Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000) created the 60 panels of his the Migration of the Negro series in 1941 at the age of 23. This sumptuous slice-of-life biography with illustrations by Caldecott Honor artist Christopher Myers (Harlem) plants some seeds in childhood for the artist who would grow up to immortalize his era.
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts (Harlem Is Nowhere), in her first book for young people, describes the young artist at 13, when he moves to Harlem: "In the morning Jake watches the sun wake up.... He makes a big stretch, and the sun stretches, too." In Myers's accompanying painting, Jake's arms dance above his head; the colors of the sunrise appear in the striped quilt on his bed. The author's lyrical words reflect an artist's view of the world. Jake's feet sink deep into a thick blue rug: "When his toes touch the ground, it's like a sky upside down." Myers skillfully pays homage to Lawrence while retaining his own style. Jake reaches toward Utopia Children's House, where he first met artist and teacher Charles Henry Alston. In one of Jake's paintings, "all the faces" he sees on the street "become one face," and after his teacher shows him an African mask, Jake fashions his own from brown paper bags, glue and paint. As Jake re-creates his street (the cover image), Myers invents a glorious mash-up of Lawrence's most famous figures.
Rhodes-Pitts and Myers imagine a young artist called to his vocation, who honors his city and history as subjects worth capturing for posterity. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness