Still I Rise: Our 2nd Book of the Month

In honor of Black History Month, I've decided to add a second Book of the Month. Still I Rise, by Roland Laird and Taneshie Nash Laird, illustrated by Elihu "Adofo" Bey, was originally published in 1997 with the subtitle A Cartoon History of African Americans.

This new, revised and updated version no longer has that subtitle; instead it's now subtitled A Graphic History of African Americans. My best guess is that "cartoon" has, over the ensuing years, taken on a tone that is not seen as "serious", and that "graphic" -- as in the "graphic novel" genre -- is the new descriptive buzzword for a serious story that is hand-illustrated in the classic comic book format.

Nevertheless, this is a valuable book for anyone who wants an "easy way" to learn about African-American history. I highly recommend that parents get this book for their children (minimum age, I would guess, would be about ten or so -- the concepts are probably too sophisticated for kids younger than that), since they mostly likely are not getting a good grounding in African American history in their schools.

Here's the Wikipedia article on the book. It's a bit critical of the illustrations, which are flat and not very inspiring, but we're not really looking at it for the pictures...