Picture Books

Farmer Will Allen and the growing table book cover

Farmer Will Allen and the growing table

Jacqueline Briggs Martin

jE Martin
Black Lives Matter, Read Woke, Picture Books, Biographies

The story of former basketball star and current urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, whose vision of gardening from abandoned urban sites led to a grassroots feeding craze.

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Preaching to the chickens : the story of young John Lewis book cover

Preaching to the chickens : the story of young John Lewis

Jabari Asim

jE Asim
Black Lives Matter, Black History, Read Woke, Picture Books, Biographies

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John Lewis's early life is chronicled here and it is beautifully done. If you haven't read about how he used to preach to his flock, I can't imagine a more poignant time. -Casey

Schomburg : the man who built a library book cover

Schomburg : the man who built a library

Carole Boston Weatherford

jBIOGRAPHY Schomburg, Arthur Alfonso
Black Lives Matter, Black History, Read Woke, Picture Books, Biographies

Traces legal clerk Arturo Schomburg's efforts to curate a collection of African books, letters, music, and art.

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Little leaders : bold women in black history book cover

Little leaders : bold women in black history

Vashti Harrison

eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Black History, Read Woke, Picture Books, Biographies

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This is the first installment in Vashti Harrison's lovely series. The biographies are short, illustrations are really cute, and the figures she has chosen to highlight are great to get to know. -Casey

Whoosh! : Lonnie Johnson's super-soaking stream of inventions book cover

Whoosh! : Lonnie Johnson's super-soaking stream of inventions

Chris Barton

jBIOGRAPHY Johnson, Lonnie.
Black Lives Matter, Read Woke, Picture Books, Biographies

Chronicles the life and achievements of the NASA engineer and inventor, from his childhood to his accidental invention of the Super Soaker water gun.

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Be warned! This book may have you rifling through your childhood toy collection in the best possible way. -Casey

Josephine : the dazzling life of Josephine Baker book cover

Josephine : the dazzling life of Josephine Baker

Patricia Hruby Powell

jBIOGRAPHY Baker, Josephine
Black Lives Matter, Black History, Read Woke, Picture Books, Biographies

A portrait of the passionate performer and civil rights advocate Josephine Baker, the woman who worked her way from the slums of St. Louis to the grandest stages in the world. Meticulously researched by both author and artist, Josephine's powerful story of struggle and triumph is an inspiration and a spectacle, just like the legend herself.

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Ona Judge outwits the Washingtons : an enslaved woman fights for freedom book cover

Ona Judge outwits the Washingtons : an enslaved woman fights for freedom

Gwendolyn Hooks

jBIOGRAPHY Judge, Oney
Black Lives Matter, Black History, Read Woke, Picture Books, Biographies

"Soon after American colonists had won independence from Great Britain, Ona Judge was fighting for her own freedom from one of America's most famous founding fathers, George Washington. George and Martha Washington valued Ona as one of their most skilled and trustworthy slaves, but she would risk everything to achieve complete freedom. Born into slavery at Mount Vernon, Ona seized the opportunity to escape when she was brought to live in the President's Mansion in Philadelphia. Ona fled to New Hampshire and started a new life. But the Washingtons wouldn't give up easily. After her escape, Ona became the focus of a years-long manhunt, led by America's first president. Gwendolyn Hooks' vivid and detailed prose captures the danger, uncertainty, and persistence Ona Judge experienced during and after her heroic escape."--Provided by publisher.

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Ona Judge's story is powerful, moving, and for many, may be a suprising new look at our first president. -Casey

Pies from nowhere : how Georgia Gilmore sustained the Montgomery bus boycott book cover

Pies from nowhere : how Georgia Gilmore sustained the Montgomery bus boycott

Dee Romito

jE Romito
Black Lives Matter, Black History, Read Woke, Picture Books, Biographies

Georgia Gilmore was a cook at the National Lunch Company in Montgomery, Alabama. When the bus boycotts broke out in Montgomery after Rosa Parks was arrested, Georgia organized a group of women who cooked and baked to fund-raise for gas and cars to help sustain the boycott. This picture book highlights a hidden figure of the civil rights movement who fueled the bus boycotts and demonstrated that one person can make a real change in her community and beyond

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Frida Kahlo and her animalitos book cover

Frida Kahlo and her animalitos

Monica Brown

jE Brown
Read Woke, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Biographies

"Chronicles Frida's life -- from her childhood to her rise as one of the world's most influential painters -- capturing the beauty and strength of Frida's creative spirit, which carried her through tragedy and triumph, and the animals that inspired her along the way." -- Book jacket.

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