I am on the book selection committee for Scholastic Book Fairs, and last week we had our weeklong review of the more than four thousand children's books publishers are planning to release this Fall 2017. I also had a chance to give a book talk on a special book that I recently read--The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth, and Harlem's Greatest Bookstore. It's book that represents my desire to see publishers publish more diverse books to more fully represent kid readers of various backgrounds. It is also a book that touches on my favorite period of American history--the Harlem Renaissance. And it represents one of my favorite places to hang: the local indie bookstore.
The book...
This book has been on my shelf, calling out to me to read it for about a year, and I just hadn’t read it until recently.
One thing you should know about me is that if a book has a brown face or ethnic coloring to it and if it is within my reach and/or budget, I am going to grab it and add it to my library. I love books by and about brown and black people. I don’t know what to say.
And though I do read quite a bit, but I hadn’t read anything by Vaunda Nelson, and it would have been a while still before I made it around to The Book Itch, if it wasn’t for my eleven-year-old son, Austin, who came to me the weekend before last and said…
So, last week Thursday, my husband and I went to Austin’s school and sat with him in the grass, along with his classmates and their families, and we all read books.
You can see there that I brought two other books besides The Book Itch—the Crossover by Kwame Alexander, which was incredible, and Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena, whose main character actually sounds a lot like my son. Anyway… Austin loved all the books. But in that moment, I was pleasantly surprised by The Book Itch.
I love that sign at top of the storefront. Can you see it? It says: “The House of Common Sense and the Home of Proper Propaganda.” We could use some proper propaganda these days. My enjoyed playing with those words and repeated them over and over, placing stresses on different syllables--“propa propERgander”--while I continued to read.
The book tells the personal, cultural, and historic story of the National Memorial African Bookstore.
The young narrator, who is Lewis Michaux’s son, informs the reader about when he met Muhammad Ali and about how Malcolm X would spend time in the back room of the store preparing for the speeches he would deliver right on the block in front of the store. He also tells of his father’s close friendship with Malcolm X, and how he saw his dad cry for the first time when Malcolm was assassinated.
What I loved so much about this book, as I read it aloud to my brown boy, was the overall authentic, accessible, and smart ethnic cadence of the text. It’s benevolent, honest, humble, and empowering. The observant storyteller, Lewis Michaux’s son, is just so cool. I mean, he is SEATED THERE in the MIDST of these living legends and all kinds of greatness.
I loved all the rapping and rhyming phrases the father would recite as part of his everyday language.
- This house is packed with all the facts about all the blacks all over the world.
- Knowledge is power. You need it every hour. Read a book!
- Books will help him clear the weeds and plant the seeds so he’ll succeed.
And MY favorite:
- Don’t get took! Read a book!
And so, I will tell you that The Book Itch by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and R. Gregory Christie doesn’t exactly help scratch the book itch. I mean it sort of does by being a great book in itself, but it sort of intensifies the itch, if you ask me.
But if you ever decide to read The Book Itch, and I highly recommend you do, just get ready to feel all the feels for your favorite books and that special indie bookstore once you’re finished.