black history

Since the 18th was a vacation for some in honor of Martin Luther King, here are a few recommended childrens' book. Music lovers like myself will enjoy the Caldecott winner, Duke Ellington by Andrea Davis Pinkney. Naturally, winning such an award means the pictures are absolutely GREAT!

I especially found the book The Real McCoy, The Life of an African-American Inventor by Wendy Towle most interesting as I had never heard of Elijah McCoy before. It is truly an informative and inspirational story of a man who contributed a lot to Americans as an engineer/inventor during a time in history when such an individual could easily have kept his talents hidden--The Civil War era! It was because of Elijah's racial background that our expression "the real McCoy" originated. Once Elijah's first invention (read the book to find out what it was) became popular, others tried to imitate it and couldn't - thus people would want to make sure they had acquired "the real McCoy" instead of someone's imitation. The illlustrations in this book are an additional plus.

The book Pappy's Handkerchief is another book I recommend. It,too, is an inspiring story of how one African-American family believed as Will rogers once said, "You've got to go out on a limb sometimes because that's where the fruit is." This family was among the many who found their way to the Oklahoma Territory in 1889, but because of their race had to endure more than the average homesteader to reach their dream.