Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer is exceptional, a master class of a picture book biography overflowing with energy-infused words and pictures. Quartez Harris is a compelling storyteller, summarizing Baldwin’s early life in evocative scenes, especially his struggles with his fury-filled preacher stepfather. Harris describes, for instance, how Baldwin wrote Go Tell It on the Mountain: “As he typed, his fingers dug into his Harlem childhood and the old church songs he sang in the pews of his past. Then he pounded his typewriter like an organ thundering from a storefront church.”
The atmospheric illustrations by Caldecott honoree Gordon C. James draw young readers right into James Baldwin’s world, showing, for example, how Baldwin traversed the streets of Harlem, seeing words everywhere. On one spread, Baldwin walks amid jump-roping children and chatting bystanders, the scene covered with words swirling through the young man’s head. Later, similarly styled words surround Baldwin’s typewriter as he begins to write his first novel.
A thoughtful afterword further explains Baldwin’s accomplishments, which is especially helpful for young readers not yet ready for his writing. Go Tell It is an inspiring look at one of America’s most important writers.
