Picture Book Review: The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander. unpgd. Versify/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 2, 2019. 9781328780966. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Two of my absolute children's literature favorite talents got together and produced a masterpiece. This! This, folks needs to be read and shared. The words alone, originally performed for ESPN, are incredibly powerful. Combined with Kadir Nelson's portraits of African Americans famous and unknown, along with a stunning and moving use of white space, the poem's emotional impact increases exponentially.

I was privileged to hear it performed by the poet at Words last week, and to hear the artist state that while he has taken to only illustrating his own work, he made an exception for this poem. 

I teared up several times during Alexander's reading. I do so every time I reread it. I shared it with one of my classes and they all leaned in to listen. We took some time to identify some of the people in the portraits. Detailed backmatter will help with some less familiar faces and an author's note rounds out what should be a first-purchase for all libraries. 

The Undefeated is already on the NYT bestseller list. It's getting starred reviews all over the place. It doesn't need my stinky little blog review. But, man, how I loved this book. I purchased it with the intention of donating it to my school's library, but am keeping it for my own library. 

Fact Friday: The Quilts of Gee's Bend by Susan Goldman Rubin

The Quilts of Gee's Bend by Susan Goldman Rubin. 56 p. Abrams Books for Young Readers Abrams/ June, 2017. 9781419721311. (Review from purchased copy)

I don't recall now when I first learned about the quilts of Gee's Bend. It might have been when Jacqueline Woodson's Show Way was published (2005) and I got interested in the history of quilting in the south among enslaved women.  Gee's Bend popped into my consciousness again in 2011 when I read Belle, the last mule of Gee's Bend by Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Bettye Stroud. I also became a fan of Susan Goldman Rubin after reading her biography of Diego Rivera. Books by her are basically an automatic purchase by me even if I can't get to read them all. 

The Quilts of Gee's Bend is just gorgeous through and through from the trim size through the cover to it's meticulous writing and arresting photographs of both the quilts and portraits of the quilter artist. 

The history of Gee's Bend dates back to the 1800s, when enslaved women would toil all day before returning to their quarters to cook, tend their family and quilt. Quilts were important in a variety of ways from the practical to the symbolic. New generations of quilters learned at the knees of mothers, grandmothers, aunts and other women. Once the Civil War and slavery ended, most stayed on in Gee's Bend and became sharecroppers. Most lived in abject poverty and constant debt that they could never pay off. Still, they were a tight-knit community who supported each other through good times and bad.

Readers will get to know a few of the more prominent quilter artists through the leisurely flowing text. There is hardly a page without a photograph of either the quilts (in full-color) or archival black and white photos and portraits taken during the late 1930s when FDR sent a team of photographers to the town to document the condition after an article was written by a journalist named Beverly Smith. 

Plenty of care went into the details of the book's design, with plenty of "white space." The background of the text is a creamy ecru with top-stitching that frames each page, a colorful, bright red, yellow and cream border along the top and page numbers framed in red and blue quilt rectangles.
Backmatter includes cheerful instructions for making a quilt square complete with traceable patterns. Three pages of notes follow. The bibliography includes six books, six articles, a video and three websites. Acknowledgements, image credits and an index conclude this fine volume.

Non-Fiction Monday: Tiny Stitches: the life of medical pioneer Vivien Thomas by Gwendolyn Hooks

Tiny Stitches: the life of medical pioneer Vivien Thomas by Gwendolyn Hooks. Illustrated by Colin Bootman. unpgd. Lee & Low Books, May, 2016. 9781620141564. (Review from purchased copy)

This is the story of Vivien Thomas who wanted to become a doctor. So he worked hard alongside of his father, who was a master carpenter and saved his money. But he lost it all in the stock market crash of 1929. While jobs were scarce for carpenters during the Great Depression, Vivien learned about a job opening at Vanderbilt Medical School. He hoped that by taking it, he could keep his dreams of becoming a doctor alive. 

He interviewed with Dr. Alfred Blalock. Dr. Blalock wanted someone to help him with his research into treatment for patients in shock. Blalock was impressed with Vivien and offered him the job. Blalock taught Vivien how to conduct experiments and write up lab reports. Another doctor loaned him medical texts. Vivien was such a quick study that it wasn't long before he was conducting his own experiments. 

He learned to suture seamlessly. He also learned that his job description was that of janitor and that white men with the same duties were earning more than he. He informed Dr. Blalock that he would no longer work for him unless he was paid comparably. 

When Doctor Blalock left Vanderbilt to join Johns Hopkins, Vivien knew it would not be long before he was fired by Vanderbilt so he moved to Baltimore but could not find housing. It turned out that Johns Hopkins was more segregated that Vanderbilt but Vivien persevered. 

In 1943, a pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Helen Taussig, approached Dr. Blalock about finding a way to cure the tiniest cardiac patients, the "blue babies." These were babies who were born with a congenital heart defect known as Tetrology of Fallot, or four defects that prevented blood from being properly oxygenated.

After months of experimenting, Vivien realized that the solution might be a "procedure he and Dr. Blalock perfected at Vanderbilt for a different problem." One stumbling block to trying this surgery was that the needles were too long for the tiny infants' hearts and blood vessels. Vivien needed to make the needles small enough to use on a newborn. He tried his new needles out on animals and found a way to anastomose arteries using them. In November of 1944, Dr. Taussig had a baby girl who needed surgery or she would die. 

On the morning of the surgery, Dr. Blalock insisted that Vivien remain in the operating room to help guide him through the surgery. The baby survived thanks to Vivien's help but Dr. Blalock got all the credit and press. Dr. Blalock became world famous and Vivien was never credited for his research until 1971. In 1976, he was given an honorary doctorate and appointed to the faculty as instructor. 

Talk about injustice! What tenacity and perseverance on the part of Vivien Thomas! This is an important addition to any school, public or classroom or STEM library. The mostly double-page watercolor illustrations are fantastic. They convey Vivien Thomas' dignity and intelligence. Two pages of backmatter provides more information about Tetrology of Fallot and Vivien Thomas, followed by a glossary of medical terms and source notes. 

Truly a first-purchase with cross-curricular uses.

ETA: I almost forgot! The eighth grade social studies teacher has a unit on African-American inventors. I asked him if Vivien Thomas was on the list of possible inventors to research. He was not; but after hearing my synopsis of the story, the teacher wants to add him.

Non-Fiction Monday: Schools of Hope: How Julius Rosenwald helped change African American education

Schools of Hope: How Julius Rosenwald helped change African American education by Norman H. Finkelstein. 80 p. Calkins Creek/ Boyds Mills Press, April, 2014. 9781590788417. (Finished copy courtesy of publisher for review.)

Julius Rosenwald was a wealthy man whose motto was, "give while you live," gave generously to a variety of both Jewish and Christian charities. When he met Booker T. Washington and learned of the deplorable conditions of schools for African Americans in the south, he was moved to fund the building of new ones. There was a prerequisite however. He would provide a third of the cost and the community needed to provide the rest. Over twenty years, Rosenwald funded 5300 schools. That means that 5300 communities throughout the south scrimped, saved, fundraised and built their own schools. These were often small two or three room multipurpose structures but they were better than the crumbling buildings that they replaced. Rosenwald's gift was extraordinary, but even more so was the dedication of the African American community in making a new school happen.

This account is highly readable and engaging. The design is attractive, with plenty of white space and chock full of  well-captioned and interesting photographs, architectural drawings and maps. Each chapter is documented with source notes and a bibliography and list of web sites to visit are provided at the end. No African American history collection is complete without this purchase. Highly recommended.