During the month of April, I have been inspired to write with rhythm and rhyme. Angie Karcher’s Rhyming Picture Book Month (#RhyPiBoMo) is a wealth of information. Thanks to the authors, agents and editors who shared their experience and tips. If you haven't followed Angie's blog, then pull up a chair, pour a cup of coffee and click HERE.
This week I focused on the author and poet, Carole
Boston Weatherford, who "mines the past for family stories, fading
traditions, and forgotten struggles." Many of her books show stories of
African-American historical figures and events. Several of her picture books
rhyme, like the one I'm reviewing.
Harlem's Historic Neighborhood Sugar Hill
written by Carole Boston Weatherford
illustrated by
Published
by Albert Whitman & Company, 2014
Book
Review
Take
a walk through Harlem’s Sugar Hill and meet all the amazing people who made
this neighborhood legendary. With upbeat rhyming, read-aloud text, Sugar Hill
celebrates the Harlem neighborhood that successful African Americans first
called home during the 1920s.
The back matter includes brief biographies of jazz greats Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sonny Rollins, and Miles Davis; artists Aaron Douglas and Faith Ringgold; entertainers Lena Horne and the Nicholas Brothers; writer Zora Neale Hurston; civil rights leader W. E. B. DuBois and lawyer Thurgood Marshall.
The back matter includes brief biographies of jazz greats Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sonny Rollins, and Miles Davis; artists Aaron Douglas and Faith Ringgold; entertainers Lena Horne and the Nicholas Brothers; writer Zora Neale Hurston; civil rights leader W. E. B. DuBois and lawyer Thurgood Marshall.
The story begins -
Sugar Hill, Sugar Hill where life is sweet
And the "A" TRAIN stops for the black elite.
My favorite line -
Where lovely LENA takes Sunday strolls
that shoot racist notions full of holes.
Watch Carole Boston Weatherford talk about her writing life
and stories on Reading Rockets.