All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom

by Angela Johnson, E.B. Lewis (Illustrator)

Overview

Experience the joy of Juneteenth in this celebration of freedom from the award-winning team of Angela Johnson and E.B. Lewis.

Through the eyes of one little girl, All Different Now tells the story of the first Juneteenth, the day freedom finally came to the last of the slaves in the South. Since then, the observance of June 19 as African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond. This stunning picture book includes notes from the author and illustrator, a timeline of important dates, and a glossary of relevant terms.

Told in Angela Johnson’s signature melodic style and brought to life by E.B. Lewis’s striking paintings, All Different Now is a joyous portrait of the dawn breaking on the darkest time in our nation’s history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689873768
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	05/06/2014
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	217,704
Product dimensions:	11.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD830L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Angela Johnson has won three Coretta Scott King Awards, one each for her novels The First Part Last, Heaven, and Toning the Sweep. The First Part Last was also the recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award. She is also the author of the novels Looking for Red and A Certain October. Her books for younger readers include the Coretta Scott King Honor Book When I Am Old with You, illustrated by David Soman; Wind Flyers and I Dream of Trains, both illustrated by Loren Long; and Lottie Paris Lives Here and its sequel Lottie Paris and the Best Place, both illustrated by Scott M. Fischer. Additional picture books include A Sweet Smell of Roses, Just Like Josh Gibson, The Day Ray Got Away, and All Different Now. In recognition of her outstanding talent, Angela was named a 2003 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Kent, Ohio. Visit her at AJohnsonAuthor.com.

E.B. Lewis is the award-winning illustrator of such books as Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard, which was a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book, and This Little Light of Mine. He received the Caldecott Honor for Coming on Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman by Nikki Grimes. E.B. Lewis lives in New Jersey, and you can visit him online at EBLewis.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/17/2014
This elegant collaboration by the creators of Lily Brown’s Paintings tells of the day that slaves on a Texas plantation learn they are free, more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Johnson’s graceful poem is narrated by a girl who heads to the cotton fields one June morning with her family and other slaves, unaware “that soon,/ it would all be different.” As word spreads, reactions range from serene contemplativeness to elation. Amid the cotton plants, an elderly man cries quietly, several adults bow their heads in prayer, and the girl’s mother silently hugs her: “My mama held my hand softly/ and looked beyond,/ as another breeze blew over/ and everything/ fell to a/ hush.” Using a lovely, muted palette, Lewis’s expressive watercolors convey the impact of the news of freedom, dramatically contrasting the slaves’ lives before and after. Initially picturing the slaves toiling “under the hot Texas sun,” Lewis later captures their tranquil joy as they gather on a beach in the cool night “as free people.” Back matter provides historical context for this powerfully visualized story. Ages 5–9. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Rich, subdued watercolors convey the celebrations with dignity and awe. Johnson's attached verse enables younger readers to see the momentous nature of this date...a worthy addition to any collection on the topic."

Booklist

"Johnson’s quiet ragged-right prose has a credible breathlessness as it conveys the mixture of stunned amazement and sheer joy. Lewis’ limpid watercolors are low-key, his usual chiaroscuro effectively illuminating the diurnal progress of the text as well as the emotional shades of the story...This is an emotive and effective way to take emancipation from a historic date to the experience of people whose lives changed, and it’ll open kids’ eyes to the impact of the transition."

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

*"Juneteenth...is a day of celebration for many African Americans. In exquisite, lyrical text, Johnson reimagines that historic event from the perspective of one fictional family, on a day that started like any other...Lewis’s soft watercolors mirror the emotion of the text...Placed alongside the many very good books about slavery for young readers, Johnson and Lewis’s story is an excellent next step in African American history, a celebration of moving forward."

STARRED REVIEW Horn Book

"This is a handsomely designed book, a thoughtful book, a joyous book, and a great historical perspective."

Library Media Connection

"Rich, subdued watercolors convey the celebrations with dignity and awe. Johnson's attached verse enables younger readers to see the momentous nature of this date...a worthy addition to any collection on the topic."

Booklist

★ 2014-02-26
Johnson tells a tale of Juneteenth in Texas through the eyes of a child, while Lewis' earth-toned watercolor illustrations capture the quotidian aspects of the way of life emancipation ended. The young female speaker who lives and works on the plantation with her mother, siblings and others takes personally the titular phrase, "all different now," when freedom comes. Just before the Union general announces on the balcony of the big house that the slaves are "now and forever free," rumors of this news has spread so quickly from the port to the countryside that Lewis includes an image with four vertical panels showing slaves engaged in many different types of work, passing the word and responding with surprise, shock and praise to the news. The historical details that Lewis integrates into the images situate Johnson's story historically and give young readers a sense of what cotton plantations in the mid-1860s looked like. In the backmatter, Johnson makes clear why this bit of history matters to her, and Lewis shares the impossibility of contemporary Americans' reaching a true understanding of the lives of 19th-century slaves—but how important it is to try. The richness of this book's words and images will inspire readers to learn more about this holiday that never should have been necessary…but was. (Web resources, glossary) (Picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews