  Words are exchanged.  An invitation is extended.  A walk, together, is made across that famous bridge.  And, again, endeavors are being kept alive.  They live in the words of John Lewis's favorite poem read by Tybre Faw at the congressman's memorial service at Ebenezer Baptist Church.  Keep wishing, children, keep wishing.

Immediately two words come to mind each time this title penned by Andrea Davis Pinkney is read.  They are powerful and poignant.  The poetic sentences weave together the friendship of John Robert Lewis with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the friendship of John Robert Lewis with Tybre Faw.  Past and present blend with historic accuracy.  An uplifting undercurrent of hope runs through the entire narrative. 

Many times Andrea Davis Pinkney creates an enhanced impact by grouping thoughts and facts together in threes.  These are carefully placed within the text.  She also uses repetition to excellent effect.  When she describes the 1965 march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the strength of the relationship between John and Martin, it is stunning.  Here is a passage.

Hearing Martin's words lit a light in John's heart.

They flew straight

to John's wide-open hopes

and tucked themselves

into the deepest pockets of his understanding.

I want to meet that clergyman.

I want to shake his hand.

I want to tell Martin Luther King, Jr.

             exactly who I am.

                                    Me. John Robert.

On the front, right side, of the matching dust jacket and book case, we see John Robert Lewis standing tall, yet humbly, above a depiction of one of the commemorative marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  In front of them is Tybre Faw, holding the sign he carried as he waited outside the church in hopes of meeting John Lewis.  To the left of the spine, on the back, is an image extending to the flap edge.  It is a bird's eye view of thousands of marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  The bridge is shown right to left across the lower portion with the city buildings rising in the upper portion.  Water and trees fill the area between the two.  In the sky is a John Lewis quote:

"Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and

get in good trouble, necessary trouble.

The opening and closing endpapers are in a muted orange.  On the title page, there are a limited number of colors.  The full-page image presents a night with a full moon shining over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, now nearly empty except for a few vehicles.

Each of the double-page pictures rendered by Keith Henry Brown

primarily with watercolor and quill pen with black ink on smooth Bristol and D'Arches cold-pressed 140 pound paper, and then rendered digitally

elevates the text as well as supplies readers with a pictorial insight into history, then and now.  The portraits of Tybre, John, and Martin are thoughtful, meaningful, and moving.  The watercolor washes fashion a marvelous mix of light and shadow.  The black ink lines draw our eyes to the people and their reflected personalities.  

Often, Keith Henry Brown will place the people in a setting with relevant buildings in the background as well as a historical event.  If there are other people present, he will have them fade into the background, giving them a solid color while our attention is drawn to the main people in full color. He will also give insight into what the people might be thinking or reading.

One of my many favorite illustrations is a wash of red, blue, and green, all blending into a pleasing whole.  Bold, black lines outline the lower half of Tybre's legs on the day he met John Lewis.  His pants are cuffed at the bottom and a bit longer.  Tybre's new shoes are tied tight with laces. His feet are walking, walking forward, as his friend John Lewis would want him to do.

The eloquent words and radiant images in Because Of You, John Lewis: The True Story Of A Remarkable Friendship written by Andrea Davis Pinkney with artwork by Keith Henry Brown afford readers with a deeply personal and memorable portrait of John Robert Lewis and his friends Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tybre Faw.  It is a story spanning decades and it continues to this day.  At the close of the book are two pages titled Two Journeys. One Dream.  These are followed by two pages dedicated to a Time Line Of The Life of Rep. John Lewis.  There is a half page of sources and further reading. One page showcases black and white photographs during the civil rights movement.  On the opposite page are color photographs of John Lewis and of John Lewis and Tybre.  The entire poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley is printed with these pictures.  I cannot imagine a personal or professional collection without a copy or two of this title.

To learn more about Keith Henry Brown and his other work, please access his website by following the link attached to his name. (For some reason, I am currently unable to link to the stated website for Andrea Davis Pinkney.)  Andrea Davis Pinkney has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Keith Henry Brown has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  On the Scholastic Reads Podcast John Robert Lewis is honored.  Andrea Davis Pinkney is present discussing this book as well as U. S. Representative Nikema Williams with her memories of Congressman Lewis.

Oh, This Day Of Days

There are those books you remember how you felt as you were reading them for the first time.  You recall with clarity what popped into your mind when you finished and closed the cover.  You immediately open it and read the book again.  When you read it a third time you read it aloud, hearing the music the words make; their rhythm and flow washing around you like soft, warm air.  These books fill you with gratitude for being able to read this kind of beauty.

They reach out to you.  They teach you.  A Poem For Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of THE SNOWY DAY (Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, November 1, 2016) written by Andrea Davis Pinkney with illustrations by Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson is such a book.  Every aspect of this title is remarkable.

BROWN-SUGAR BOY in a blanket of white.
Bright as the day you came onto the page.
From the hand of a man who saw you for you.

Jacob (Jack) Ezra Katz was the third and youngest child of Benjamin and Gussie, Jewish immigrants from Poland.  They made a home in one of the poorer places in Brooklyn, New York.  Benjamin worked as a waiter in a cafe.  Gussie had dreams of being a painter but she buried those beneath disappointment.

By the time he was eight years old, Ezra's talent and desire to paint began to shine.  He painted signs for merchants bringing money to the family.  But Ezra wanted more.  He wanted to be an artist.

His dad secretly used money to buy him paints and his teachers and friends offered encouragement.  Ezra discovered treasure in the Brooklyn Public Library.  Here he learned more than he thought possible about his world.  Here he could let his mind go free turning the impossible into the possible.

When he was in high school his painting Shantytown, depicting the darkness and despair of men out of work during the Depression, garnered him notice and scholarships but fate stepped in.  Death came calling.  Ezra's father died of a heart attack.  There was no graduation.  There was no art school.

Surviving on bits of work here and there, Ezra was finally fortunate to be a part of The Works Progress Administration, a piece of President Roosevelt's The New Deal.  From there he drew for comic books, creating heroes but something was missing.  The missing something appeared in a Life magazine article.  Ezra saved this something for decades.  From this a tiny speck began to grow.

After serving in the military during World War II, Ezra officially changed his name to Ezra Jack Keats.  He was well aware of the bias attached to those of Jewish heritage.  Slowly a crystal grew with branches being added until the wonderful year of 1962 when a snowflake formed.  This was the year Peter was introduced to the world.  This was the year when the something missing was seen by everyone.  And to this day we are all, yes, every single one of us, far better than we were before The Snowy Day. 


We understand the sensory sensation we experience during and after attending a play, a musical or a concert in which we have been not only entertained but moved by the performances.  After reading Andrea David Pinkney's words in this tribute piece to Ezra Jack Keats and The Snowy Day, you will find yourself applauding; more than willing to give it a standing ovation.  There is a beat in this poetic narrative which is in sync with the human heart.  It grows and swells within you.

The blend of fact and jubilation for this man and his work is marvelous.  You find yourself pausing and thinking, I didn't know that, before being caught up in the cadence once more. It's a shout.  It's a song.  It's lessons.  It's love...love of a man who

gave us eyes to see.

Here is a partial passage from a single page; one of my many favorite passages.

Snow made opportunity and equality
seem right around the corner.
Because, you see, Snow is nature's we-all blanket.
When Snow spreads her sheet, we all glisten.
When Snow paints the streets, we all see her beauty.


For those of us who have read The Snowy Day and shared it repeatedly over the years with others, the matching dust jacket and book case is cause for contemplation and celebration.  The image of Ezra Jack Keats walking with Peter is heartwarming.  If there is a place where characters can meet their creators, this is that place. To the left, on the back, three separate poses of Peter surround a photograph of Ezra Jack Keats within a snowy shape.  A rusty, burnt orange shade covers the opening and closing endpapers.

Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson rendered

the paintings for this book in acrylic, collage, and pencil on paper, using images from The Snowy Day, Peter's Chair, Hi, Cat, and Jennie's Hat.

Their color choices reflect the historical period of Ezra's lifetime including actual memorabilia.  Their layout and design envelopes and elevates the narrative.  Some of the page turns will leave you gasping or sighing.

Their attention to detail will have you stopping; the picture of Peter, a lion and a lamb signifying the birth of Ezra, a piece of newsprint with the partial word tenement stuck in a railing outside Ezra's home, dreams in the steam coming from Gussie's cup of coffee and the shattered pathway of Ezra's hopes as graduation floats away.  Fancher and Johnson vary their image sizes.  They select a single page, a double page or a group of pictures over two pages to intensify the text.

One of my many favorite illustrations is for the entire passage about snow in the beginning.  A varied pale blue background replete with snowflakes provides a place for buildings in Brooklyn.  The text is on the left.  On the right the darkened windows in the tenements make the lamp post light glow brighter.  It sits at the end of a broken fence row.  A tiny red mitten on a tiny piece of paper lays in the snow.  It hints of Peter's life growing.


A Poem For Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of THE SNOWY DAY written by Andrea Davis Pinkney with pictures by Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson will lift your spirits sky high.  It will have you reaching for your copy of The Snowy Day and reading it over and over and over again.  Andrea Davis Pinkney talks about Ezra's Legacy for three pages at the book's conclusion.  She also talks about the form of her text in Keats, The Collage Poet.  A bibliography of Ezra Jack Keats' books is included as well as acknowledgments and a bibliography of books, websites, research collection archival materials and interviews.

To discover more about Andrea Davis Pinkney and Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson and their work please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  Please stop at The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation to read more about this title and the man.  Andrea Davis Pinkney wrote a piece for November Picture Book Month, 2016.  This title was chosen by The New York Times as Children's Books That Tackle Race And Ethnicity.  Andrea Davis Pinkney is a guest on All The Wonders, Episode 300 hosted by teacher librarian Matthew Winner.  Andrea Davis Pinkney is interviewed at Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb.

Update: Andrea Davis Pinkney is a guest at NPR Books, December 1, 2016.


Please be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the other titles selected by participating bloggers in the 2016 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

The Gift Of One Small Thing

It's accepted that technology has given us the means to bridge many gaps in our understanding of other people's day to day experiences, where they live and work, and the customs and cultures which define them.  Even more valuable is face to face conversations with those individuals.  In 1995 a group, LATTICE (Linking All Types Of Teachers To International Cross-Cultural Education), was founded by esteemed educator Sally McClintock.  Membership was/is comprised of school districts in mid-Michigan, Michigan State University, international graduate school students/scholars at Michigan State University, and community members.

At its inception there were only two school districts participating.  My district was one of them. Being invited to join others in this program was an honor and an invaluable experience.  I will never forget it.  Among the most vivid recollections is sitting and listening to people talk about the Rwandan genocide.

Likewise if a book is written and illustrated based upon abundant research and personal interviews, readers can begin to grasp the staggering impact of events on the lives of those persons involved.  The Red Pencil (Little, Brown and Company, September 16, 2014) written by Andrea Davis Pinkney with illustrations by Shane W. Evans, a novel in verse, focuses on the experiences of a twelve year old girl caught in the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, Africa.  This region remains in a state of humanitarian crisis.




PART 1
OUR FARM
South Darfur, Africa
September 2003-March 2004
WHEAT
Finally, I am twelve.
Old enough to wear a toob.

As soon as I wake,
Muma whispers a birthday wish,

"Blessings for all the years to come, Amira."

My mother has been awake for hours,
starting early with farm chores.

On this birthday morning
bright
as the sun's first yawn,
ripened wheat
sways.

Its golden braids 
are woven with the promise
of a hearty harvest.

Ya, wheat! ...

Amira, her younger sister Leila, Dando, her father, and Muma, her mother, are one family of many in a village of farmers.  Leila, though physically handicapped, is gifted at making up songs and determined to be no different than any other little girl particularly when it comes to activities with other children, especially Gamal.  Dando, grower of extraordinary tomatoes, is a shining light in Amira's life as she is in his.  He and she play a game,

What Else Is Possible?

seeking to find the brightness in all things.  Muma sees only tradition; one path to follow for girls, work, marriage and children.  Another important member of their extended family is Dando's longtime friend, Old Anwar, a chief competitor in the campaign for growing the finest tomatoes.

Now picture if you can days filled with chores like raking cow plop, chopping vegetables for a one pot meal, walking miles for water and tending sheep. Interspersed among these weekly routines is the joy of a newly sharped twig from Dando to use in making her sand pictures, the noise of waking the moon, the fear of possible attack by Janjaweed, the government military, the sadness of her friend's family leaving and the thrill of a new lamb's birth.  There is also hope from an overheard conversation; Dando and Old Anwar know Amira is destined for a different life than tradition demands.

Realized terror sends a new family unit, Amira, Leila, Muma, Old Anwar and Gamal moving away from the only home she has ever known to somewhere she has never been.  Traveling by night for safety and despite gnawing hunger, lips and throats parched by thirst, feet raw from walking and aching limbs, they succeed in finding safety after days and days and days, so many Amira loses track.  But this place, this place of houses with no walls other than pieces of rice bags and root roofs, this place a sanctuary for thousands, is a hollow shell of existence.  Sadness has replaced air filling everyone's lungs as they breathe in and out.  This is Kalma.

In response to what she has seen and endured Amira stops speaking; her voice hidden deep inside.  A new normal replaces the old; oil covering skin to protect from the mosquitoes, hedgehog observations, lines for water rationing, tin-can soccer, released grief and desperation.  Coming to the camp a woman looks into Amira's eyes and sees, a gift of a red pencil and yellow tablet with blue lines begins the healing for this twelve-year-old girl.  She and Old Anwar share secrets; an old hope growing again, like the extraordinary tomatoes of her father, Dando.


Poem by poem the words of Andrea Davis Pinkney bind us closer and closer to Amira and the other characters in this work.  By describing cherished ordinary incidents, little glimpses into their relationships, we come to understand them as completely human.  We feel deeply moved to be a part of their simple lives.  Throughout Pinkney's pacing is like a heartbeat, reflecting the emotions of a moment.

Details, lyrically portrayed, of places draw us into the story, into the landscape of the Sudan.  It's easy to feel as though we have been transported back in time; to become a member of Amira's family.  Our senses are one with hers.  Here are a few sample phrases and a single poem.


Little Leila fought her way into this world.
She was born on a night
when the moon had tucked itself
into the sky's deepest pockets. ...


... We snake,
single file, 
like stitches along the desert's hem. ...

FOOTPRINTS
I pretend
     Dando is walking alongside me,
     holding my hand,
     helping me through this.

I pretend
     to see his footprints,
     long,
     shaped like flattened leaves,
     marking the sand,
     setting down a path
     for my own small
     feet
     to follow.

I pretend
     Dando is here,
     stepping heavily,
     heel-toe,
     heel-toe,
     leading me,
     lovingly.

I pretend
     so, so hard,
     with my whole
     heart.

But it's fruitless.

This so-hard pretending
doesn't work.

My father's footprints,
nowhere.


The artwork of Shane W. Evans pairs exquisitely with the text of Pinkney, a visual extension.  Light, fine lines with soft shading mirror the place in which the story is set.  The illustrations are never an intrusion but a compliment varying in size and placement like sketches in a journal.   It's not as if he drew the pictures but Amira was the artist.  Evans knows her soul.

One of my favorite visuals takes up the lower two-thirds of a page.  Their beloved sheep Nali is pregnant.  Amira and her mother are reaching from behind her, standing next to one another, to feel the movement of the lamb in her belly.  It's magical.


I came to the reading of this book with no expectations other than a faint buzzing on social media. But because The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney with illustrations by Shane W. Evans, though fictional, is vested in truth, I was genuinely touched over and over.  I could not put it down once I started; needing to know the fate of Amira and her family.  This is a very important book.  Make sure it is in every collection.

A complete author's note, four pages, offers explanations as to the situation in the Darfur conflict and Andrea Davis Pinkney's hope for the writing of this book.  A glossary/pronunciation guide, a character/location pronunciations page and important terms that appear in this book page can be found at the end.  Please follow the links embedded in Andrea Davis Pinkney's and Shane W. Evans' names to view their websites.  At the publisher's website a beginning portion of the book is available for you to read. Although this post in The Horn Book is in reference to another title, it gives insight into the writing process of Andrea Davis Pinkney, A Profile of Andrea Davis Pinkney by Brian Pinkney, Phil Davis, Jr., and Dobbin Pinkney.  BEA 2014: Andrea Davis Pinkney: Shading Light on a Dark Subject, an article in Publishers Weekly, gives more information about The Red Pencil.

Enjoy the video below:  2014 Arbuthnot Lecture featuring Andrea Davis Pinkney



Update:  Andrea Davis Pinkney is the guest blogger at Nerdy Book Club on October 21, 2014.  The post is titled Finding The Red Pencil.

Update:  Enjoy this podcast Little Brown School & Library.

Update:  Andrea Davis Pinkney has an educator's guide for her book now.