A School Library Journal Best Book
A Booklist Editors' Choice
A Kirkus Best Book
Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List
Finalist, SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction Text for Older Readers
Named to the 2024 Capitol Choices list
A Bank Street Best Children's Book
★ "These narratives will also give young people a new understanding of how the subjects became exceptional forces for racial freedom...Meticulously researched and organized...Shepard creatively argues through captivating poetic history that racial justice is the long struggle in this country and that we are still working toward who ''we' is in this more perfect union. A must purchase." —School Library Journal, starred review
★ "Rooting the events presented in documented history, Shepard distills them into concentrated bursts of truth... Christie’s section-heading black-and-white scenes are as starkly powerful as the poems. The information presented is kaleidoscopic rather than comprehensive; readers will come away with clear senses of who these individuals were and what motivated them, while formidable backmatter...provides avenues for them to fill in the gaps. Electrifying." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
★ "In this substantive nonfiction history in verse, Shepherd depicts the lives of six Black Americans who 'tilted the country’s moral arc toward liberty, freedom, and justice.' The poetry is always engaging, at times unwieldy, at times electric in its power. Highly recommended for both personal reading and curricular study." —Booklist, starred review
★ “This is a highly readable work of creative nonfiction told in five story-poems–flash lines of verse, prose, and quotes–anchored in historical facts The individual poems are impressionistic, and many have a rhythm that would work well when read aloud.” —Youth Service Book Review
"In this biography in verse, Shepard presents thoroughly researched portraits of six historical Black figures...Shepard makes each subject both distinct and connected; repetitive phrases and similar stylistic structures thread through the book, underscoring an arc of history that has lurched toward racial justice in fits and starts, taking one step back as many times as it moved forward." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
“A Long Time Coming is an unflinching, thoughtful, instructive, and beautiful rendering of the African American journey from slavery to freedom and beyond. Students of all ages will benefit from reading it.”—Randall Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School and author of Say It Loud! On Race, Law, History, and Culture
“Ray Anthony Shepard takes readers on an epic journey along Freedom’s road. As they encounter conquering souls like Ona Judge, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and President Obama, readers will finish the book bolstered with understanding and feelings of inspiration and joy.”—Alice Faye Duncan, author of Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop
“In powerful prose poetry, Ray Anthony Shepard recounts the lives and audacity of Black leaders from Harriet Tubman and Frederic Douglass to Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., and President Barack Obama. Learning about them together gives this history of our country’s sins and the people who fought for justice the gravitas it deserves. I pray that this book—painful, revealing, and ultimately inspiring—will disprove forever ‘the lie,’ as Shepard puts it perfectly, ‘that people are color-coded into winners and losers.’ It is a long time coming.”—Deborah Heiligman, author of Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
“An exquisite historical tapestry, A Long Time Coming, weaves the lives of six heroes to create unflinchingly detailed documentation of American strength, suffering, and survival. Approachable, quick, and brimming with dynamic storytelling. Depth of research shines as Shepard graciously sheds new light on the lives of these heroes.”—Angela Joy, author of Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement
★ 07/01/2023
Gr 7 Up—A collective biography of six major Black resistance leaders, this title documents the history of Black racial strife, always underwritten with an unwavering belief in equality and freedom. Written in "story-poems" with quotes italicized, Shepard's work presents the lives and racial justice work of Ona Judge, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Barack Obama. Christie's captivating, full-page art gives each section visual grounding so that readers can imagine the time that Shepard describes. Unique stories of childhood or life events before their fame will help teens understand these often-studied individuals as products of their time. These narratives will also give young people a new understanding of how the subjects became exceptional forces for racial freedom, such as Obama's fifth grade lie about his "princely" African father. Meticulously researched and organized, each section's poems are given places and years. Back matter includes extensive source notes, an index, a time line, and a concluding poem for readers to consider how racial equality has been "a long time coming." VERDICT Shepard creatively argues through captivating poetic history that racial justice is the long struggle in this country and that we are still working toward who "we" is in this more perfect union. A must purchase.—Jamie Winchell
★ 2023-05-09
A cycle of free verse poems carries readers from 1773 to “tomorrow,” focusing on the lives of six Black Americans whose experiences represent centuries of ferocious resistance to extraordinary oppression.
These figures are Ona Judge, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barack Obama. A prefatory note explains to readers that this is “a work of creative nonfiction told in…story-poems—flash lines of verse, prose, and quotes—anchored in historical facts.” The author previously demonstrated his straight nonfiction chops with Now or Never! (2017), his splendid account of Black journalists in the Civil War; here he proves equally adept at the more emotive form of poetry. Rooting the events presented in documented history, Shepard distills them into concentrated bursts of truth. In the section on Wells and her decadeslong campaign against lynching, he writes: “More than two hundred Black / children, women, and men were dead / in a two-day attack by Whites / from three states. / History called it a race riot not a massacre / as if the sharecroppers / had burned their own bodies.” Christie’s section-heading black-and-white scenes are as starkly powerful as the poems. The information presented is kaleidoscopic rather than comprehensive; readers will come away with clear senses of who these individuals were and what motivated them, while formidable backmatter, including a lengthy timeline, further reading, bibliography, and source notes, provides avenues for them to fill in the gaps.
Electrifying. (index) (Verse nonfiction. 12-16)
