History in verse! What a cool idea. Today’s nominee from the Poetry category uses just such an innovative concept. You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Jeffery Boston Weatherford, is a nonfiction poetry title with some amazingly dynamic scratchboard illustrations by the author’s son. The review (and interview!) comes from Round 1 Poetry judge (and professor and author) Sylvia Vardell, a longtime Cybils veteran who blogs at Poetry for Children. According to Sylvia’s review,
“You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen … pairs her poems with the scratchboard illustrations created by her son, Jeffery Weatherford, their first collaboration as mother and son. It celebrates ‘the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, pioneering African American pilots who triumphed in the skies and past the color barrier.'”
Click here to read the full review and great interview with the author and illustrator.