Thursday, January 26, 2023

Winter Reading 2023 Black Boy, Black Boy

 


This rhyming book and its bold and colorful illustrations takes young readers on a grand tour of role models. Scenes show Colin Kaepernick taking a knee, President Obama speaking in front of the White House, and Navy Seal William Goines parachuting through the sky. Text encourages readers to "Dream big, dear boy, like Martin Luther King" or "Show me the style of your favorite dance" like Arthur Mitchell. 

This book encourages young Black boys to be proud of their own abilities and to look to heroes from the past and present, It also introduces many figures that readers may not have encountered before such as inventor Elijah McCoy, aviator Emory Malick, or crooner Sam Cooke for example. Back matter includes short profiles of each of the personalities included in the book complete with dates, what they are most famous for, and a headshot that makes it easy to identify them in the main text.

This is a great gift book for Black boys, but would also make a good read-aloud for all youngsters to introduce a variety of figures and kick off a biography unit or for Black History Month. I would love to share it with a group and then play them some Sam Cooke music or a video clip of Arthur Mitchell.

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