SUSAN ROBESON grew up in West Harlem and spent many of her early years with her grandparents at their book-filled brownstone home in upper Harlem. She is a longtime documentary film and television producer. Her award-winning work has appeared on PBS, NBC and ABC affiliates, and Channel 4 in the UK, and has shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Museum, and numerous film festivals. Her first book, The Whole World In His Hands: A Pictorial Biography of Paul Robeson, was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. She resides in the New York City area where she is an adjunct professor in film and communications and executive director of the Paul Robeson Foundation. This is her first picture book for young readers.


ROD BROWN is a fine artist and the illustrator of We Troubled the Waters and Freedom's a-Callin' Me, both by Ntozake Shange, and From Slave Ship to Freedom Road by Julius Lester, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. His artwork has been featured in museums such as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City, and on national television on Oprah's OWN Network and the Nickelodeon program The Legacy of Slavery with Linda Ellerbee. He lives with his wife outside Washington, DC.