25 Books Published by Albert Whitman & Company on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

The true story of one man’s brave plan to free his family from slavery

Lizzy Smalls is proud of her papa, Robert, for being the best boat pilot in Charleston Harbor. But the Smalls family is enslaved, and after the outbreak of the Civil War, Robert is forced to put his skills to work for the Confederates. He knows that reaching Union territory means freedom for his family; to get there, he devises a daring plan to steal a boat and sail out of the harbor under cover of night.

This thrilling true story shows how one man’s courage, careful planning, and calm under pressure helped him navigate the way to a new life.

A little-known but fascinating and larger-than-life character, Mary Fields is one of the unsung, trailblazing African American women who helped settle the American West. A former slave, Fields became the first African American woman stagecoach driver in 1895, when, in her 60s, she beat out all the cowboys applying for the job by being the fastest to hitch a team of six horses. She won the dangerous and challenging job, and for many years traveled the badlands with her pet eagle, protecting the mail from outlaws and wild animals, never losing a single horse or package. Fields helped pave the way for other women and people of color to become stagecoach drivers and postal workers.

The Society of Illustrators Original Art Exhibit 2015
2015 NAACP Image Award—Outstanding Literary Work, Children
New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2016—CBC/NCSS

STARRED REVIEW Weatherford writes in the present tense with intensity, carefully choosing words that concisely evoke the man. Parks’ photography gave a powerful and memorable face to racism in America; this book gives him to young readers.—Kirkus Reviews starred review

This is a promising vehicle for introducing young children to the power of photography as an agent for social change, and it may make them aware of contemporary victims of injustice in need of an advocate with a camera.—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

The story of a self-taught photographer who used his camera to take a stand against racism in America.

His white teacher tells her all-black class, You’ll all wind up porters and waiters. What did she know? Gordon Parks is most famous for being the first black director in Hollywood. But before he made movies and wrote books, he was a poor African American looking for work. When he bought a camera, his life changed forever. He taught himself how to take pictures and before long, people noticed. His success as a fashion photographer landed him a job working for the government. In Washington DC, Gordon went looking for a subject, but what he found was segregation. He and others were treated differently because of the color of their skin. Gordon wanted to take a stand against the racism he observed. With his camera in hand, he found a way. Told through lyrical verse and atmospheric art, this is the story of how, with a single photograph, a self-taught artist got America to take notice.

Born blind into a life of slavery, Thomas Wiggins was dismissed as a "useless burden." But through the loving protection of his family, he went on to become one of the greatest musicians of his time. From Tom’s childhood on a plantation to his performances in the concert halls of Europe, Glenda Armand shares the beautiful and at times heartbreaking story of a long-overlooked musical great, the love that supported him, and the struggle for freedom.

Tiara has a gift for storytelling; her momma has a gift for making hats. When a new store opens that sells cheaper hats, Momma has to set her dreams aside, but Tiara has an idea for helping Momma’s dreams come true again.

Celebrating the differences between a mother and father that blend to make the perfect combination in their daughter. An African American mother and a white father are only one reason why this family is "just right."

When Dede sees a notice offering land to black people in Kansas, her family decides to give up their life of sharecropping to become homesteading pioneers in the Midwest. Inspired by the true story of Nicodemus, Kansas, a town founded in the late 1870s by Exodusters—former slaves leaving the Jim Crow South in search of a new beginning—this fictional story follows Dede and her parents as they set out to stake and secure a claim, finally allowing them to have a home to call their own.

After a day of being taunted by classmates about her unruly hair, Mackenzie can’t take any more. On her way home from school, she seeks the guidance of her wise and comforting neighbor, Miss Tillie. Using the beautiful garden in her backyard as a metaphor, Miss Tillie shows Mackenzie that maintaining healthy hair is not a chore nor is it something to fear. But most importantly, Mackenzie learns that natural black hair is beautiful.

Charlie Sifford loved golf, but in the 1930’s only white people were allowed to play in the Professional Golf Association. Sifford had won plenty of black tournaments, but he was determined to break the color barrier in the PGA. In 1960 he did, only to face discrimination from hotels that wouldn’t rent him rooms and clubs that wouldn’t let him use the same locker as the white players. But Sifford kept playing, becoming the first black golfer to win a PGA tournament and eventually ranking among the greats in golf.

Before she raised her lens to take her most iconic photo, Dorothea Lange took photos of the downtrodden from bankers in once-fine suits waiting in breadlines, to former slaves, to the homeless sleeping on sidewalks. A case of polio had left her with a limp and sympathetic to those less fortunate. Traveling across the United States, documenting…

Although Bunnybear was born a bear, he feels more like a bunny. He prefers bouncing in the thicket to tramping in the forest, and in his heart he’s fluffy and tiny, like a rabbit, instead of burly and loud, like a bear. The other bears don’t understand him, and neither do the bunnies. Will Bunnybear ever find a friend who likes him just the way he is?

Best Children’s Books of the Year, Bank Street College

One day I am going to be free—and I’m going to have all the apples I want.

Like other enslaved African American children, young Harriet Tubman had to work hard. In her master’s orchard, she spent long hours picking the juicy apples she was forbidden to eat. Harriet vowed to one day be free and to grow apple trees of her own. When she was grown, she made her escape to the North. Then, repeatedly risking her life, she returned to lead many other African Americans to freedom.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved science and dance. My new picture book, published by Albert Whitman & Co., was inspired by those two passions. Isn’t the cover awesome? So blessed to have Luke Flowers as the illustrator of my counting story of dinos who like to groove. From jitterbug to disco, Cupid Shuffle to waltz, watch the dinos get down to a Jurassic beat.

His white teacher tells her all-black class, You’ll all wind up porters and waiters. What did she know? Gordon Parks is most famous for being the first black director in Hollywood. But before he made movies and wrote books, he was a poor African American looking for work. When he bought a camera, his life changed forever. He taught himself how to take pictures and before long, people noticed. His success as a fashion photographer landed him a job working for the government. In Washington DC, Gordon went looking for a subject, but what he found was segregation. He and others were treated differently because of the color of their skin. Gordon wanted to take a stand against the racism he observed. With his camera in hand, he found a way. Told through lyrical verse and atmospheric art, this is the story of how, with a single photograph, a self-taught artist got America to take notice.

Booker T. Washington had an incredible passion for learning. Born a slave, he taught himself to read. When the Civil War ended, Booker finally fulfilled his dream of attending school. After graduation, he was invited to teach in Tuskegee, Alabama. Finding many eager students but no school, Booker set out to build his own school—brick by brick. An afterword gives detailed information on how the school was built.

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. Children raised in Sugar Hill not only looked up to these achievers but also experienced art and culture at home, at church, and in the community. Books, music lessons, and art classes expanded their horizons beyond the narrow limits of segregation. 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.

Sally is a young girl living in rural Alabama in the early 1900s, a time when people were struggling to grow food in soil that had been depleted by years of cotton production. One day, Dr. George Washington Carver shows up to help the grown-ups with their farms and the children with their school garden. He teaches them how to restore the soil and respect the balance of nature. He even prepares a delicious lunch made of plants, including "chicken" made from peanuts. And Sally never forgets the lessons this wise man leaves in her heart and mind. Susan Grigsby’s warm story shines new light on a Black scientist who was ahead of his time.

Like so many people during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Marshall Loman’s dad has lost his job. There’s little money, but there are plenty of beans-in fact, Ma cooks them for supper every single night! Beans start looking better when Marshall sees the contest posted in the furniture store window. HOW MANY BEANS ARE IN THE JAR? WIN THIS BRAND NEW SEWING MACHINE! Ma needs that sewing machine-but how can Lomans possibly guess right? Then Marshall remembers something he learned in arithmetic class. Becky Birtha’s engaging story, based on her grandmother’s memories of Depression years in the African American community, is illustrated by Nicole Tadgell’s expressive paintings.

If you ran for president, you would have to do a lot of hard work. You would study the nation’s problems, tell the American people about your platform, select a running mate, and debate your opponents on live television.

Mable Jean wants to go to school. She has to walk five miles to get there, though, and her papa told her that if she can’t keep up, she’ll have to wait another year. Mable Jean asks her parents why the black children don’t have a bus, too.

A brief biography of Oseola McCarty, a hard-working washer woman who, without a formal education herself, donated a portion of her life savings to the University of Southern Mississippi to endow a scholarship fund for needy students.

A touching story of how Moose Horn came to allow his picture to be painted is based on the life of George Catlin, who painted the great Indian tribes of the American West and whose art hangs in the Smithsonian.

In the segregated south, a young girl thinks that she can drink from a fountain marked "Whites Only" because she is wearing her white socks.

When they discover she is leaving, Mrs. Burns’ class decides to give her a party.

When her grandmother is hurt in a fall, Mary Jo must get help to the remote farm where they live.