In the January/February 2013 Horn Book Magazine, reviewer Jonathan Hunt asks Andrea Davis Pinkney about selecting subjects for Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America. Read the review of Hand in Hand here.

Jonathan Hunt: How did you approach the difficult task of narrowing your list? Can you tell us who almost made it?

Andrea Davis Pinkney: Narrowing the list was daunting! One man I really wanted to include, but felt was too self-serving, was my own father, the late Philip J. Davis. Dad was one of the first African Americans to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, and was later appointed by the White House to help draft affirmative action legislation. Of the ten men featured in the book, my dad had a direct connection to six of them. A few years ago, Brian painted a stunning portrait of my father, so that aspect of Dad’s story was already complete.