"An important and inspiring book." (School Library Journal starred review)
Ida B. Wells worked bravely as an activist, educator, writer, journalist, suffragette, and pioneering voice against the horror of lynching. An inspiration for generations of civil rights crusaders, Wells's own words are used throughout this picture book biography to introduce young readers to this leader.
Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Walter Dean Myers tells the story of this legendary figure, his powerful words blending harmoniously with the historically detailed watercolor paintings of illustrator Bonnie Christensen. As Booklist noted: "Myers’ masterful text is well matched by Christensen’s somber watercolor illustrations: neither soft-pedals the injustice and cruelty to African Americans."
Brightly added: "Myers’s unflinching tale highlights Wells’s courage and persistence by using her own words and writings throughout, and sharing the many moments of her life when she refused to accept discrimination and raised her voice for justice"
Walter Dean Myers was the New York Times bestselling author of Monster, the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award; a former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature; and an inaugural NYC Literary Honoree. Myers received every single major award in the field of children's literature. He was the author of two Newbery Honor Books and six Coretta Scott King Awardees. He was the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults, a three-time National Book Award Finalist, as well as the first-ever recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Bonnie Christensen is a fine artist and printmaker who teaches at St. Michael’s College in Vermont. She has illustrated The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck for the Folio Society in London and ten books for children, including Woody Guthrie: Poet of the People, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, and Pompeii: Lost and Found.
