Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

Last week, when I posted the winners of this years’ Sydney Taylor Book Award I mentioned that we would like to purchase them and hinted that donations are accepted. The very next day I received an email from Sylvia Sucher with her offer to purchase the first book on the list for us. Thank you, Sylvia.

Thus I am happy to welcome to our collection Richard Michelson‘s book titled “As Good as Anybody: Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom.” My plan was to post this good news yesterday, on Martin Luther King day itself, but I ended up taking a holiday.

Here is the book’s description from the award’s official blog:

Two very special clergymen, one a rabbi, the other an African-American reverend are raised in divergently different countries yet experience similar levels of persecution and bigotry that will one day bring them together. As colleagues in America’s struggle for civil rights, they march together from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965. Raul Colon’s colored pencil and watercolor illustrations “offer a beautiful complement to the text, describing two unique paths from childhood to adult life – Martin’s in the rich, warm brown-tones of the American south and Abraham’s in cool blues and grays that reminded the illustrator of old World War II movies. When the two exemplary men join in their march for tolerance, the palettes merge in full color harmony,” comments Debbie Colodny, a member of the Award Committee. This book is recommended for grades 2-5.