Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change

Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change by Michelle Cook. Published by Bloomsbury USA Childrens on January 3, 2012.

This beautiful picture book is written in the form of a timeline, following the history of African-Americans in our country from the time of slavery up until Barack Obama was elected President. Each section focuses on a particular person in history, featuring a large two-page illustration as well as a brief description of what they contributed to the world. The word choice shows how every person who came first paved the path for the next person, and so on and so forth. It describes to the reader how all of our past has led to where we are today, and how we can keep moving forward from here.

Cook's broad selection of famous African Americans in this book allows children to learn a little bit about many people, some they probably hadn't heard of before. This is important because it introduces children, no matter what race or ethnicity they are, to historical figures that their parents or even their textbooks might have overlooked. By doing this, Cook is showing young children how important African-Americans have been throughout history and how, even though they have been some huge and positive changes, there's still work to be done.

Another strong point of this book is the variety of the illustrations. Each section is done by a different artist, giving each of the historical figures their own unique feel that suits their role in history or personality. This constant change in the images also suits the book's message of how our country has changed over time, specifically for African-Americans. It feels very poetic, despite the simple langue that describes each person.

This book would be a great choice for reading out loud in the classroom, both for Black History Month as well as any other time during the year. It can be easy to reserve more diverse reading for only February, but it's important to keep it up year-long as well. And a book like this is a great way to introduce younger children to some historical figures that they'll hopefully be learning about later in life.

My first suggestion for similar books would be Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama. Not only does this book also cover important people throughout history, (including African-Americans), but it's also written by President Obama in the form of a letter to his daughters. It's a very emotional piece that I would suggest to anyone, not just children or teachers. Another good choice would be Desmond and the Very Mean Word by Desmond Tutu. This book is also writing by an important figure in history, and the story teaches children and important lesson about being kind and not letting people get the best of you.