Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement
by Angela Joy; illus. by Janelle Washington
Primary, Intermediate    Roaring Brook    64 pp.    g
8/22    978-1-250-22095-0    $19.99

This powerful picture-book biography reverently portrays the life of Mamie Till-Mobley (1921–2003), whose defiant act of bravery following the 1955 murder of her son, Emmett, brought a spiritual essence to — and helped ignite — the civil rights movement. Joy’s (Black Is a Rainbow Color, rev. 1/20) lyrical free-verse narrative opens on August 31, 1955, when “the sheriff set out to dig a grave…to hide the crime in the mud of Mississippi…But Mamie did the harder thing. She said, ‘No. You send my son home.’” The text then goes back to Mamie’s childhood outside of Chicago, where the family moved from Mississippi during the Great Migration. She excelled in school, graduating at the top of her class, and later married Louis Till. They had a baby, Emmett, whose bout with polio left him with a stutter. One summer, relatives invited Emmett to spend time with them in Mississippi. Mamie said no, fearful of the Jim Crow South. Although she finally agreed, still, “Sometimes a mother gets a feeling, an ache deep down in her soul — a warning.” The heart of the story is what happens following Emmett’s brutal murder. Mamie’s resolve not to let her son be forgotten leads her to a crusade of social justice and advocacy — not only for Emmett but for “sons and daughters still living.” Washington’s dramatic paper-cut art, featuring bold black-and-white silhouettes and figures on brown backgrounds with blue, brown, and red tissue-paper accents, perfectly captures the courage and dignity of the subject. Rich back matter includes author and illustrator notes, a playlist, a timeline, and a bibliography. PAULETTA BROWN BRACY

From the September/October 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
by Mara Rockliff; illus. by R. Gregory Christie
Primary, Intermediate    Random House Studio/Random    40 pp.    g
1/22    978-1-5247-2064-3    $18.99
Library ed.  978-1-5247-2065-0    $21.99
e-book ed.  978-1-5247-2066-7    $11.99

Rockliff and Christie focus their story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott on a little-heralded — yet integral — member of the movement, culinary whiz Georgia Gilmore (1920–1990). Once the boycott began, Gilmore and her “Club from Nowhere” (so dubbed to help members avoid retaliatory action) sold baked goods and donated their earnings to the cause. Although Gilmore did, in fact, lose her job after testifying at Dr. King’s trial following his arrest for organizing the boycott, she was able to succeed when he encouraged her to start her own catering business. Gilmore’s home became a place for members of the movement to gather not just to eat good food but to hash out matters relevant to the boycott. Rockliff repeats certain phrases to great effect (“Summer heated up…The boycotters trudged on. Fall passed…The boycotters plodded on”) and nods to Gilmore’s mouthwatering menu offerings (“The empty buses made city officials hotter than Georgia’s collard greens with pepper sauce”). Christie’s vivid, painterly illustrations bring the 1950s setting to life and show Gilmore’s importance to the cause; she is pictured in nearly every spread, cooking, baking, bringing money to a boycott strategy meeting, and more. Appended with an “After the Boycott” page, which focuses on Gilmore’s later life; an author’s note on sources; and a source list. Pair with Romito and Freeman’s Pies from Nowhere (rev. 11/18). SAM BLOOM

From the January/February 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.