Book Review: I Love My People

I Love My People is a celebration of Black history, cultural contributions and community in verse that’s great in the classroom or at home, during Black History Month or any other time.

The text is written by Kim Singleton with beautiful, realistic illustrations by Kim Holt. The book follows a brother and sister walking through their neighborhood and talking about different figures from Black history related to dance, math, sports, filmmaking and more.

The book includes a glossary at the back so if the people named in the story are unfamiliar to you, you’ll know a little bit more about them. Some will be familiar to most such as Venus and Serena Williams and Shirley Chisolm, while others are less well-known like the Nicolas Brothers, a 1930s-era dancing duo known for their acrobatic feats; or Gladys Mae West, a mathematician who helped develop GPS.

The book touches on celebrations of Black community like Juneteenth and Kwanzaa, the importance of faith and community, activism and the variety of hairstyles Black people wear.

Each two-page spread includes information about important people and aspects of Black culture, with each verse ending “I love my people.”

This short book is a quick read that leaves you a lot more to explore, from learning more about the people named in the book to researching other figures from Black history and the present day. It’s joyful, full of details both in the text and the illustrations, and educational for people who might not know all of the people named in the story.

This would be a great book to add to your shelf or as a read aloud for Black History Month or any other time, because as the book says

Special names
With African roots,
Stories from Elders
You can’t find in books.
Family reunions
Kwanzaa and Juneteenth,
Black History Month
Spread over fifty-two weeks.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover, published 2026 by Beaming Books. Suggested retail price $18.99.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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