H Is for Harlem

by Dinah Johnson, April Harrison (Illustrator)

Overview

A Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Honor Book for Nonfiction• An ALA Notable Book

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Kirkus Reviews •  School Library Journal •  The Horn Book •  Nerdy Book Club•  The Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature•  Bank Street College
 
An SCBWI Golden Kite Honor Award Winner for Nonfiction

Celebrate Black History Month with this richly informative and gorgeously illustrated book that celebrates Harlem’s vibrant traditions, past and present.
 
A is for Apollo Theatre
L is for Liberation Bookstore
U is for Uptown 
 
Discover the Harlem icons that have defined generations of American culture. Harlem is full of remarkable treasures, including museums, performance spaces, community centers, and more—all of which come to life in this lavish celebration of Harlem as an epicenter of African American history and a vibrant neighborhood that continues to shape our world. At once a love letter and a rich alphabetical archive, H Is for Harlem highlights communities and traditions that connect our past and present. 
  
★ "Stunning." —Booklist, starred review
 
★ "Remarkable." —School Library Journal, starred review
 
★ "Historically rich…. A gem." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
 
★ "Engaging and beautiful." —Horn Book, starred review
 
★ "Arresting." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316322379
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	07/19/2022
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	385,874
Product dimensions:	10.40(w) x 11.80(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Dinah Johnson is the award-winning author of many books for young readers, including Black Magic, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie; Hair Dance! with photographs by Kelly Johnson; Quinnie Blue, illustrated by James Ransome; Sunday Week, illustrated by Tyrone Geter; and All Around Town: The Photographs of Richard Samuel Roberts. A professor of English at the University of South Carolina, she lives in Columbia, South Carolina. She invites you to visit her at dinahjohnsonbooks.com.

April Harrison, a renowned folk artist, is the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award–winning illustrator of Patricia C. McKissack’s final picture book, What Is Given from the Heart, which received four starred reviews and which the New York Times Book Review called an “exquisite story of generosity.” Her work appears in the public collections of Vanderbilt University, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, the Atlanta Housing Authority, and the Erskine University Museum, as well as in many private collections. She invites you to visit her at www.april-harrison.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/26/2022

From “A is for Apollo Theater” to “Z is for Zora Neale Hurston,” this jam-packed abecedarian tribute to the famed New York neighborhood highlights significant persons and locations of its storied history and present day. “D is for Dance Theater of Harlem” recounts the creation of Arthur Mitchell’s studio in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination (“The dancers represent Harlem with grace and power and energy”). Other entries highlight the Harlem Globetrotters, Malcolm X Boulevard, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and—via “V is for Voices”—Harlem’s varied inhabitants, “from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Charleston, South Carolina; from Paris, France, and Accra, Ghana; from Brooklyn, New York, or around the corner.” Harrison’s arresting mixed-media illustrations render the abundant cast of important figures and myriad, unique surroundings in lifelike shades, lush textures, and generous dimensions, showing, as Johnson writes, that “Harlem is a place like no other in the world.” Includes an author’s note. Ages 5–9. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for H Is for Harlem:
A Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Honor Book for Nonfiction
A Kirkus Best Book of the Year
A School Library Journal Best of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare Title
An SCBWI Golden Kite Honor for Nonfiction Text for Younger Readers
A Nerdy Book Club Best of the Year Selection
A Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature Best Book of the Year
An ALSC Notable Book for Children
A Bank Street College Best Book of the Year
An NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Selection
A CBC Teacher and Librarian Favorite Award Winner
A PureWow Happy Kid Best History Book Award Winner
An Amazon Best Book of the Month 
A Junior Library Guild Selection 

* "Historically rich…. Harrison’s stunning, colorful, highly textured illustrations complement and expand upon Johnson’s textual snapshots, which offer just enough detail to encourage children to deepen their knowledge of Harlem. This is a beautiful and welcome celebration of Black joy. A gem that whets the appetite to learn more about a city where art is as alive as the people who live there."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "Sumptuous and necessary…Harrison’s mixed-media illustrations are meant to be savored for their layers of detail. Light seems to shine through these stunning, vibrant pages. Would that the English alphabet had more than 26 letters so that H Is for Harlem could have been longer."

—Booklist, starred review

* "An ode to the beating heart of African American culture with remarkable depth and breadth. This title is a celebration of Harlem’s vibrancy, dynamism, and significance."—School Library Journal, starred review

* "Harrison’s arresting mixed-media illustrations render the abundant cast of important figures and myriad, unique surroundings in lifelike shades, lush textures, and generous dimensions, showing, as Johnson writes, that 'Harlem is a place like no other in the world.'"
 —Publishers Weekly, starred review

* "Engaging and beautiful … What a splendid way to learn the alphabet!"

—Horn Book, starred review

From the Publisher

★ 07/01/2022

K-Gr 4—The cultural riches of Harlem are innumerable—its museums, community centers, performance spaces, restaurants, and bookstores are all icons of Black experience in the U.S. Harlem's triumphs, past and present, unfold in this alphabetic exploration and explosion of major landmarks, people, sports, and the arts, leaving no doubt that Harlem's impact on the American ethos reverberates far beyond 125th Street. Johnson describes the locale as being called the "mecca of Black America, a place where African American culture is living and breathing, shining and indestructible." Whether focused on a person, a place, or something more abstract like kinfolk, each entry weaves in just the right amount of information to build a broader understanding of what Harlem was and is. Johnson keenly incorporates more minor letter-specific highlights when the opportunity arises, broadening the work's informational scope. The text is illuminated with patchwork illustrations that play with texture, scale, and perspective in quilt-like dissonance. Harrison's artistic hand oscillates between naivete and realism, and the complexity of her illustrations will have young readers poring over the details. She brings an uptown cool vibe to even small grace notes, like the hand-lettering of street signs, the slant of the awnings and marquees, and the colors of the buildings, as diverse as the residents themselves in this historic village-within-a-city. VERDICT An ode to the beating heart of African American culture with remarkable depth and breadth. This title is a celebration of Harlem's vibrancy, dynamism, and significance.—Sarah Simpson

School Library Journal

★ 2022-04-27
An alphabetic journey through Harlem, past and present.

Beginning with “A is for Apollo Theater” and ending with “Z is for Zora Neale Hurston,” this historically rich picture book highlights the significant people, places, works of art, memorable publications, and more that have long made Harlem a hub of Black culture. Some letters focus on well-known institutions, such as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and the Harlem Globetrotters. Others shed light on lesser-known individuals like Mabel Fairbanks and Sharon Cohen, who created a pathway for Black youth to learn figure skating, and Impact Farm, an organization that has turned abandoned lots into thriving urban gardens. Harrison’s stunning, colorful, highly textured illustrations complement and expand upon Johnson’s textual snapshots, which offer just enough detail to encourage children to deepen their knowledge of Harlem. Johnson also gives a nod to other children’s picture-book creators by spotlighting Bryan Collier, whose award-winning picture book Uptown celebrates Harlem. This is a beautiful and welcome celebration of Black joy. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gem that whets the appetite to learn more about a city where art is as alive as the people who live there. (author's note) (Picture book. 5-10)

Kirkus Reviews