Winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award
A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature Best Books of the Year
After a storm devastates the farm his parents have been renting, Junior moves with his family to Roxboro, North Carolina. The year is 1959, and the nine-year-old boy has to navigate the realities of the segregated South while adjusting to life in town. Instead of farming, his father works at the lumberyard, and his mother takes in laundry from the white people in town. Junior meets new friends who have a TV--and their own books! These new friends offer to take Junior to the library, and he's surprised to discover that in a clearing in the forest, there's a log cabin that houses a library for Black residents.
The library in the woods feels magical, giving Junior a sense of possibility and community. The books he checks out also help him uncover a secret he never knew about his father.
This fictional account is based on a real-life library author Calvin Alexander Ramsey frequented as a child. Ramsey's heartfelt text, accompanied by illustrations from award-winning artist R. Gregory Christie, celebrates family, libraries, and the resourcefulness of the Black community.
"The first-person narrative unfolds with simplicity, clarity, and emotional resonance. Christie's illustrations, painted with acrylics, capture the tone of events as well as the look of the mid-twentieth-century setting."--starred, Booklist
"This uplifting story will find a place on fiction shelves, but it also shares a piece of American history. . . . Highly recommended for upper elementary readers, as well as reluctant middle-grade readers. Reviewer Rating: 5"--Children's Literature
"A tribute to a community treasure, understated but rich in feeling."--Kirkus Reviews
Calvin Alexander Ramsey is an Atlanta-based playwright, photographer, folk art painter, and children's book author. His plays have been performed across the United States and his picture books have won numerous awards including an ALA Notable Children's Book and a Coretta Scott King Author Honor . He is the father of three children, all of whom are writers.
R. Gregory Christie's illustrations have earned him many awards, including a Caldecott Honor, six Coretta Scott King Honors, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, and multiple spots on the New York Times' annual Best Illustrated Children's Books lists. He has been a guest speaker at conferences and libraries and teaches after school art programs all over the world. He lives in Georgia.