[DiverseKidLit] Reading as A Great Act of Rebellion in Booker T. Washington’s Picturebook Biographies

Myra here.

Our theme for this month’s Diverse Children’s Books linkups is Favorite Children’s Books Featuring an LGBTQ Character(s). (The theme is only a suggestion. Diverse posts on alternate topics are always welcome.)

What Is #DiverseKidLit?

Diverse Children’s Books is a book-sharing meme designed to promote the reading and writing of children’s books that feature diverse characters. This community embraces all kinds of diversity including (and certainly not limited to) diverse, inclusive, multicultural, and global books for children of all backgrounds.

We encourage everyone who shares to support this blogging community by visiting and leaving comments for at least three others. Please also consider following the hosts on at least one of their social media outlets. Spread the word using #diversekidlit and/or adding our button to your site and your diverse posts.

We hope this community will grow into a great resource for parents, teachers, librarians, publishers, and authors! Our next linkup will be Saturday, November 19th and on the first and third Saturdays of every month.

Upcoming Theme

Our theme for the current linkup is Favorite Children’s Books Featuring an LGBTQ Character(s). Themes are a suggestion only; all diverse book posts are welcome. If you’re interested, you can start planning now for our upcoming themes …

• November 19th linkup we will continue with Favorite Children’s Books Featuring an LGBTQ Character(s). Looking for ideas? Check out the Stonewall Book Awards for Children’s Literature.

• December linkups: Favorite Holiday Books. (Please feel free to share any holiday resources, not just winter holidays.)

Most Clicked Post from Last Time

Our most-clicked post from the previous #diversekidlit linkup is Svenja’s Author Spotlight on Ezra Jack Keats. She provides a detailed biography as well as information about his most popular books and characters. Want to learn even more? A new biography of Ezra Jack Keats by Andrea Davis Pinkney just came out this week, titled A Poem for Peter.

With Books and Bricks: How Booker T. Washington Built A School

Written by: Suzanne Slade Illustrated by: Nicole Tadgell
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company, 2014
ISBN: 0807508977 (ISBN13: 9780807508978) 
Bought copy of the book. Book photos taken by me.

I had no idea who Booker T. Washington was until I read this picturebook biography. After the Civil War ended, the sense of freedom was short-lived for Booker as he worked long hours in a salt mine to help his family survive.

Yet the long hours and arduous, not to mention highly dangerous, work did not prevent Booker from learning his letters:

He felt magic in those words. Booker wanted to learn to read more than anything. But his dream seemed impossible.

Such was his determination and tenacity that Booker did not just learn how to read, he eventually went on to become a teacher, and to build a school using his bare hands, making his own bricks through clay that he dug from the ground. He did not allow lack of resources, poverty, the constant threat of racism and discrimination to deter him from realizing his dream. He dug deep and went on to work and built the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.

Fifty Cents And A Dream: Young Booker T. Washington

Written by: Jabari Asim Illustrated by: Bryan Collier
Publisher: Little Brown and Company, 2011
ISBN: 0316086576 (ISBN13: 9780316086578) 
Bought a copy of the book. Book photos taken by me.

In contrast to the first book that has a fairly straightforward prose narrative, this one has a lilting, lyrical quality to it – matched exquisitely with Collier’s trademark collage art.

I loved reading through the illustrator’s note where Collier mentioned the symbolic elements he included in the images to signify layered meanings in his visual narrative:

Throughout the text, you’ll find that Washington continues to listen and dream, which is symbolized by bubbles of light in the art. Also, take note of the map pattern on Washington’s shirt, foreshadowing the five-hundred-mile journey that he takes as a young man after hearing about a great school for Negroes where students studied farming, science, drafting, and other great subjects.

The Author’s Note was also particularly illuminating as Zabari Asim shared how Booker T. Washington was originally historically portrayed as “a misguided individual who preferred compromise where others wanted direct confrontation” which resulted in his being “mocked, vilified, and caricatured.”

Washington’s contributions to American society, however, have been recently re-evaluated, and his ethic of hard work and dogged persistence finally receiving the recognition it so rightfully deserves.

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