Weatherford, Carole Boston 1956–

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Weatherford, Carole Boston 1956–

Personal

Born February 13, 1956, in Baltimore, MD; daughter of Joseph Alexander and Carolyn Virginia Boston; married Ronald Jeffrey Weatherford (a writer), February 2, 1985; children: one daughter, one son. Education: American University, B.A., 1977; University of Baltimore, M.A. (publication design), 1982; University of North Carolina—Greensboro, M.F.A. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Methodist.

Addresses

Home and office—3313 Sparrowhawk Dr., High Point, NC 27265-9350. E-mail—weathfd@earthlink.net.

Career

Educator and author. English teacher at public schools in Baltimore, MD, 1978; American Red Cross, Baltimore, MD, field representative in Blood Services Department, 1978-79; Black Arts Review (radio talk show), creator, producer, and host, 1979; Art Litho Co., Baltimore, account executive, 1981; National Bar Association, Washington, DC, director of communications, 1981-85;B & C Associates, Inc., High Point, NC, vice president and creative director, 1985-88; freelance writer and publicist, beginning 1988; Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC, professor, 2002—. Publicist and consultant to Black Classic Press, 1985—, and Chronicle, 1990—; consultant to Dudley Products Co. and local schools.

Member

North Carolina Writers Network (vice president, 1996-97), Phi Kappa Phi, Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Awards, Honors

North Carolina Writers Network Black Writers Speak Competition winner, 1991, and Harperprints Chapbook Competition winner, 1995, both for The Tan Chanteuse; North Carolina Arts Council fellowship, 1995; Carter G. Woodson Book Award in elementary category, National Council for the Social Studies, 2001, for The Sound That Jazz Makes; AAUW-North Carolina Juvenile Literature Award, 2002, for Remember the Bridge; North Carolina Children's Book Award finalist, Bank Street College Best Children's Book designation, and North Carolina Juvenile Literature Award, all 2002, all for Freedom on the Menu; Bank Street College Best Children's Book designation, 2003, for Sidewalk Chalk; Furious Flower Poetry Prize, James Madison University; International Reading Association (IRA) Notable Book for a Global Society designation, 2005, for A Negro League Scrapbook; Golden Kite Honor designation, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Award nomination, both 2006, both for Dear Mr. Rosenwald; IRA/Children's Book Council (CBC) Teachers' Choice designation; National Council on the Social Studies Notable Children's Trade Book designation, American Library Association Notable Book designation, IRA Notable Book for a Global Society designation, and New York Public Library 100 Books for Reading and Sharing designation, all 2006, all for Moses.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

My Favorite Toy, Writers and Readers Publishing (New York, NY), 1994.

Juneteenth Jamboree, illustrated by Yvonne Buchanan, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Me and My Family Tree, illustrated by Michelle Mills, Black Butterfly (New York, NY), 1996.

Grandma and Me, illustrated by Michelle Mills, Black Butterfly (New York, NY), 1996.

Mighty Menfolk, illustrated by Michelle Mills, Black Butterfly (New York, NY), 1996.

The Sound That Jazz Makes (poetry), illustrated by Eric Velasquez, Walker (New York, NY), 2000.

The African-American Struggle for Legal Equality in American History, Enslow Publishers (Berkeley Heights, NJ), 2000.

Princeville: The 500-Year Flood, illustrated by Douglas Alvord, Coastal Carolina Press (Wilmington, NC), 2001.

Sidewalk Chalk: Poems of the City, illustrated by Dimitrea Tokunbo, Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 2001.

Jazz Baby, illustrated by Laura Freeman, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Great African-American Lawyers: Raising the Bar of Freedom, Enslow Publishers (Berkeley Heights, NJ), 2003.

Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins, illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue, Dial Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2005.

A Negro League Scrapbook, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 2005.

Jesse Owens: The Fastest Man Alive, illustrated by Eric Valasquez, Walker & Co. (New York, NY), 2006.

Dear Mr. Rosenwald, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, Scholastic Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Birmingham, 1963, Wordsong (Honesdale, PA), 2007.

Champions on the Bench: The 1955 Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars, illustrated by Leonard Jenkins, Dial Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2007.

Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane, illustrated by Sean Qualls, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2008.

I, Matthew Henson, illustrated by Eric Velasquez, Walker (New York, NY), 2008.

OTHER

The Tan Chanteuse (poetry; for adults), 1995.

Sink or Swim: African-American Lifesavers of the Outer Banks (audiobook), Coastal Carolina Press (Wilmington, NC), 1999.

(With husband, Ronald Jeffrey Weatherford) Somebody's Knocking at Your Door: AIDS and the African-American Church, Haworth Pastoral Press (Binghamton, NY), 1999.

The Tar Baby on the Soapbox, Longleaf Press at Methodist College, 1999.

The Carolina Parakeet: America's Lost Parrot in Art and Memory (nonfiction), Avian Publications, 2005.

Contributor of articles and poetry to magazines and newspapers, including Essence, Christian Science Monitor, and Washington Post.

Sidelights

The writings of North Carolina writer Carole Boston Weatherford, which include both fiction and nonfiction, were described as "remarkably forthright celebrations" and "a colorful assembly of African American tradition, pride, and love" by Heather Ross Miller in her African American Review appraisal of Weatherford's picture book Juneteenth Jamboree. Juneteenth Jamboree, a story that revolves around the traditional celebration of that day in 1865 when Texas slaves finally got word of their emancipation, is characteristic of much of Weatherford's writing in its focus on revisiting important moments in African-American history and grounding such moments in perseverance, family ties, and closely held tradition. Among her award-winning titles for younger children are the picture books The Sound That Jazz Makes, A Negro League Scrapbook, Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins, Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People, and Dear Mr. Rosenwald. Weatherford's inspiring picture book Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, in addition to receiving numerous accolades for its text, earned a Caldecott Honor designation and a Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration for the contributions of noted artist Kadir Nelson.

In one of her early books for children, Juneteenth Jamboree, Weatherford introduces readers to Cassandra, a young girl who has recently moved to Texas and has never heard of "Juneteenth," despite the fact that it became a legal holiday in that state in 1980. She witnesses the elaborate preparations with the eyes of a newcomer and feels the excitement rising in her community without understanding, at first, what it means. Gradually, Cassandra and the reader learn the significance of this historic celebration, its importance amplified by the jubilant crowds, the parades and dances, and the picnic that all bring the community together. "Weatherford does an excellent job" of introducing the reader to an unusual regional holiday, commented Carol Jones Collins in School Library Journal, while in Publishers Weekly a contributor remarked that the "enthusiastic text allows readers to discover—and celebrate—the holiday along with Cassandra."

Featuring illustrations by Dimitrea Tokunbo, Sidewalk Chalk: Poems of the City is an expression of pride, according to a reviewer for the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. In twenty vignettes, Weatherford celebrates the city as a child might experience it. Her poems evoke the spirit of the neighborhood and the daily activities of the people who live there: jumping rope on a sidewalk, getting a haircut, or going to the Laundromat or to church. "The overall tone of the collection is upbeat and positive," remarked Booklist contributor Kathy Broderick, and the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books critic dubbed the author's verses "vivid snapshots of city life."

Weatherford focuses on black musicians in the books Jazz Baby, The Sound That Jazz Makes and Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane. A celebration in rhyme of American music, The Sound That Jazz Makes follows the uniquely American musical form's roots into African-American history. Weatherford's short poems pair with paintings by award-winning artist Eric Velasquez to depict a musical journey from the drumbeats of Africa to the sound of rap music that can be heard in the streets of the city. Poet and illustrator lead the reader from the work-chants of the cotton fields to the plaintive laments of the blues echoing through the Mississippi delta, to the celebrations of gospel, the sweet rhythms of the swing era, and the bold harmonies of the nightclubs of Harlem. According to Booklist contributor Bill Ott, Weatherford's poems "possess a flowing rhythm that younger readers [in particular] will respond to eagerly." Although a Publishers Weekly reviewer found the book's rhymes to be "at odds with" the rhythms of jazz music, in Black Issues Book Review Khafre Abif described The Sounds That Jazz Makes as "a soft poetic journey of rhythm" in which the "words are as seamless as the rhythm's growth" from primitive drumbeats into one of the most far-reaching musical movements of modern times.

Black athletes teach readers important lessons about determination and personal growth in books such as Jesse Owens: Fastest Man Alive, Champions on the Bench: The 1955 Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars, and A Negro League Scrapbook. In Champions on the Bench, readers meet a young baseball player whose talented team is in the running for the 1955 Little League World Series playoff until their white opponents refuse to meet them on the playing field. Praised by School Library Journal critic Marilyn Taniguchi as "an engaging overview, richly augmented by archival photographs," A Negro League Scrapbook provides a visual history of the Negro Leagues from 1887 to 1947, when Jackie Robinson became the first black player to sign with the majors. Weatherford moves from the baseball diamond to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany for Jesse Owens, which a Publishers Weekly praised as a "poetic tribute" to the American athlete's "remarkable performance" during wartime. Booklist reviewer GraceAnne A. DeCandido, noting that Weatherford "lightly fictionalizes" the true story that inspired Champions on the Bench, added that Leonard Jenkins' "dramatic paintings … capture the joy of baseball and the boys' frustration," while Mary Hazelton concluded in School Library Journal that the book presents "a powerful story, well told."

Weatherford moves from black culture to history in books such as Freedom on the Menu, Moses, and Dear Mr. Rosenwald. Segregation and the civil-rights movement is the subject of Freedom on the Menu, a picture book based on a true story that took place near where Weatherford grew up. The book's story follows eight-year-old Connie as she experiences segregation at a downtown Greensboro lunch counter, then watches as her older siblings band with other blacks and take the seats at the counter that have been denied to them as a result of the town's Jim Crow laws. Former slave turned abolitionist Harriet Tubman is the focus of Moses, which profile's Tuman's courageous work helping escaped slaves travel north on the Underground Railway in the years leading up to the U.S. Civil War. Reviewing Freedom on the Menu in Publishers Weekly, a critic described the book as "a fresh and affecting interpretation of a pivotal event in the civil rights movement," while another reviewer in the same periodical likened Weatherford's three-tier narrative in Moses to "a wholly engrossing dramatic play."

A collaboration with artist R. Gregory Christie, Dear Mr. Rosenwald was inspired by the memories of Weatherford's mother, who attended one of the many "Rosenwald" schools that were established throughout the rural south during the 1920s, thanks to the donations of Sears, Roebuck & Company president Julius Rosenwald and the hard work of many small towns. In the story, ten-year-old Ovella, whose father works as a sharecropper, watches as the residents of her poor community work together to earn matching funds and invest time and hard work in a new town school. Reviewing the book in Publishers Weekly, a contributor dubbed

Dear Mr. Rosenwald "a heartening sliver of American history," while in Booklist Hazel Rochman cited Weatherford's "clear free verse" and Christie's "exuberant gouache and colored-pencil illustrations."

Weatherford views African-American history on a broad scale in Remember the Bridge, a poetic celebration of men and women from America's earliest days through to the twentieth century. Weatherford writes of the great and the not so great: the leaders whose names are familiar to everyone and the people whose names were never known. For these latter people she creates fictional profiles, exploring in her poetry how it must have felt to be sold into slavery and showcasing the diversity of African Americans in a wide array of occupations. Critical response was mixed. A Publishers Weekly reviewer appreciated the free-verse poems but was less satisfied with the metered rhymes, calling the chronological narrative somewhat "confusing." In contrast, a contributor to Kirkus Reviews claimed that Weatherford "brilliantly summarizes … a complete timeline" of history. The last poem in Remember the Bridge, titled "I Am the Bridge," reflects the belief that every individual can be a part of what the Kirkus Reviews writer called "a bridge toward understanding and acceptance."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

African American Review, spring, 1998, Heather Ross Miller, review of The Tan Chanteuse and Juneteenth Jamboree, pp. 169-171.

American Visions, December-January, 1995, Yolanda Robinson Coles, review of Juneteenth Jamboree, p. 37.

Black Issues Book Review, September, 2000, Khafre Abif, review of The Sound That Jazz Makes, p. 81.

Booklist, December 15, 1999, Carolyn Phelan, review of Sink or Swim: African-American Lifesavers of the Outer Banks, pp. 783-784; August, 2000, Bill Ott, review of The Sound That Jazz Makes, p. 2133; September 15, 2001, Kathy Broderick, review of Sidewalk Chalk: Poems of the City, p. 224; February 15, 2002, Kay Weisman, review of Princeville: The 500-Year Flood, p. 1014, and Gillian Engberg, review of Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People, p. 1030; February 15, 2003, Gillian Engberg, review of Great African-American Lawyers: Raising the Bar of Freedom, p. 1080; February 1, 2005, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of A Negro League Scrapbook, p. 976, and Carolyn Phelan, review of Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins, p. 980; October 1, 2006, Hazel Rochman, review of Dear Mr. Rosenwald, p. 61; February 1, 2007, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Champions on the Bench: The Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars, p. 61.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October, 2001, review of Sidewalk Chalk, p. 81; May, 2002, review of Remember the Bridge, p. 344; February, 2005, Karen Coats, review of Freedom on the Menu, p. 268; October, 2006, Deborah Stevenson, review of Dear Mr. Rosenwald, p. 53; November, 2006, Karen Coats, review of Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, p. 148; January, 2007, Elizabeth Bush, review of Champions on the Bench, p. 233.

Canadian Review of Materials, March, 2001, AnnMarie Hamar, review of The Sound That Jazz Makes, p. 23.

Georgia Review, summer, 1997, Ted Kooser, review of The Tan Chanteuse, p. 375.

Horn Book, January-February, 2005, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Freedom on the Menu, p. 87; November-December, 2006, Michelle H. Martin, review of Moses, p. 737.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2001, review of Remember the Bridge, p. 1691; December 15, 2004, review of Freedom on the Menu, p. 1211; March 1, 2005, review of A Negro League Scrapbook, p. 297; August 15, 2006, review of Dear Mr. Rosenwald, p. 853; September 1, 2006, review of Moses, p. 914; December 1, 2006, review of Jesse Owens, p. 1226.

New York Times Book Review, February 11, 2007, Rebecca Zerkin, review of Moses, p. 17.

Publishers Weekly, October 30, 1995, review of Juneteenth Jamboree, p. 61; May 15, 2000, review of The Sound That Jazz Makes, p. 115; September 17, 2001, review of Sidewalk Chalk, p. 82; December 24, 2001, review of Remember the Bridge, p. 62; January 3, 2005, review of Freedom on the Menu, p. 55; July 31, 2006, review of Moses, p. 78; October 23, 2006, review of Dear Mr. Rosenwald, p. 51; December 11, 2006, review of Champions on the Bench, p. 69; January 1, 2007, review of Jesse Owens: Fastest Man Alive, p. 49.

School Library Journal, January, 1996, Carol Jones Collins, review of Juneteenth Jamboree, p. 97; July, 2000, Ginny Gustin, review of The Sound That Jazz Makes, p. 99; January, 2002, review of Sidewalk Chalk, p. 127; June, 2002, Marge Loch-Woulters, review of Jazz Baby, p. 114; March, 2005, Marilyn Taniguchi, review of A Negro League Scrapbook, p. 236; April, 2005, Mary N. Oluonye, review of Freedom on the Menu, p. 115; August, 2005, Blair Christolon, review of Freedom on the Menu, p. 50; October, 2006, Margaret Bush, review of Moses, and Catherine Threadgill, review of Dear Mr. Rosenwald, both p. 129; January, 2007, Mary Hazelton, review of Champions of the Bench, p. 110; March, 2007, Suzanne Myers Harold, review of Jesse Owens, p. 236.