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Summary
Summary
Civil rights icon, Ambassador Andrew Young and his daughter, Paula Young Shelton, deliver a powerful oral history about a special day in Andrew's childhood that changed him forever. This story of race relations in the 1930s South is illustrated by bestselling Caldecott Honor winner Gordon C. James.
As a boy, Andrew Young learned a vital lesson from his parents when a local chapter of the Nazi party instigated racial unrest in their hometown of New Orleans in the 1930s. While Hitler's teachings promoted White supremacy, Andrew's father, told him that when dealing with the sickness of racism, "Don't get mad, get smart." To drive home this idea, Andrew Young Senior took his family to the local movie house to see a newsreel of track star Jesse Owens racing toward Olympic gold, showing the world that the best way to promote equality is to focus on the finish line. The teaching of his parents, and Jesse Owens' example, would be the guiding principles that shaped Andrew's beliefs in nonviolence and built his foundation as a civil rights leader and advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The story is vividly recalled by Paula Young Shelton, Andrew's daughter.
Author Notes
Paula Young Shelton is an early childhood educator with nearly thirty years of experience teaching young children. She is the author of the acclaimed children's book Child of the Civil Rights Movement , illustrated by Raúl Colón, a Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year. She is a graduate of Duke University and holds a master's degree in Education from Bank Street College. Paula is married with three sons, and lives in Washington DC.
Andrew Young is an American legend, who was a close friend and advisor of Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1972, when he was elected to Congress in Atlanta, Georgia, he was the first African American representative from the deep South since Reconstruction to hold such a position. President Jimmy Carter appointed Andrew Young as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, where Young promoted human rights around the world. He was the first African American to hold the position. Ambassador Young served two terms as mayor of Atlanta. Sixty years after he saw Jesse Owens win Olympic gold, he worked with the Black and White leadership of the city to bring the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games to Atlanta. He continues to build global equality through the Andrew J. Young Foundation, which supports and promotes education, leadership, and human rights in the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean. He lives in Atlanta, GA.
Gordon C. James is the award-winning illustrator of Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut , written by Derrick Barnes, for which Gordon received a Caldecott Honor medal, the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award, and an Ezra Jack Keats Honor award, among others. He is the illustrator of the New York Times bestseller I Am Every Good Thing , also written by Derrick Barnes, and winner of a Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards Honor. Gordon is also the illustrator of the multi-award-winning Let 'Er Buck! George Fletcher, the People's Champion written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. To learn more, please visit: https://www.gordoncjames.com/
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The Olympic success of Jesse Owens serves as inspiration in Young's childhood narrative, as relayed by his daughter Young Shelton. Before becoming a fixture of the civil rights movement, Andrew Young (b. 1932) was a middle-class Black boy in segregated New Orleans where, on the playground, "kids didn't care what color you were. What mattered most was how fast you could run and tag." Episodic scenes detail Young's family life; men in the neighborhood shouting what sounded like "Hi, Hitler!"; and a trip to the Orpheum Theater, where, from the "Colored Only" section, Young watches Jesse Owens, "a runner who looked like me, winning over and over and over again" at the 1936 Olympics in Germany. Seeing Owens win four gold medals "in front of a man who thought people like me were not as good as White people" galvanizes him to "play harder, work harder, and try harder... to be the best I could be." In hazy pastels, James creates a dreamlike backdrop for the historically resonant recollection. Creators' notes conclude. Ages 6--8. (Aug.)
Kirkus Review
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model. Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood ("It sounded like they were yelling 'Hi, Hitler!' "). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens ("a runner who looked like me") triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. "Racism is a sickness," his father tells him. "We've got to help folks like that." How? "Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be," his father replies. "It's what you do that counts." In James' hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with "those Colored boys") in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater's segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero--"head up, back straight, eyes focused," as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A pivotal moment in a child's life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator's note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Told in first person from the viewpoint of Andrew Young as a child growing up in New Orleans, the story begins with one of his white playmates showing off the nickel that his Aunt Ida has paid him "'not to play with 'those Colored boys,' but Norbie didn't pay her no never mind." Later, Andy asks his father about Hitler supporters in their neighborhood. His father explains racism as a sickness, saying, "We've got to help those folks," and encouraging Andy to be the best person he can be, by doing homework, practicing baseball, being polite, and greeting everyone without regard to skin color. Soon, at a theater they must enter by the back stairs, Andy and his father watch newsreels featuring Jesse Owens winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, further inspiring Andy to work hard and become the best he can be. This memorable picture book retells a family story based on Young's childhood experiences. Later, he became a civil rights leader, a U.S. Congressman, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and the mayor of Atlanta. The book's large format showcases James' vivid, impressionistic, chalk-pastel artwork. Adding dialogue that is true to the period, Shelton--Young's daughter---communicates a meaningful message from the past that resonates with equal power today.
