Lynn Beckwith

Political correctness might be a tired concept to many, but it's done wonders for the world of children's books. Now, young readers can learn all about the customs and cultures of people of color, including those who lived on North American soil long before Columbus, the Pilgrims or the Vikings arrived.

Verla Kay's simple, rhyming text in Broken Feather gently informs the youngest reader about the life of a young Nez Perce boy. Broken Feather loves his home and life a life filled with hunting, harvesting, dancing and time spent with family. But this existence is jeopardized by the arrival of white settlers.

Early in the narrative, the reader sees white men and their long guns, hunting the land. Later, the wagons start arriving, and the territory becomes crowded with new settlers "bringing wagons/Cutting trees/Building houses/Where they please." The words of Broken Feather's father cut to the heart of the story, just as the settlers cut to the heart of the forests surrounding the Nez Perce land. Stephen Alcorn's stylized block prints add a wonderful extra dimension to the story. The author's note and final map of the Northwestern states add details that older readers and parents might want to know about the history of the Nez Perce people.

With her newest volume We Are the Many: A Picture Book of American Indians, Doreen Rappaport has written a beautiful nonfiction book about notable Native Americans. The artistic team of Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu illustrates each chapter with their signature watercolors, filled with detail, emotion and life.

Young readers will love the book's brief biographies, which employ both native and familiar terms (did you know that "Asiyahola" is the Seminole name for Osceola?). They'll marvel at the number of different tribes that live on our continent. Some familiar characters are included in the book (Sacajawea, Squanto and Jim Thorpe), but readers will also learn of William McCabe (one of the Navajo code talkers) and the Conley sisters (who argued the Wyandot Indians' land ownership case before the U.S. Supreme Court). Readable and accessible, this lovely volume fills in many of the blanks left by textbooks.

Paintings by Oneida artist Lisa Fifield and stories by Ojibway writer Lise Erdrich comprise Bears Make Rock Soup. Each brief tale is based on a principle of Native American lore. Both animals and people play the role of helper, and the earth is revered and respected.

Erdrich's gentle language is natural and has a cadence that makes it perfect for reading aloud. In hues as varied as the earth they celebrate, Fifield's pictures spill across the page. Though these are new stories rather than fresh interpretations of old narratives, each has the feel of a familiar and much-loved tale. "The nest is our home, our Earth. We share it with all creatures. Because of this there is always hope and life continues," Erdrich writes. Her book is a true treasure.

While the previous stories will be of greater interest to younger readers and listeners, Joseph Bruchac's The Winter People is historical fiction aimed at an older audience. Set in 1759 during a global conflict between France and England, the story opens in a little village in Quebec, one of the arenas of the war. Based on historical fact, Bruchac's novel is a retelling of true events through the life of Saxso, a young Abenaki boy who fights against the British and their Stockbridge Indian scouts.

After the battle, which left much of their village destroyed, the surviving Abenaki people attacked the retreating Bostoniak (as they called the British) and followed them to rescue family members who had been kidnapped. All the help he receives along the way shores up Saxso's bravery. His family sustains him with their gentle teachings, and a Southbridge warrior admires his courage all part of the young warrior's coming-of-age.

Bruchac, who is of Abenaki descent, is known for his dedication to retelling the stories of his people, which are often forgotten or left out of history books. This novel is one of his best.

Perhaps no other genre has the power of poetry. With the ability to get at the heart of the most common or complex ideas and examine them anew, the form offers something for every youngster, from the fledgling reader to the reflective teenager. April National Poetry Month is the perfect time to acquaint children with the pleasures of verse.

Jack Prelutsky, the high king of humorous rhyming poetry, has written a hilarious new volume called The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders. Accompanied by wonderful illustrations from Petra Mathers, these verses are about people and places from all over the United States. The poems range from the amusing title piece to the historic "In the Heart of South Dakota." Short, readable and easily memorized, they are sure to amuse the youngest readers. Prelutsky's signature rhythmic cadence is a favorite with kids, and this book will not disappoint his fans.

Better read with the eyes than heard with the ears, Outside the Lines: Poetry at Play is a collection of concrete poems written by Brad Burg and illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon. For the uninitiated, concrete poems are those that have a shape and a feeling of motion. The words in "Swing" follow the trajectory of a swinging child's feet. The words of some poems, like "Kites," start at the bottom of the page and soar to the top. "Soccer" is made up of words connected by dots that follow the trail of a soccer ball to an exuberant "GOAL!" Surely this is one time when the author and illustrator worked closely together. Concrete poems may be new to many adults, but the playful discipline they require is a lot of fun for children.

Alison Jay and J. Patrick Lewis team up in A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme, a book of intriguing illustrations and whimsical poems that celebrate geography. Jay's ingenious visuals oil paintings that appear to be overlaid with cracking varnish charmingly complement the varied verses. The collection includes concrete poems and explores many other forms as well, including the acrostic, a child-pleasing poetic trick in which the first letter of each line forms a word or phrase. For instance, the first letters of the lines of the poem "Christopher Columbus" actually form the words "Santa Maria." Young readers will enjoy the volume's riddles and may be inspired to write some of their own.

The simple elegance of haiku makes it a pleasure to read, and Miriam Chaikin has put together a lovely introduction to this ancient form in Don't Step on the Sky: A Handful of Haiku. The subject matter is typical of the form a celebration of the natural world but this is the natural world of young children. Chaikin deviates from the strict rules of haiku we learned in high school, and the freedom she demonstrates in her verse reflects the wildness of her subject. Capturing the curiosity of a child, she writes, "A blade of grass/pushes through the cement/Hello, world." Hiroe Nakata's nearly translucent watercolor illustrations have a naive style that is the perfect accompaniment to this marvelous helping of haiku.

More serious and reflective are the poems of Naomi Shihab Nye. Her newest volume, 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, is a collection of poems for young people that focuses on one of the world's most troubled areas. Adults may be familiar with Nye's passionate voice from her visits to A Prairie Home Companion or her various volumes of poetry. Now young readers can experience her clear, heartfelt words in this slim, accessible volume. Nye's introduction to the book is a new poem entitled "Flinn, On the Bus." It begins, "Three hours after the buildings fell,/he took a seat beside me./Fresh out of prison, after 24 months,/you're my first hello!" Nye goes on to chronicle, in painful, careful free verse, the story of an ex-con who does not yet know of the events of September 11. She ends, "He'd find out/soon enough. Flinn, take it easy./Peace is rough." Most of these poems have been published in other volumes and journals, and most were written well before the events discussed in Nye's introduction. Perhaps that is why they are doubly powerful. Though high school students and adults might best appreciate her verse, this is a powerful, thought-provoking volume for all.

Sometimes it is difficult to find books about civil rights that can be read comfortably by the youngest reader, but This Is the Dream, written by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander and illustrated by James Ransome, fits the bill. The authors have created a clear and concise poem following a simple rhythm that illuminates the milestones of civil rights history, from Jim Crow to the present. Ransome's understated, powerful collage illustrations bring together iconic images from newspapers with the faces of lesser-known people who bravely put themselves in harm's way to demand change. Ransome does not shy away from including unpleasant pictures of the time, especially the angry looks on the faces of white people. When the time shifts to the present, the colors change to warm blues as we see a water fountain, this time being shared by all: "This is the fountain that stands in the square,/and the unwritten rule is to take turns and share."

Nearly every child has heard of Rosa Parks, the recently deceased heroine of the Montgomery bus boycott. To honor her, poet Nikki Giovanni and artist Bryan Collier have teamed up to create a stunning new volume, Rosa. Moving beyond the familiar mythology of a woman too tired to move out of her seat, Giovanni and Collier tell the whole story of a strong woman with a mind of her own who knew the power of working with others. She sighed as she realized she was tired. Not tired from work but tired of putting white people first. Tired of stepping off sidewalks to let white people pass, tired of eating at separate lunch counters and learning at separate schools. . . . Tired of 'separate,' and definitely tired of 'not equal.' The cover shows the bus driver angrily willing this strong black woman to move and Parks' quiet defiance. The yellow wash of the illustrations reflects the hot Alabama sun as the book marches toward its stunning climax: a fold-out mural showing the proud, tired, resolved people of Montgomery preparing for the hard work to come.

Have you heard of W.W. Law of Savannah, Georgia? Well, I hadn't until I read Jim Haskins' Delivering Justice. Haskins, who died in July, was an award-winning writer who spent his career chronicling the history of African Americans. In his final book, he focuses on W.W. Law, who received little acclaim for his contribution to the civil rights movement. Through his activities with the NAACP, Law started the Savannah Boycott, a nonviolent protest by the black community that lasted for more than a year. With blacks refusing to shop in downtown Savannah, the city's businesses began to fail. Law used his job as a letter carrier to communicate with the white community, and little by little helped the two groups come together. Benny Andrews' oil and collage illustrations bring this important time to life for today's children and their parents.

Daphne Muse's collection of poetry, The Entrance Place of Wonders: Poems of the Harlem Renaissance, illustrated by Charlotte Riley-Webb, is a celebration of a rich cultural tradition. From Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes to James Weldon Johnson, the leading poets of the Harlem Renaissance are all represented here. Though some adults might long for the stronger, more political poems these poets are famous for, young readers will enjoy the child-friendly poems that tread on some of the typical territory of childhood: reading, wishing, eating, singing and playing.

Every school and home library should find space for these fine books, during Black History Month and the whole year 'round.