This terrific book for older children and teens pairs 20 poems by African American writers with 20 paintings by African American artists. This lively and powerful compilation introduces a range of African American writers and artists of the past 150 years, celebrating their creativity and their diversity in style, in experience, and in point of view. In her inspiring introduction, editor Belinda Rochelle emphasizes the role each child or young adult plays as a participant in poetry and art. She writes, “We must help give the poems and art their wings by bringing to them our own experiences and histories, and our willingness to let them take us somewhere new.” Rochelle has modeled one way of doing just that in her choices for this volume, pairing Georgia Douglas Johnson’s poem “Your World” with Robert Scott Duncanson’s painting “Landscape with Rainbow,” and Alice Walker’s poem “Women” with William H. Johnson’s painting “Harriet Tubman.” (Ages 10–16)