# 39- I Love My Hair

I Love My Hair (2001)

Natasha Anastasia Tarpley

Illustrated by E.B. Lewis

This story about embracing oneself is beautifully depicted with surreal scenes balanced with realistic images of family. Keyana, the African American girl in the story echoes her mother’s words throughout the text. Her mom tells her that “you can wear any style you choose,” and soon after the book is taken over by surreal images that appear to be from the child’s imagination. Her mother says she can “spin her hair” into fine thread, and the image depicts the little girl sitting before a spinning wheel with her hair connected to it in a long thread. Her hair becomes part of the scenery in a garden depicting corn rows on another double page spread. Lewis has created a set of surprising images to accompany the empowering narrative.

The narration includes the “clicky-clacky” sound that Keyana's beads make as she moves, and the girl proclaims that she can “let my hair be free, do what it wants.” Endpages feature images in primary colors of the combs, clips and rubber bands used to style hair.

# 37- Sojourner Truth’s Step-Stomp Stride

Sojourner Truth’s Step-Stomp Stride (2009)

Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney

This vibrantly illustrated book echoes the voice projected by historical figure Sojourner Truth, following her from her early days as a slave named Belle to a vocal feminist with her own name.

Illustrations are sketches that portray movement and intimate close-ups with the main character. In each scene Sojourner’s posture mirrors the confidence that the narrative describes. She lifts her arms up expressively before a crowd on one page. The warm yellow palette and sound effects highlight the force with which Sojourner shares her ideas with her society. This story’s narrative also echoes African American dialect of the period, as well as including some of Sojourner’s famous quotes. She proclaims, “Ain’t I a Woman,” and the narration gives this powerful statement context that can be interpreted by children.

Students will enjoy learning about Sojourner Truth’s beaming personality and the injustices she suffered in this picturebook. Teachers can introduce or contextualize the word “abolitionist” using this text. Particularly interesting is the portion about how Olive Gilbrert documented her story, which was published in 1850 as “The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, A Northern Slave.”

# 31- Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters (1994)

Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters (1994)

Authors: Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick L. McKissack

Illustrator: John Thompson

This picturebook, set in 1859, contrasts the lives of slaves and masters in this story rich with historical information. The McKissacks have included features that bring the story alive, such as the dialects, rhymes and song lyrics, recipes, and details about herbs, all of which are explained either in the text of the story or in the glossary of terms included at the end of the book.

The acrylic paintings in this richly historical book are complementary to the text, giving a realistic portrayal of events described in the story. In one image slaves are depicted scrubbing a floor from a bird’s eye perspective, a view that a master might have of them. The gravity of their chores and the depth of their troubles is also portrayed in this moving image.

The text is primarily presented in Times New Roman font, and the layout of the book is formal and mirrors the many formalities between slaves and their masters described in the book. The back cover of the jacket features the Big House with the white family in front of it with the slave quarters and the slave family pictured directly underneath. Elegant red chapter titles are Tuscan Italian, an ornamental typeface introduced in 1859.

Everything about this text is extensively researched and thus an excellent representation of two distinct perpectives. Dialogue and details in the book provide a plethora of discussion points in relation to the study of American history, providing a juxtaposition of two worlds in close proximity.