The Making of Butterflies
Amazon.ca Best Book of the Year
“Kendi and Yangni collaborate to introduce young children to the African American folklore tradition and to Hurston’s importance within that tradition.” —The Horn Book
A First Folktale from the creators of Magnolia Flower, Zora Neale Hurston and Ibram X. Kendi, about the origin of butterflies.
The Creator wuz all finished and thru makin’ de world.
But soon, the Creator finds themselves flying through the sky, making gorgeous butterflies of every color, shape, and size.
Find out why butterflies were made in Zora Neale Hurston’s stunning and layered African American folktale retold by #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Award–winning author Ibram X. Kendi and illustrated by Kah Yangni. This accessible and sizable board book is perfect for introducing the youngest of readers to the beauty of Hurston’s storytelling and will spark curiosity in children about how things in our world came to be.
Barracoon: Adapted for Young Readers
An Instant New York Times and Indie Bestseller!
In the first middle grade offering from Zora Neale Hurston and Ibram X. Kendi, young readers are introduced to the remarkable and true-life story of Cudjo Lewis, one of the last survivors of the Atlantic human trade, in an adaptation of the internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed Barracoon.
This is the life story of Cudjo Lewis, as told by himself.
Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America to be enslaved, eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis was then the only person alive to tell the story of his capture and bondage—fifty years after the Atlantic human trade was outlawed in the United States. Cudjo shared his firsthand account with legendary folklorist, anthropologist, and writer Zora Neale Hurston.
Adapted with care and delivered with age-appropriate historical context by award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi, Cudjo’s incredible story is now available for young readers and emerging scholars. With powerful illustrations by Jazzmen Lee-Johnson, this poignant work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture.
Magnolia Flower
Bank Street Children’s Best Books of the Year
A Kirkus and Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2022! A Bank Street College of Education’s Children’s Book Committee’s Best Children’s Books of the Year pick!
From beloved African American folklorist Zora Neale Hurston comes a moving adaptation by National Book Award winner and #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and Antiracist Baby, Ibram X. Kendi. Magnolia Flower follows a young Afro Indigenous girl who longs for freedom and is gorgeously illustrated by Loveis Wise (The People Remember, Ablaze with Color).
Born to parents who fled slavery and the Trail of Tears, Magnolia Flower is a girl with a vibrant spirit. Not to be deterred by rigid ways of the world, she longs to connect with others, who too long for freedom. She finds this in a young man of letters who her father disapproves of. In her quest to be free, Magnolia must make a choice and set off on a journey that will prove just how brave one can be when leading with one’s heart.
The acclaimed writer of several American classics, Zora Neale Hurston wrote this stirring folktale brimming with poetic prose, culture, and history. It was first published as a short story in The Spokesman in 1925 and later in her collection Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick (2020).
Tenderly retold by #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi, Magnolia Flower is a story of a transformative and radical devotion between generations of Indigenous and Black people in America. With breathtaking illustrations by Loveis Wise, this picture book reminds us that there is no force strong enough to stop love.
Lies and Other Tall Tales
What’s the shortest man you ever seen?
I seen a man so short, he had to get up on a box to look over a grain of sand.
And the fastest?
I seen a man run so hard that he lost his feets.
Back in the day, there were liars who could lie so good, you didn’t even want to know the truth. And we have Zora Neale Hurston to thank for collecting their stories. In lies, Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor artist Christopher Myers has created expressive collages that are as bold and wild as the whoppers Hurston encountered on her travels in the Gulf States. Here’s a visual treat that will tickle your funny bone.
The Skull Talks Back and Other Haunting Tales
Do you dare
to cross paths with …
An enchantress who can slip
in and out of her skin,
A man more evil than the devil,
A skull who talks back,
A pair of creepy feet that can
walk on their own?
Spooky, chilling, and fantastical, this collection of six scary tales will send shivers up your spine!
The stories in the skull talks back have been selected from Every Tongue Got To Confess, Zora Neale Hurston’s third volume of folklore. Through Joyce Carol Thomas’s carefully adapted text and Leonard Jenkins’s arresting illustrations, the soulful, fanciful imaginations of ordinary folk will reach readers of all ages.