Missing her mother, she clings to Mamma Habblesham, a woman with enviable reserves of love and hope. Their affection for each other seems boundless –– until Abeba's mother returns to take her to Brooklyn.As Abeba grows up, her exceptional musical talent promises to be an avenue of escape. But a handsome singer distracts her, and opportunities that once seemed so close begin to fall away. Now married with children of her own, she fights to maintain the dignity of her family. Let the Lion Eat Straw is a revelation of the glory in apparently ordinary lives.

    Leo and Diane Dillon use bright colors and musical patterns that make music skip off the page in this toe-tapping homage to many jazz greats. From Miles Davis and Charlie Parker to Ella Fitzgerald, here is a dream team sure to knock your socks off. Learn about this popular music form and read a biography of each player pictured-and then hear each instrument play on a specially produced CD. What's the featured song? "Jazz on a Saturday Night," written and recorded to accompany this book.

    In this picture book interpretation, renowned illustrator Jerry Pinkney has created images of a family moving from the rural South to the urban North during the Great Migration that reached its peak in the 1930s. The song's message of self-reliance still speaks to us today but resonates even stronger in its historical context. This extraordinary book stands as a tribute to all those who dared so much to get their own.

    . . . I’m the prettiest thing that ever lived!"From the moment a fired-up teenager from Kentucky won 1960 Olympic gold to the day in 1996 when a retired legend, hands shaking from Parkinson’s, returned to raise the Olympic torch, the boxer known as "The Greatest" waged many a fight. Some were in the ring, against opponents like Sonny Liston and Joe Frazier; others were against societal prejudice and against a war he refused to support because of his Islamic faith. Charles R. Smith Jr.’s rap-inspired verse weaves and bobs and jabs with relentless energy, while Bryan Collier’s bold collage artwork matches every move — capturing the "Louisville loudmouth with the great gift of rhyme" who shed the name Cassius Clay to take on the world as Muhammad Ali.

    Three generations of black women remember their "childtime" in this lyrical memoir spanning a century of American history. Their memories are sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but always vivid. Not simply a chronicle of one black family, this book preserves the lives and communities of times past for future generations.

    On her tenth birthday, Leah receives a surprise gift from glamorous Aunt Olivia, Mama's only sister, who lives in Los Angeles.  It is a red rose box.  Not many people in 1958 Louisiana have seen such a beautiful traveling case, covered with red roses, filled with jewelry, silk bedclothes, expensive soaps...and train tickets to California.  Soon after, Leah and her sister, Ruth, find themselves in Hollywood, far away from cotton fields and Jim Crow laws.  To Leah, California feels like freedom.  But when disaster strikes back home, Leah and Ruth have to stay with Aunt Olivia permanently.  Will freedom ever feel like home?

    as he struggles to understand why his father walked out. His father is back now, though C.J. is not as quick to forgive as the other members of his family. He still feels the weight of responsibility that fell on his shoulders when Daddy was gone, and he's not prepared to give that up. But C.J.'s anger is making him a stranger in his own home, and instead of life seeming better now that Daddy has returned, it feels worse.Through powerful poems, Hope Anita Smith chronicles the nuanced emotions of a family that is slowly learning to heal and put the pieces back together.Keeping the Night Watch is a 2009 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book and a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

    Cool Clyde, Fast Sam, Gloria, BB, Angel and Maria, Chalky and Carnation Charley - they grew close that one eventful year, and nothing was ever like it again. That was the year that modern science got them all in jail; the year Stuff fell in love and was unfaithful; the year Cool Clyde and Fast Sam won the dance contest - almost.In this funny and energetic book, Walter Dean Myers brings to life with warmth and good humor an unusual group of boys and girls, who together grow to know the meaning of friendship.

    In 1915, Sadie Fagan gave birth to a daughter she named Eleanora. The world, however, would know her as Billie Holiday, possibly the greatest jazz singer of all time. Eleanora's journey into legend took her through pain, poverty, and run-ins with the law. By the time she was fifteen, she knew she possessed something that could possibly change her life—a voice. Eleanora could sing. Her remarkable voice led her to a place in the spotlight with some of the era's hottest big bands. Billie Holiday sang as if she had lived each lyric, and in many ways she had. Through a sequence of raw and poignant poems, award-winning poet Carole Boston Weatherford chronicles Eleanora Fagan's metamorphosis into Billie Holiday. The author examines the singer's young life, her fight for survival, and the dream she pursued with passion in this Coretta Scott King Author Honor winner. With stunning art by Floyd Cooper, this book provides a revealing look at a cultural icon.

    A picture book biography about Gwendolyn Brooks, the influential poet and the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize.

    A hunterman and a crocodile take turns being captive and captor in a humorous folktale that teaches the importance of living in harmony with nature and is illustrated with ceramic-tile paintings.

    Not when a layup        from the other side of the court                     standing on one foot                               with your eyes closed  is just the warm-up.Around the neighborhood, around the world, off Saturn’s rings, the pair goes back and forth. The game is as much about skill as it is about imagination. A slam dunk from multi-award-winning author/illustrator Christopher Myers, H.O.R.S.E. is a celebration of the sport of basketball, the art of trash-talking, and the idea that what’s possible is bounded only by what you can dream.

    A poem based on the story of creation in the Bible.

    A wonderful picture book introduction to a legendary American writer."Today I'm going to wearMy favorite pink blouseI'm going with my daddyTo visit Langston's house."It's a special day when a little girl and her father go to visit the house where the great poet Langston Hughes lived-especially when the little girl is a poet herself!This rhythmic tale is a wonderful introduction to the work and world of Langston Hughes, who was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and an American cultural hero.

    From the tired and weary families who risked their lives to escape slavery to the instruments of freedom who helped them. One such amazing instrument was John Parker. As an ex-slave who had bought his own freedom, he knew of the pain and struggles his brethren were feeling. Parker made it his goal to help families escape their life of suffering into a free land. Freedom River tells the story of one such mission. Kentucky was a slave state, but Ohio -- just across the Ohio River -- was free. Time and again, Parker sails across the river in the dark of night and brings slaves to Ohio. One night in November, Parker tries to free a family from the Shrofe plantation. But one man will not leave, fearful for his wife and child. Parker has to go back empty-handed, and the onset of winter prevents him from crossing the river for many weeks; in April, he tries again but is informed that Master Shrofe knows of the family's near escape and now keeps careful eye on all that they do -- even keeping their baby at the foot of his bed at night. Parker promises to help them. The next night he tells them to wait in the woods while he enters the master's house. Risking life and limb, he retrieves the infant, as Shrofe's angry shouts echo in the distance.Told in an exquisite voice, this book highlights the heroes no one seldom hears about. The tone of the book is realistic and at times somber. The watercolor and collage illustrations, especially those evoking the blue of the night sky, adds depth and intensity to an already passionate story. --Amy Barkat