The Life and Language of Beloved Writer Toni Morrison
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Quill Tree Books
(Harper Collins Publishers)
(pub. 4.2.2024)
48 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrator: Khalif Tahir Thompson
Character: Toni Morrison
Overview:
" How do you tell a story?
Before Toni Morrison was a Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel Prize–winning author, she was Chloe Ardelia Wofford, a little girl in Ohio who was both the only Black child in her first-grade classroom and the only student who was able to read.
This is the true story of how that young girl learned from her upbringing, surrounded herself with stories, and made a tremendous impact on the world. Toni Morrison’s pen was her sword, and she grew to be a titan of the arts. Her legacy is one that still touches readers to this day."
Tantalizing taste:
"Before long, you join in telling stories
and fall under the spell of the spoken word.
You so love language that by first grade,
you - the sole Black student in the room -
are the only one who can read. All by yourself.
No one can call you second-class.
That means a lot at a time when laws and leaders
keep Blacks at the bottom of the ladder."
And something more: Carole Boston Weatherford shared in the Author's Note: "In 1979, I took my first trip to California. At a bookstore in Berkeley, I bought The Black Book... Never before had I seen such a wealth of Black culture in one place, let alone between the covers of a book...I have read and studied many of Toni Morrison's novels, and I consider her a literary mentor. However, it was not until I wrote this biography that I realized she also conceived The Black Book. For that, I am eternally grateful."
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