(1) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. The prolific author-illustrator couple (most recently The Story of the Saxophone, rev. 1/23) teams up again to offer this inspiring picture-book biography of the late human rights and civil rights icon. Cline-Ransome's reverent narrative gracefully captures Lewis's (1940–2020) humility and perseverance. Growing up in a farming family in Alabama, young John learned about love from the Bible at an early age. He felt its presence everywhere he went -- except when he encountered the discriminatory realities of Jim Crow laws. "Election day meant Whites Only could pick the laws, mayors, and presidents. John hated that colored folks had to stick to picking cotton." Inspired by a radio sermon delivered by Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis left home at seventeen to attend the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville. As he learned about practices of nonviolent resistance, his commitment to end segregation through nonviolent protest was unwavering. Beaten and arrested, yet undeterred, he led prolonged sit-ins; rode buses as a Freedom Rider; spoke at the March on Washington calling for jobs and freedom; and led the march at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, that ended in state police violence. Ransome's distinctive illustrations, created with a combination of found, printed, and purchased paper with pencil drawings, perfectly match Cline-Ransome's telling and dramatically radiate the magnitude of Lewis's influence. An author's note, a timeline, sources for quotations, and a selected bibliography are appended.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James Ransome. Perhaps no instrument is more associated with jazz than the saxophone. And no city more tied to both than New Orleans. But the history of the saxophone (originally saxophon), engagingly told here, begins across the Atlantic in the small Belgian town of Dinant, where the musician and inventor Adolphe Sax (1814-1894) was born into an instrument-making family. Sax's life provides the frame for the early parts of the story as he travels to France to bolster the instrument's popularity. After catching on in military bands across Europe, the saxophone traveled with the French army to Mexico and eventually made its way to New Orleans just in time for the dawn of the invention of jazz. Ransome's illustrations shine with careful detail, effortlessly cuing readers into changes in time and locale. One particularly memorable spread shows a black cat and three long, ominous human shadows containing text describing Sax's death with the wordless page opposite featuring a young Black child playing the saxophone--and one can almost hear the funeral dirge coming out of its bell.

Reviewer: Eric Carpenter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. This picture-book biography of writer Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford), by the team behind Freedom Bird (rev. 1/20), pays homage to its renowned subject and the wondrous power of storytelling. In childhood, Morrison was a listener, relishing the stories and music shared by her parents and grandparents. She was also an avid reader and continued to read more and more, "feeding a hunger that would never end." After attending college and graduate school and a brief teaching career, she began working as an editor in New York, at which time she started to write, publishing many books and winning awards for her stories about the lives of Black people in America. Nolen emphasizes Morrison's uncanny gift for storytelling ("She could look beyond things as they were and see a greater vision") and celebrates her not only as a brilliant writer but also as an inspiration to others. The straightforward main narrative is appealingly accompanied by words floating at the tops of pages in a storyteller's voice ("I'm telling you, that girl was magic"). Ransome's expressive watercolor and collage illustrations, delivered as mostly double-page spreads, are perfectly matched to the text and especially compelling in conveying a sense of Morrison's profound legacy. Back matter includes an author's note, a bibliography, important quotes, and a list of select achievements.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James Ransome. When, in 1959, the renowned jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins takes a break from a successful career to hone his skills, he finds the perfect place to do so. Discouraged from practicing in his apartment because the neighbors complain about the noise, Sonny retreats to the ideal setting, NYC's Williamsburg Bridge, where he ascends the stairs and "strolls above / the sprawling / spider city / with / millions of lives / lights / movement and speed / lots of / sound / & / lots of / noise" to blow his horn as loudly as he pleases. Practicing there for two years, he engages in electrifying call-and-response improvisations with the sounds around him, "tugboats / blowing bass notes / back / and forth / Sonny answering / ­note-for-note / with / low moans / of his / own." Following the return to his career, he records an album titled The Bridge. Golio is known for his picture-book biographies about musicians (Carlos Santana, rev. 11/18; Dark Was the Night, rev. 8/20), and here his precise and expressive free verse is well paired with Ransome's (Overground Railroad, rev. 3/20; Northbound, rev. 1/21) evocative art. In beautiful watercolor and collage, Ransome splendidly captures both the vibrant spirit of the city and the luminous persona of the jazzman. Back matter includes information about Rollins's career and the Williamsburg Bridge as well as some of Rollins's own words.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. In this picture book set in the 1960s (and inspired by the author's childhood memories), Michael and his granddaddy are fascinated by the powerful trains that rush by their Alabama farm going North. Michael's dream to ride one comes true when his grandma takes him to Ohio to visit relatives. As they board the train, they are directed to the "colored only" section ("no whites allowed"). When the train departs Atlanta, the conductor removes the sign, and a boy Michael had seen in the station comes running up to him from the white section. Michael and Bobby Ray begin exploring the train, racing through the cars, and finally return to Bobby Ray's car, where they talk and play until the train reaches Chattanooga. The sign returns and the conductor leads Michael back to his seat as he laments, "Seemed like the rules on [that] train were always changing. It just didn't make any sense at all." When the train arrives in Cincinnati, Michael's destination, the sign comes down again, and the new friends are able to say goodbye. In his signature watercolor style with collage, Ransome perfectly delivers the wonderment of a boy's first train ride with beautifully rendered picturesque landscapes, and sensitively captures the innocence of children whose friendship defies the unjust laws of segregation. The author's note provides brief context for the story, beginning with the 1887 Interstate Commerce Act that regulated railway transportation across state lines.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James Ransome. "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, their extended family, and the oppression of the sharecropping system (explained in an author's note) behind and board the Silver Meteor, destination New York City. "No more picking," says Daddy. "No more working someone else's land," says Mama. Cline-Ransome's lyrical verse and Ransome's lush, full-bleed mixed-media illustrations illuminate their journey, punctuated by the conductor's announcements of station stops. Ruth Ellen and her parents sit in the uncomfortably overcrowded "colored car" until Baltimore, at which point they can legally sit where they want (having passed the line "that divides black from white / south from north / wrong from right"); still, they aren't made welcome by white passengers, whose eyes say "keep moving"; whose hands covering empty seats say "not here." Ruth Ellen is reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass on the train, and Cline-Ransome generalizes the details of Douglass's own escape to emphasize the similarities in the two situations: "jobs / education / freedom / are waiting...for us. / And like the boy in the book / we all running from / and running to / at the same time." Ransome does an admirable job of setting mood as well as establishing time and place. Warm browns, greens, and golds predominate; a spread showing the family's necessarily clandestine departure glows with the striking pink of a predawn sky. Paneled endpapers depicting Black people migrating North via foot, train, bus, and car are particularly effective.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2020

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. Nolen presents an original story about flight and freedom--the former an enduring motif, the latter a recurrent theme, in African American folklore. Millicent and John worked alongside their parents and other enslaved people on Simon Plenty's plantation. Before their parents had been sold away, "back in the long-ago days," they told the children about how "our people could fly away to freedom as free and easy as any bird," a dream John and Millicent carry with them during the long hours of labor in the fields. One day, a majestic bird circling above catches the attention of the overseer, who rips it from flight with a swift snap of his whip. That night, worrying about the bird and forbidden to care for it, the children nevertheless race through the darkness to save it and begin nursing it back to health. The next day brings the news that John has been hired away, leaving Millicent alone, for months, to care for the bird. While John is absent, the bird and Millicent develop a special bond that strengthens her resolve for flight: "It felt to Millicent that she had grown her own wings and she could indeed fly." When John returns and the children learn that he is soon to be sold to another plantation, they decide to escape, following the bird westward toward freedom. Nolen's lively prose style recalls the richness of the oral tradition in this tale of triumphant courage and abiding hope. Ransome's acrylic paintings masterfully capture the mood of the story through dramatic images: the children running, the bird in flight.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2020

(1) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. The wife-and-husband team celebrates tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, focusing on their formative childhoods and the way their preparation and talent fundamentally changed the game. As Cline-Ransome's chronological account progresses, the sisters are positioned farther apart, eventually on opposite sides of the net, in Ransome's illustrations. A final spread, showing them holding hands after Serena bested Venus in the 2002 French Open, communicates the sisters' ultimate devotion to each other. Reading list. Bib.

Reviewer: Thom Barthelmess | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2018

(3) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. Weatherford's simple, meditative approach to distilling the work of Martin Luther King Jr. uses significant moments in his story to encourage kids to "be a King" through acts of kindness, justice, and bravery. Ransome's painterly illustrations (in oil, acrylic, colored pencil, and gouache) alternate images of King milestones with scenes of modern schoolchildren. An appended author's note provides deeper biographical information.

Reviewer: Kristy Pasquariello

(3) K-3 Illustrated by James Ransome. Sam (Salmonella) narrates a breezy historical tour of bacteria, yeast, mold, and other microbes and their sometimes antagonistic, sometimes beneficial relationship with humans. Microscopic life is portrayed as anthropomorphized critters alongside scientists, doctors, and patients in the watercolor, pencil, and mixed-media illustrations. James Ransome includes occasional backgrounds of impressionistic yet scientifically accurate bacterial colonies. Font size and color varies to highlight important scientific terms. Glos.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. The Ransomes have crafted an evocative life story of Harriet Tubman, framed by her travels. In free verse, the text tells of Tubman's roles (in reverse chronological order) as suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, nurse, conductor on the Underground Railroad, and slave. James Ransome's arresting watercolors highlight Tubman's face from different angles, always emphasizing her undaunted determination. Visual details will also enhance readers' knowledge of American history.

Reviewer: Michelle H. Martin | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2018

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James Ransome. McMorrow's atmospheric Nutcracker re-visioning is set during the Harlem Renaissance. Marie receives a drummer boy nutcracker at a Christmas party where she feels everyone else has musical talent; she finds her own voice through a dream (or is it?) in which her drumming halts a mouse battle. Ransome's watercolors, with rich dark blues and reds, ably transition from bustling party scenes to Marie's exciting dream world.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2017

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James Ransome. The story of Armstrong's childhood and early adulthood is told in two voices and two fonts: a black, sans serif font for the third-person account, and a colorful font for (undocumented) first-person quotations from Satchmo himself. While the illustrations maintain a consistently upbeat mood, the story is one of challenge and optimism. Details in a lengthy author's note are better suited to older readers.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2016

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. The young narrator's grandfather puts on his coat and tie to vote for the first time. Before he can, the deputy humiliates him with an unfair literacy test. The plainspoken text offers a slice-of-life example of the injustices endured by African Americans during the mid-twentieth-century in a disappointingly still-timely book. Watercolor scenes of fishing and farm chores are bathed in warm greens and browns.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2015

(3) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. "Real freedom means 'rithmetic and writing." Newly freed slaves Lizzie and her brother attend school, eager for "learnin'." They keep up with their studies after the building is set on fire; eventually their community rebuilds in response to the tragedy. This quietly powerful story offers readers a glimpse at African American life after the Emancipation Proclamation. The paintings convey the characters' dignity and perseverance.

Reviewer: Henrietta M. Smith

(3) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. Charting the life and career of dancer Robert Battle, current artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, this especially thorough account relates its subject's childhood inspirations and the intense training required by the art. In the "tradition" of depicting dance with pastels, Ransome's art adds heart and vibrancy to the narrative. A foreword by Robert Battle is included. Reading list, website. Bib.

Reviewer: Jeannie Coutant

(3) K-3 Illustrated by James Ransome. Isabella Baumfree was born into slavery but later escaped and transformed herself into Sojourner Truth, antislavery speaker and women's-rights advocate. Assuming the voice of Sojourner, Turner's free-verse narrative is loose and colloquial, and the punctuation quirky. Ransome's dramatic watercolors complement a page design that plays with font size, italics, and ribbons of words floating across double-page spreads. Reading list.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider

(2) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. Goodman grew up in Chicago, a working-class Jewish boy; Wilson lived in Tuskegee, Alabama, a middle-class African American boy. The story of how the two jazz musicians met and formed the Benny Goodman Trio (the "first interracial band to perform publicly") is recounted in short bursts of text, almost like jazz riffs, accompanied by pencil and watercolor illustrations that capture distinctive moments. Timeline.

Reviewer: Kathleen T. Horning | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2014

(3) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. "Joltin' Joe" made headlines wherever he played, especially during his amazing fifty-six-game hitting streak. With a near tall-tale tone, Winter paints baseball as the bright spot in the Depression and DiMaggio as one of the biggest stars of the day. Ransome's warm watercolors capture the emotions of DiMaggio but also life's small moments. An author's note fills in blanks. Bib.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith

(3) K-3 Illustrated by James E. Ransome. Risking a whipping if caught, young Rosa and her mama make the dangerous trek to a "pit school," where slaves gather in the middle of the night to learn to read with sticks and letters drawn in dirt. Cline-Ransome's respectful text is illustrated with Ransome's powerful paintings, which capture the slaves' fear, the resignation of some, and the perseverance of others. Reading list.

Reviewer: Henrietta M. Smith