by Carole Boston Weatherford, Illustrated by Ekua Holmes
Candlewick Press (MA)
8/4/2015, hardcover
SKU: 9780763665319
Stirring poems and stunning collage illustrations combine to celebrate the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, a champion of equal voting rights.
"I am sick and tired of being sick and tired."
Despite fierce prejudice and abuse, even being beaten to within an inch of her life, Fannie Lou Hamer was a champion of civil rights from the 1950s until her death in 1977. Integral to the Freedom Summer of 1964, Ms. Hamer gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention that, despite President Johnson's interference, aired on national TV news and spurred the nation to support the Freedom Democrats. Featuring vibrant mixed-media art full of intricate detail, Voice of Freedom celebrates Fannie Lou Hamer's life and legacy with a message of hope, determination, and strength.
Reviews:
In a series of poems in this biography, Weatherford traces the life of Fannie Lou Hamer from her childhood as the youngest of 20 children of sharecroppers in Mississippi to her social and political activism...The poems feature particular events in Hamer's life and their implications, which provide readers with memorable, heart-wrenching details. --Literacy Daily
In a new children's book, Roxbury painter and collage artist Ekua Holmes juxtaposes light and dark, flowers and protest signs to represent the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, civil-rights activist. --The Boston Globe
About the Contributors:
Carole Boston Weatherford has written numerous award-winning books for children, including Becoming Billie Holiday, illustrated by Floyd Cooper, which won a Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, and the Caldecott Honor-winning Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, which also won an NAACP Image Award. Carole Boston Weatherford lives in North Carolina.
Ekua Holmes is a fine artist whose work explores themes of family, relationships, hope, and faith. In 2013 she was named to the Boston Arts Commission, which oversees public art projects on city property. Voice of Freedom is her first picture book. Ekua Holmes lives in Boston.