Being Clem [Finding Langston] by Lesa Cline-Ransome Intermediate, Middle School Holiday 256 pp. g 8/21 978-0-8234-4604-9 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-0-8234-4896-8 $10.99 In the final installment of the trilogy (Finding Langston, rev. 9/18; Leaving Lymon, rev. 3/20), we are (re)introduced to Chicago-born Clemson Thurber Junior. Too young to remember his father,...
For as long as I can remember, I have had three loves: jazz, poetry, and history. Those passions merged in my 2000 nonfiction title The Sound That Jazz Makes — a manuscript that was rejected more than a dozen times. The book’s first review was so negative that I cried....
Dear friends: Cindy urges us all to keep an eye out for virtual bookstore events happening in our neighborhoods, which, given the nature of virtual events, is EVERYWHERE. How to choose? I see that Cindy’s neighborhood bookstore, Jeff Kinney’s An Unlikely Story, just had an event with adult historical fiction...
The new chapter book series She Persisted (Philomel, 6-9 years) is spun off from the picture books of the same name written by Chelsea Clinton and illustrated by Alexandra Boiger. Each entry explores the life of a strong and courageous woman who has helped change the world, with the first...
Claudette Colvin [She Persisted] by Lesa Cline-Ransome; illus. by Gillian Flint Primary, Intermediate Philomel 80 pp. g 2/21 978-0-593-11583-1 $14.99 Paper ed. 978-0-593-11584-8 $5.99 e-book ed. 978-0-593-11585-5 $5.99 Harriet Tubman [She Persisted] by Andrea Davis Pinkney; illus. by Gillian Flint Primary, Intermediate Philomel 80 pp. g 1/21 978-0-593-11565-7 $14.99 Paper...
Overground Railroad by Lesa Cline-Ransome; illus. by James Ransome Primary, Intermediate Holiday 48 pp. 1/20 978-0-8234-3873-0 $18.99 e-book ed. 978-0-8234-4390-1 $11.99 “Some walked. / Some drove. / But we took the train north.” In 1939, as part of the Great Migration, young Ruth Ellen and her parents leave North Carolina,...
Leaving Lymon by Lesa Cline-Ransome Intermediate, Middle School Holiday 199 pp. 1/20 978-0-8234-4442-7 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-0-8234-4633-9 $10.99 Lymon Caldwell, a secondary character in Finding Langston (rev. 9/18), tells his story in this companion novel that explores the question, “Are bullies born or are they made?” Lymon lives with his...
The Power of Her Pen: The Story of Groundbreaking Journalist Ethel L. Payne by Lesa Cline-Ransome; illus. by John Parra Primary Wiseman/Simon 48 pp. 1/20 978-1-4814-6289-1 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4814-6290-7 $10.99 Ethel L. Payne grew up on the South Side of Chicago surrounded by stories from her parents and from...
Finding Langstonby Lesa Cline-RansomeIntermediate, Middle School Holiday 107 pp.8/18 978-0-8234-3960-7 $16.99e-book ed. 978-0-8234-4110-5 $16.99When Langston’s mother dies, his father relocates the two of them from rural Alabama to the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, where they live in a cramped apartment, barely communicate with each other, and...
This interview originally appeared in the May/June 2018 Horn Book Magazine as part of the Publishers’ Previews: Diverse Voices, an advertising supplement that allows participating publishers a chance to each highlight a book from its current list. They choose the books; we ask the questions.Sponsored byPost–WWII Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood is...