Book Review: Shining Bright, Shining Black

Kids and adults alike need more stories of Black excellence all year long, but especially during Black History Month it’s a great time to focus on current and historical figures whose stories should be shared.

Shining Bright, Shining Black from Jamia Wilson and Andra Pippins has 100 brief biographies of Black figures well known and less so from around the world and throughout history. It draws on material from their previous books but is expanded with a timeline, additional information about Black trailblazers and discussion questions for classroom and home use. The idea is for kids to think about how they are inspired by the stories and how they might seek to change history with their lives and ideas.

The book covers a lot of African American figures whose stories are pretty well known, including Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Louis Armstrong, Langston Hughes, Rosa Parks, Shirley Chisholm, Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nina Simone, John Lewis, Oprah Winfrey, Prince, Serena and Venus Williams and Simone Biles, to name a few.

But there are also plenty of lesser known figures from around the world. The book opens with Juan Latino, the first Afro-Spaniard to publish a book of poetry in Latin who also had one of Spain’s first legally recognized mixed race relationships; and Queen Nanny, who helped formerly enslaved Africans in Jamaica fight for their freedom from British rule.

Other stories focus on Yaa Asantewaa, an Asante warrior queen in what’s now part of Ghana, who fiercely resisted British occupation of her lands; Moses and Calvin McKissack, who established the first Black-owned architecture firm in the United States; Albert Luthuli, winner of the Nobel Peach Prize in 1960 for his nonviolent campaign to end apartheid in South Africa; Bertina Lopes, a Mozambique-born artist who used her work to fight colonialism and discrimination; Thomas Sankara, a progressive president of Burkina Faso; and Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee.

Each biography is presented on one or two pages with large drawings of each person included. At the back of the book a trailblazers section notes the firsts of the people represented in the book (example: Charles Drew was the first African American to earn a doctorate of medical science) and a glossary of professions the people held. There are also discussion questions related to different stories in the book to get kids talking about perseverance, setting goals, making change and helping others.

It’s a colorful book full of brief and accessible biographies of people we should all know, and a good jumping off point for discussion of Black history and changemakers any time of year.

About the book: 128 pages, paperback. Published 2024 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $15.99.

Johnny Appleseed Day is sometimes celebrated on Sept. 26 because that is John Chapman’s birthday, but even if you’re just doing an apple unit study for fall it’s a great time to talk about Johnny Appleseed.

And that’s the place to start, that Johnny Appleseed was a real person named John Chapman who was born in 1774 in what was then the province of Massachusetts Bay. He traveled west when he turned 18 and despite the image of him randomly tossing apple seeds everywhere, he was really a deliberate planter of apple tree nurseries, which he left in the care of others and checked on every year or two.

Learn a little more of his story with these cute coloring pages (though not entirely historically accurate, they’re still cute) from Homeschool of 1. They also have a Johnny Appleseed themed word search printable.

This pin of a Scholastic News page doesn’t link to a website, but it gives you some basic information and a true and false quiz you can use with kids.

Crystal & Co. has a cute apple themed counting mini book you can print and use with your Johnny Appleseed unit. They also have some coloring pages with a bit of handwriting practice. Or practice cutting with the Johnny Appleseed themed worksheets from 3 Boys and a Dog.

Make a Johnny Appleseed puppet to help tell the story with this craft with a free printable template from Simple Everyday Mom. You’ll also find some cute printable worksheets there to learn his story and put it in the correct order.

Color, cut out and assemble this Johnny Appleseed drawing from Homeschool Preschool. They also have an apple seed counting activity you can use for practicing one to one correspondence.

Tiaras and Tantrums has a free printable apple unit that includes Johnny Appleseed facts and coloring pages, as well as how to say apple in different languages, tracing apple vocabulary, art project ideas, science experiments and more.

And if you need more apple themed activities to go with your Johnny Appleseed celebrations, check out my posts on apple crafts and apple learning activities.

Have you read?

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