June Almeida, Virus Detective!: The Woman Who Discovered the First Human Coronavirus is a non-fiction picture book by Suzanne Slade and illustrated by Elisa Paganelli. It was released on March 15, 2021 by Sleeping Bear Press. The publisher lists the book as being at a second grade reading level and of interest to grades one through four. There’s a special thanks of note before the store begins to Dr. Joyce Almeida, who is June Almeida’s daughter, it says she supported “this project by vetting the text and sketches, answering questions, providing primary sources, science papers, and photos, as well as intimate insights about her mother.”
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Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre is a non-fiction picture book written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Floyd Cooper that was released on February 2, 2021 from Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Books. Lerner places the book at a fourth grade reading level and recommends the book for grades third through sixth. The book is already being lauded with recognition on the longlist for the National Book Award, a Kirkus Prize finalist, a Boston Globe-Horn Honor Book, and designated a “must-have” from Booklist (https://lernerbooks.com/shop/show/20776). Lerner also had this video on the page as well as Youtube with a chance to hear from the author and illustrator.
The first few pages set up the setting to explain what first drew people and Black people to the Tulsa and Greenwood area and the segregation that existed there. It goes on to go into detail with examples of the flourishing Black Wall Street with the homes, businesses, and featured spots for several pages. “But in 1921, not everyone in Tulsa was pleased with these signs of Black wealth—undeniable proof that African Americans could achieve just as much, if not more than, whites.” Here the tone changes to the terrible events that happened in Tulsa and tells of the unfolding of those events in chronological order. The text explains how in an elevator ride a seventeen-year-old white elevator operator accused a nineteen-year-old Black shoeshine man of assault, how white folks encouraged others to “nab” him and Black men rushed down to prevent a possible lynching. There were thirty Black men and two thousand white men, several armed, that gathered May 31, 1921, by the jail. After the white men were not able to get the arrested man, they “stormed into Greenwood, looting and burnings homes and businesses,” “blocked firefighters from putting out the blazes,” and families fled. The following pages cover more of the aftermath and share that an investigation that launched seventy-five years later uncovered that police and city officials had worked with the mob to destroy Greenwood. The closing page shows Tulsa’s Reconciliation Park and says, “It is a place to realize the responsibility we all have to reject hatred and violence and to instead choose hope.” The author’s and illustrator’s notes at the back go into more facts about the events and personal connections to Tulsa. |
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