Each of us has a "silent thunder" -- a quiet desire that rumbles from deep-down. For eleven-year-old Summer and her older brother Rosco, their secret dreams seem far out of reach. Both are slaves on a Virginia plantation in the year 1862. More than anything, Summer wants to learn to read and write. Rosco is eager to join the Union Army so that he can fight for the cause that would allow all people to be free. Told in alternating voices, this is a work of historical fiction by bestselling and award-winning author Andrea Davis Pinkney.
Born into slavery, Belle had to endure the cruelty of several masters before she escaped to freedom. But she knew she wouldn't really be free unless she was helping to end injustice. That's when she changed her name to Sojourner and began traveling across the country, demanding equal rights for black people and for women. Many people weren't ready for her message, but Sojourner was brave, and her truth was powerful. And slowly, but surely as Sojourner's step-stomp stride, America began to change.
An informative and inspiring biography of Alvin Ailey, the great African-American dancer and choreographer, created by TheNew York Times bestselling and award-winning duo Andrea David Pinkney and Brian Pinkey. Since he was a young boy in Navasota, Texas, Alvin Ailey loved to stomp his feed and clap his hands to the music of the True Vine Baptist choir. Later, he learned how to dance. He spent some time with the best teachers of the era and eventually started his own modern dance company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. This is the story of Alvin Ailey's life--a life that left its imprint as much on the history of the American people as on the history of modern dance. Don't miss the other Great Black Performers biographies: Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra
A stunning tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, one of the most popular female jazz singers of all time, from The New York Times bestselling and award-winning duo Andrea David Pinkney and Brian Pinkey. Readers are taken on a journey through four tracks of Ella Fitzgerald's life, from the streets of Yonkers where she performed as a child to the stage of the Apollo Theater where her singing career began. From there, the story details how Ella became the star attraction with the Chick Webb Orchestra and how she and Dizzy Gillespie headline a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall. Ella's rich voice and vocal innovations brought her fame and a remarkable career that spanned half a century and won her generations of fans around the world. In this fantastical jazz biography, readers will experience the life of a vocal virtuosa who has gone down in history as the First Lady of Song. Don't miss the Pinkneys' other picture book biographies: Alvin Ailey Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra
In this New York Times Notable Children's Book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, follow the life stories of ten Black men in American history and the legacies they left that forever changed the country.Hand in Hand presents the stories of ten men from different eras in American history, organized chronologically to provide a scope from slavery to the modern day. The stories are accessible, fully-drawn narratives offering the subjects' childhood influences, the time and place in which they lived, their accomplishments and motivations, and the legacies they left for future generations as links in the "freedom chain." This book will be the definitive family volume on the subject, punctuated with dynamic full color portraits and spot illustrations by two-time Caldecott Honor winner and multiple Coretta Scott King Book Award recipient Brian Pinkney. Backmatter includes a civil rights timeline, sources, and further reading. Profiled: Benjamin BannekerFrederick DouglassBooker T. WashingtonW.E.B. DuBoisA. Philip RandolphThurgood MarshallJackie RobinsonMalcolm XMartin Luther King, JrBarack H. Obama II
