Black is dazzling and distinctive, like toasted wheat berry bread; snowberries in the fall; rich, red cranberries; and the bronzed last leaves of summer. In this lyrical and luminous poetry collection, Coretta Scott King honorees Joyce Carol Thomas and Floyd Cooper celebrate these many shades of Black beautifully.

Included in Brightly’s list of recommended diverse poetry picture books for kids. Highly recommended for home and school libraries, commented Brightly’s Charnaie Gordon. Each melodic poem eloquently conveys the beauty of different skin tones and complexions. There are also themes of family, traditions, feelings, self-love, and acceptance echoed throughout this book.

We are color struck

The way an artist strikes

His canvas with his brush of many hues

Look closely at these mirrors

these palettes of skin

Each color is rich

in its own right

Joyce Carol Thomasis an internationally renowned author who received the National Book Award for her first novel,Marked By Fire, and a Coretta Scott King Honor forThe Blacker the Berryand for her first picture book,Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea. Her picture bookI Have Heard of a Landreceived a Coretta Scott King Honor and an IRA/CBC Teachers’ Choice Award and was an ALA Notable Book. Her other titles includeThe Gospel Cinderella,Crowning Glory,Gingerbread Days, andA Gathering of Flowers. Ms. Thomas lives in Berkeley, California.

Floyd Cooperreceived a Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations inThe Blacker the Berryand a Coretta Scott King Honor forBrown Honey in Broomwheat TeaandI Have Heard of a Land. Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mr. Cooper received a degree in fine arts from the University of Oklahoma and, after graduating, worked as an artist for a major greeting card company. His many beloved books form a lasting legacy.

• Publisher: Amistad; First edition, first printing (full number line) (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• ISBN-10: 0060253754
• ISBN-13: 9780060253752
• Reading age: 4 – 8 years
• Grade level: Preschool – 3
• Item Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Dimensions: 11.58 x 7.84 x 0.39 inches

The groundbreaking Harlem Renaissance novel about prejudice within the black community

Emma Lou Morgan’s skin is black. So black that it’s a source of shame to her not only among the largely white community of her hometown of Boise, Idaho, but also among her lighter-skinned family and friends. Seeking a community where she will be accepted, she leaves home at age eighteen, traveling first to Los Angeles and then to New York City, where in the Harlem of the 1920s she finds a vibrant scene of nightclubs and dance halls and parties and love affairs . . . and, still, rejection by her own race.

One of the most widely read and controversial works of the Harlem Renaissance, and the first novel to openly address prejudice among black Americans and the issue of colorism,The Blacker the Berry . . .is a book of undiminished power about the invidious role of skin color in American society.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Wallace Thurman(1902-1934), a novelist, essayist, editor, and playwright of the Harlem Renaissance, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and moved to Harlem in 1925. In 1926 he became the editor of the socialist journal The Messenger, where he published the early stories of Langston Hughes. He left The Messenger later that year to co-found the literary magazine Fire!! along with Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, among others. The Blacker the Berry…, his first novel, was published in 1929; he wrote two other novels, Infants of the Spring and The Interne, and a play, Harlem.

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publish Date: January 16, 2018
• Pages: 192
• Dimensions: 5.0 X 7.7 X 0.5 inches | 0.3 pounds
• Language: English
• Type: Paperback
• EAN/UPC: 9780143131878