The Blacker the Berry

Description

The Blacker the Berry

Poems by Joyce Carol Thomas, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

(HarperCollins)

‘Colours, without black,/ couldn’t sparkle so bright’… However within that black are varieties, depths and individuality. Therefore, Joyce Carol Thomas created The Blacker the Berry, for which she won the Coretta Scott King Award.

Thereafter, we wonder What Shade is Human, to which ‘Grandpa says,/ It’s the milk of kindness/ that makes us human’. Thenceforth he explains about ‘White milk/ Chocolate milk/ Sweet milk/ Mother’s milk….‘ However, it’s the warmth from ‘vine to vine’ that the Sunshine Girl absorbs, ‘Like a cat going/ Round and round the mulberry bush‘ feeling ‘absolutely fabulous/ To be this brown’.  Meanwhile ‘deep down hearing–You’re not really Black‘ cut ‘deep down/- /Beneath the snowy skin/ to- the ‘one drop of blood’ / That makes Black me’.

The images are lush and sensory, and realised through the rich pictures of Floyd Cooper. What’s more, each picture is a portrait that means we can feel and know the feelings and words intimately.

Bookwagon loves this poetry title and recommends it highly. Alongside works such as Hey You! or Can I Touch Your Hair?, The Blacker the Berry is a necessary, enabling and glorious title that celebrates humanity in all its rich diversity.