Sing, Aretha, Sing!

October 22, 2021
Grades K-2 Rather than tell Aretha Franklin's entire story, this focused biography concentrates on her trailblazing song "Respect" and its impact on the Civil Rights Movement. Short passages relate Aretha's musical background in the church and on tour with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These experiences laid the foundation when 24-year-old Aretha composed "Respect" in 1967. As Abdurraqib describes how the song became an anthem for people protesting racism and war, he includes an acrostic poem based on Aretha's choral R-E-S-P-E-C-T and uses the weather metaphorically to convey the cloudy skies of oppression and the light that the song brought to marches and homes. Evans' vibrant and expressive full-page digital illustrations with people of varying skin tones reinforce this imagery. Among the concluding illustrations are Aretha receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom (unspecified by the text) and renderings of today's young people continuing Aretha's call by protesting for #BlackLivesMatter, clean water, and more social justice. An author's note fills in more details. Carole Boston Weatherford's RESPECT: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul (2020) offers another look at the artist's life.

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December 15, 2021
The timeless Queen of Soul is introduced to a new generation. In his picture-book debut, National Book Award longlisted author Abdurraqib traces Aretha Franklin's groundbreaking career as a singer and her legacy as a civil rights activist. Beginning with her childhood singing gospel in her father's church, the story covers her time traveling with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., her rise to international stardom, and the emergence of her iconic signature song "Respect" as a popular and powerful anthem of Black and female empowerment during the 1960s. The text is written mostly in simple expository prose except for an acrostic poem on one double-page spread in which the first letters of each line spell out the word respect. Evans' vibrant digital illustrations highlight Franklin's beauty and vitality and the racial diversity of the people who were in her thrall. As acknowledged in the backmatter, attempting to encapsulate all that Franklin was in a picture book is a difficult task, and indeed, the book feels overambitious at times, but its message regarding music's power to help love conquer hate is compelling. A sweet, upbeat testimonial to the ongoing, far-reaching impact of a dearly departed legend. (author's note) (Picture book biography. 4-8)

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