Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America

Hand in Hand is a compelling work of history and biography and a monument to the struggle for civil rights and African American achievement. Yet Andrea David Pinkney keeps young readers engaged and entertained by telling revealing anecdotes and choosing down-to-earth metaphors that make these figures seem like ordinary people who did extraordinary things. For example, she writes that when opposing team members called Jackie Robinson " a degrading name ... he smacked the pitcher's ball with his baseball bat harder than hard -- knocked the jelly out of that doughnut ..."

It's good that her storytelling is so captivating, because the book is text-heavy, with many consecutive two-page spreads with nothing but type on them (though the type is fairly large) before the eye is relieved to find a piece of Brian Pinkney's amazing watercolor-and-ink art. Hand to Hand is a wonderful resource for home or classroom, great for read-aloud, family discussion, or school research projects.