Black Magic

• Age Range: 5 - 9 years

• Grade Level: Kindergarten - 2

  For classroom and reading resources, click here.

SUMMARY

Black is a look, a taste, a speed, and an emotion. It's the surprising stripes on a zebra, the taste of dark chocolate, the scary, exciting feeling of going inside a tunnel, and a mother's voice as her daughter falls asleep. In this celebration of the African American spirit, Dinah Johnson and R. Gregory Christie paint a picture of "black" that is vivid, varied, and proud.

REVIEWS

“With bright, bold images and poetic phrases that capture a child's exuberance and unbound imagination, Johnson expresses feelings of pride and joy in unexpected ways. … You don't have to be black to be swept up by this ‘Magic.’” ―San Francisco Chronicle

“This expressive book combines well-matched text and pictures to pay tribute to the myriad qualities of blackness. Buoyant yet reflective, Johnson's (Hair Dance!) free-flowing verse presents an imaginative girl's musings on the essence of black…With vibrant colors offsetting velvety black images, Christie's (Bad News for Outlaws) acrylic gouache illustrations playfully tweak perspective and scale, echoing the verse's energy and fluidity.” ―Publishers Weekly

“These early literacy concepts are conveyed in short, snappy lines of text that make the book an outstanding choice for preschool storytimes. The African-American children in Christie's illustrations have a variety of hairstyles and skin tones and are shown playing with children of other races. The bright acrylic colors capture the energy of childhood, and the artist's bold, loose brushstrokes further underscore the dynamic nature of the text, and of the little girl who narrates it.” ―School Library Journal