Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It

From a bestselling and award-winning husband and wife team comes an innovative, beautifully illustrated novel that delivers a front-row seat to the groundbreaking moments in history that led to African Americans earning the right to vote.

Right here, I'm sharing the honest-to-goodness. -- Loretta

I'm gon' reach back, and tell how it all went. I'm gon' speak on it. My way. -- Roly

I got more nerve than a bad tooth. But there's nothing bad about being bold. -- Aggie B.

Loretta, Roly, and Aggie B., members of the Little family, each present the vivid story of their young lives, spanning three generations. Their separate stories -- beginning in a cotton field in 1927 and ending at the presidential election of 1968 -- come together to create one unforgettable journey.

Through an evocative mix of fictional first-person narratives, spoken-word poems, folk myths, gospel rhythms and blues influences, Loretta Little Looks Back weaves an immersive tapestry that illuminates the dignity of sharecroppers in the rural South. Inspired by storytelling's oral tradition, stirring vignettes are presented in a series of theatrical monologues that paint a gripping, multidimensional portrait of America's struggle for civil rights as seen through the eyes of the children who lived it. The novel's unique format invites us to walk in their shoes. Each encounters an unexpected mystical gift, passed down from one family member to the next, that ignites their experience what it means to reach for freedom.

Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 09/29/2020
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.10h x 6.00w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780316536776
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.2
Point Value: 6
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 509561 / Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 07/01/2020 pg. 69
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2020
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2020
Publishers Weekly 08/24/2020
School Library Journal 09/01/2020 pg. 80
Shelf Awareness 10/09/2020
Horn Book Magazine 11/01/2020 pg. 108
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2020 - Outstanding, Noteworthy In Style

About the Author
Andrea Davis Pinkney is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of nearly 50 books for young readers, among them The Red Pencil and A Poem for Peter, as well as several collaborations with her husband Brian Pinkney, including Sit -In and Hand in Hand, which received the Coretta Scott King Book Award.

Brian Pinkney has illustrated numerous books for children, including two Caldecott Honor books, and he has written and illustrated several of his own books. Brian has received the Coretta Scott King Book Award for Illustration and three Coretta Scott King Book Award Honor medals.

The Pinkneys have been named among the 25 Most Influential People in Our Children's Lives by Children's Health magazine. They live in Brooklyn, New York.