Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America (review)

The ten biographies featured in this title comprise what Pinkney refers to as her "black legacy time line" and indeed, the towering figures she presents could be collectively regarded as a round-up of notable names, from Benjamin Banneker and Frederick Douglass to Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Barack Obama. Pinkney, however, relates their life experiences in a storyteller's voice that is at once front porch intimate and Sunday preacher eloquent, a far cry from the staid tone generally reserved for biography: "To . . . antislave crusaders, Benjamin's [Banneker] almanac was a freedom flag. They waved Benjamin's manuscript high in the air so that pro-slavers throughout Maryland had no choice but to notice." Approachable as Pinkney's prose may be, the overall appearance of the volume is somewhat daunting, with lengthy entries presented on densely packed pages. Brian Pinkney's artwork goes some distance toward making the layout more approachable with fabulous full-page watercolor portraiture and bits of spot art, but long stretches of uninterrupted text will probably leave readers aching for more pictorial relief. No specific source notes are offered, but a bibliography is included, as well as an index and timeline that clarifies the overlap of these ten remarkable lives within a broader historical context. Teachers looking for inspiring stories to share with their students will welcome this as a source for middle-school readalouds.