Best for Grades 3–5

John Brown
By John Hendrix. $18.95.
The first book Hendrix has both written and illustrated takes a new look at the white abolitionist John Brown, just in time for the 150th anniversary of Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. The deeply hued, out-of-proportion illustrations lend comic-book-style credence to Hendrix’s message that Brown is a true historical hero.

Bad News for Outlaws
By Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. $17.95.
Divided into short vignettes describing dramatic points in Bass Reeves’s life, this profile of the famous U.S. Marshal will transport readers straight to the Wild West, where African-American lawmen were few and far between, but Reeves rose above all.

The Great and Only Barnum
By Candace Fleming,
illustrated by Ray Fenwick. $18.99.
You’ll want to invite readers to step right up to this three-ring circus of a biography, which not only tells the story of P. T. Barnum, but also the circus culture he helped create and his impact on modern entertainment.

The Champion of Children
By Tomek Bogacki. $17.99.
For anyone teaching about the Holocaust, this moving portrait of humanitarian Janusz Korczak is worth a look. Korczak helped to guide and nurture a group of orphans in the Jewish ghetto and stayed with the children until the end.

Louisa
By Yona Zeldis McDonough, illustrated by Bethanne Andersen. $17.99.
Louisa May Alcott had a brief and often difficult life, but McDonough and Andersen successfully bring the story of the Little Women author to children, and readers will see how some of her experiences later wound up in her fiction.

Testing the Ice
By Sharon Robinson, illustrated by Kadir Nelson. $16.99.
Even the most die-hard baseball fans will never have heard this story about Jackie Robinson safely leading a group of children onto a frozen lake—when he didn’t know how to swim. Told by Robinson’s daughter and beautifully illustrated by Kadir Nelson, the incident becomes a metaphor for the legend’s accomplishments on and off the field.