perfect day for this book

I do not think it is an accident that this book came to the surface of my desk today as I ponder the incredible possibility that the first African American will be elected as President tomorrow. BOYCOTT BLUES (Greenwillow, 2008). This collaboration of Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney is a hymn of praise to the woman who inspired a nation and began a boycott of buses that helped send Jim Crow laws off the books. The lyrical, bluesy opening sets the stage for a weary Rosa Parks to enter the scene on her tired feet. The words sing as our narrator Dog Tired (and you have to love this piece of almost whimsy that is not quite humor but is pointed) tells the story of Parks and how the Crow laws pecked at her and countless others. And now you see some of the genius of this book: Andrea David Pinkney's language play is so purposeful and so powerful that it could easily overpower this book. But Brian Pinkney answers back with is illustrations, drawings in which Jim Crow is personified as an onimous cloud that threatens to rain all over people. Here is one of those books that deserves accolades for words and illustrations both and equally. What a treasure!