Strong Souls Singing

Library Journal

Children's books are frequently used to proselytize. Luckily, resources like these help sort out the good from the dogmatic, the mediocre, and the bad. As former Caldecott and Newbery Award committee member Odean reminds us in her introduction to Great Books for Boys, boys have different challenges growing up than girls do. In this companion to her Great Books for Girls (LJ 1/97), she summarizes over 600 books, from picture books to novels, arranging them by reader age from two to 14 and providing short, descriptive synopses. She chooses stories with characters of both sexes that reflect the complexity of boys' lives--a family's flight from domestic abuse, a sixth grader's struggle to understand a beloved but bigoted father--as well as stories about children who use creativity to solve problems. She also lists tips for reading aloud, magazines that review children's books, and a special section for books on sexuality and growing up. Cooper-Mullin and Coye, who have six daughters between them, have gathered books whose heroines are smart and strong-willed. Nontraditional roles, interesting plots, meaningful character development, and rich language were some of their criteria for inclusion. Organized from "early readers" to "young adults," their book includes a resource list for finding the books mentioned. It also features quotes from women like Ruby Bridges and Janet Reno. As with Great Books for Boys, all children can enjoy these selections. A single drawback of both these titles is the absence of author and title indexes. Both books are recommended for all school and public libraries. Introduced by Marian Wright Edelman, Strong Souls Singing focuses on African American literature for girls and women and is the companion to Spirited Minds: African American Books for Our Sons and Our Brothers (LJ 9/1/97). Covering 110 books, it is the narrowest of the three titles reviewed here. Each chapter covers a particular genre (i.e., poetry, drama, fiction, biography, and history) and contains page-long entries with suggested reading levels. These mini-book reviews are nicely illustrated and accompanied by book excerpts, but many of the recommended books, such as Alice Walker's The Color Purple, are already well known and are certainly found in other bibliographies. Recommended for large public libraries and African American collections.--Glynys Thomas, Suffolk Univ. Lib., Boston

School Library Journal

This annotated bibliography is intended to "show the breadth of genius in African American literature, to whet the appetites of new readers, and to give those who know the literature something to share with others." The titles, many of which were published in the 1990s, are arranged by genre: history, drama, novels and short stories, autobiographies and biographies, and poetry. There are a few classics, such as Ann Petry's Tituba of Salem Village and Lorraine Hansberry's To Be Young, Gifted and Black. The descriptive annotations are uneven but adequate. They appear along with the book's title, author, year of publication, and page length. Unfortunately, readers must flip to the back to find the rest of the bibliographic information. The reading/interest levels provided on the bottom of the page are easy to overlook. Title, author, and reading-level indexes are included. Givens attempts far too much for such a brief listing, covering titles that range from picture books through adult novels. This small, specialized compilation would do best in circulating collections.-Marie Wright, University Library, Indianapolis, IN