Lesa Cline-Ransome

Discovering a book of Langston Hughes's poetry in the library helps Langston cope with the loss of his mother, relocating from Alabama to Chicago as part of the Great Migration, and being bullied.

Raised by his grandparents, first in Mississippi then in Wisconsin, ten-year-old Lymon moves to Chicago in 1945 to live with the mother he never knew, while yearning for his father.

Hungry for learning, Lizzie and her brother Paul attend a new school built for freed slaves.

"Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) is a hero and trailblazer. She was the first African American woman in Congress (1968) and the first woman and African American to seek the nomination for president of the United States from one of the two major political parties (1972). Written by award-winning author Lesa Cline-Ransome, here is her story"

Come meet the good, the bad, and the ugly-yes, germs! There's so much to discover about germs. Did you know that germs make your stomach growl as they break down your food? Or that they can travel the world on anything from fleas and ticks to trains and buses? Told from the perspective of Sam the Salmonella, this informative picture book introduces young readers to helpful and harmful germs, exploring their discovery; the breakout of historic diseases;...

Clem can make anybody, even his grumpy older sisters, smile with his jokes. But when his family receives news that his father has died in the infamous Port Chicago disaster, everything begins to fall apart. Clem's mother is forced to work long, tough hours as a maid for a wealthy white family. Soon Clem can barely recognize his home-and himself. Can he live up to his father's legacy? In her award-winning trilogy, Lesa Cline-Ransome masterfully recreates...

It wasn't soft/It wasn't black/It wasn't sweet/It wasn't white/It was swing. Brought together by the love of playing jazz music, Teddy Wilson and Benny Goodman broke the color barrier in entertainment when they formed the Benny Goodman Trio with Gene Krupa. This lush and lyrical picture book tells the story of how two musical prodigies from very different backgrounds - one a young black boy growing up in Tuskegee, Alabama, the other the son of struggling...

Leroy "Satchel" Paige was the first African American to pitch in a Major League World Series, and the first Negro Leaguer to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Fans of all ages can relive the dream as they hear about Satch's talents, feisty personality, popularity, and ultimate success in this rhythmic and vivid biography of one of baseball's most dazzling pitchers.

"...A ball made of a sock stuffed with rags. Bare feet. Does this sound like an auspicious beginning for "soccer's first star?" Ibsen Santos is an unobtrusive narrator who sets a leisurely pace and lets young listeners interact with both the text and the illustrations... Radio broadcasts of soccer games add ambiance to the production."-AudoFile

Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or astronauts walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used their knowledge, pencils, adding machines, and writing paper to calculate the orbital mechanics needed to launch spacecraft. Katherine Johnson was one of these mathematicians who used trajectories and complex equations to chart the space program. Even as Virginia's Jim Crow laws were in place in the early...