Books like The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art
By Cynthia Levinson
For the kid who draws instead of talks, and means every line of it — this is a picture book about turning a pencil into a voice. Thoughtful, courageous, quietly stirring
A young Japanese American artist grows up determined to draw, even as her family is sent to a WWII internment camp — and she goes on to create groundbreaking picture books that show children of every race together.
A determined young dancer in the 1930s and 40s trains for ballet despite discriminatory schools, then refuses to paint her skin white for a company's offer — and rises to become the Met Opera's first Black prima ballerina.
A six-year-old girl becomes the first Black child to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans in 1960, walking past angry mobs of parents every day just to learn.
A picture-book biography traces Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s path from a childhood in the segregated South to becoming a minister and civil rights leader, told through his own powerful words.
A young girl is separated from her mother at the last moment and must sail to America alone, only to discover the address for her family in New York has smudged into illegible ink.
A young girl leaves her grandmother's house in Mexico to join her parents and brother in New York, facing a new language, unfair accusations, and the slow work of calling a new place home.
During the Syrian Civil War, an ambulance driver stays behind in Aleppo when his neighbors flee, and finds himself feeding and comforting the many cats they left behind.
A picture-book biography follows a boy born in a Kentucky log cabin as he grows up in the wilderness of Indiana and the prairies of Illinois, teaches himself law, and rises to become President of the United States.
A timid squirrel afraid of thunder, hawks, and dark forest paths must carry soup through Buckthorn Forest to her sick Granny Oak, facing creatures who want to help — and some who want the soup.
A granddaughter joins her granny and a growing group of neighbors on a mysterious, important walk through their community — one granny says will shape her into a leader.
Born into slavery, a woman hears the voice of God calling her north and escapes through the woods with only her faith, beginning the journey that will make her Moses to her people.
A Black boy growing up in segregated 1940s North Carolina loves to draw everything around him, but becomes a football star instead — until his dream of making art finds its way to him.
