Carole Boston Weatherford & Jeffery Weatherford, author-illustrator, mother-son duo behind children's and young adult books: diverse, anti-racist nonfiction, biographies, poetry, historical fiction on African American heritage, culture, social justice. STEAM programs for K-12 and all ages.
My Gigi makes her picture book debut in Family Feast. Thanks, Frank Morrison, for putting my sweet girl in our book.
They’re not twins, but they do share a book birthdate. And they are both bundles of joy!
Family Feast, another collaboration with illustrator Frank Morrison, celebrates the customs, conversation, chaos and culinary delights that make family gatherings unforgettably fun. Like my dog, Gigi, the beagle in Family Feast is ever hopeful for treats from the table.
Grind: An Ode to Skateboarding, illustrated in street-art style by Néstor Omar García López, celebrates one of the first extreme sports. The book draws on memories of my days as a skateboard-mom. Since the 1990s, hip hop has had a huge influence on hip hop–which brings me to another bit of news.
A Book Pairing for King Holiday Programs
Be a King: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Dreamand Youand Rap It Up! are both rooted in African-American oral traditions. Dr. King hailed from the Black church, where call-and-response enlivens worship services. Rap It Up!, a how-to book, encourages youth to seize the power of their voices. Based on these compelling titles, our newest presentation for grades 2-6 connects the Civil Rights Movement and hip hop culture as students chant refrains and sing 1960s protest songs. We look forward to presenting this exciting new program at schools like yours. Contact us soon to book this program for January or February.
Are you old enough to remember blackboards, chalk and dusty erasers? The teacher would enlist a student to wipe the blackboard so the next day began with a clean slate.
Well, history doesn’t work that way. The past is blood running through our veins, a wound festering in our heartland and a scar on our democracy. To heal, we must come clean. That means chronicling a truer and more complete history.
For three decades, I have spoken truth to young scholars and reclaimed lost or little known narratives from painful chapters of American history. Imagine my outrage that Black history is now being erased or, at best, revised to suit a regressive, repressive and oppressive agenda.
These books from my backlist touch on subjects targeted by current culture wars:
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, ill. by Kadir Nelson (Harriet and enslavement)
Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom, ill. by Michele Woods (enslavement and the Underground Railroad)
A Negro League Scrapbook (Jackie Robinson)
You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen, ill. by Jeffery Boston Weatherford (the Airmen)
Kin: Rooted in Hope, ill. by Jeffery Boston Weatherford (enslavement)
Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People (Out of Print–photo of Peter-Gordon with scarred back)
On September 15, 2963, the Ku Klux Klan bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church killed four girls: Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley. Birmingham, 1963 is an elegy to the girls whose lives were cut short.
In this work of historical fiction, an unnamed narrator is marking her tenth birthday. Sadly, that milestone is marred by violence. The book’s longer opening poem precedes four short “In Memoriam” poems–incantations, spotlighting the four girls’ pastimes, personalities and passions and speculating who they might have become. In May 2013, the four girls were posthumously awarded Congressional Gold Medals.
In the 1960s, Birmingham was one of the most racially divided cities in the United States. While civil rights protesters pressed for equality and integration, the staunchest racists resorted to violence to resist change. Racists set off so many bombs in Birmingham’s Black neighborhoods that the city was nicknamed “Bombingham.” Led by the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was the hub of the city’s Civil Rights Movement, known as the Birmingham Campaign. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was jailed after marching from the church on April 12, 1963 and would go on to write his eloquent “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” And the historic Children’s March took place on May 2, 1963 in downtown Birmingham.
The bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church seared the collective conscience. The hate crime both shocked and shamed America. During the Cold War, America offered itself as a beacon of freedom and democracy. Yet, systemic racism persisted and white supremacists terrorized African-American citizens. The church bombing laid bare those moral contradictions.
In 1963, I was seven years old and had already written my first poem. At the time, my parents did not share news of the bombing with me. I grew up in Baltimore and did not experience the degree of discrimination that they did in Birmingham. In many ways, I was those girls. Like Addie Mae Collins, I drew portraits, played hopscotch and wore my hair pressed and curled. Like Cynthia Wesley, I was a mere wisp of a girl who sometimes wore dresses that my mother sewed. I sang soul music and sipped sodas with friends. Like Denise McNair, I liked dolls, made mud pies and had a childhood crush. I was a Brownie, had tea parties and hosted a neighborhood carnival for muscular dystrophy. People probably thought I’d be a real go-getter. Like Carole Robertson, I loved books, earned straight A’s and took music and dance lessons. I joined the Girl Scouts and was a member of Jack and Jill of America. I too hoped to make my mark. We are both Caroles with an “e.”
In researching the Birmingham, 1963, I was surprised that a stained glass window of Jesus almost survived the blast intact.
10:22 a.m. The clock stopped, and Jesus’ face
Was blown out of the only stained glass window
Left standing—the one where He stands at the door.
How ironic that Jesus was left faceless—as if He couldn’t bear to witness the violence.
At the four girls’ funeral, Dr. King delivered the eulogy. He called them “martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity.”
Art by Ernel Martinez from RAP IT UP! has been selected for the prestigious Society of Illustrators The Original Art exhibition, which showcases illustrations from the year’s best children’s books. How amazing that RAP IT UP! is Ernel’s first children’s book! He is best known as a Philadelphia mural artist. The original art show will run from October 15 to December 27 in New York City. Jeffery and I couldn’t be happier for Ernel. Congratulations, brother!
