Richard Wright and the Library Card

• Age Range: 6 - 9 years

• Grade Level: 1 - 4

  For classroom and reading resources, click here.

SUMMARY

As a young black man in the segregated South of the 1920s, Wright was hungry to explore new worlds through books, but was forbidden from borrowing them from the library. This touching account tells of his love of reading, and how his unwavering perseverance, along with the help of a co-worker, came together to make Richard's dream a reality.

An inspirational story for children of all backgrounds, Richard Wright and the Library Card shares a poignant turning point in the life of a young man who became one of this country's most brilliant writers.

REVIEWS

“Miller focuses his story on the stirring final chapters of Wright’s autobiography Black Boy (1945), in which he describes his struggle to get books from the whites-only library in Memphis. Christie’s powerful impressionistic paintings in acrylic and colored pencil show the harsh racism in the Jim Crow South… there are also strong portraits of Wright reading avidly through the night, lost in the world of books.”—Booklist

“An episode from the autobiography of Richard Wright is skillfully fictionalized, resulting in a suspenseful and gratifying story about the power of reading… a challenging endeavor, and an accomplished one.”—Kirkus Reviews