The ABCs of Black History

Ages 5 And Up

A beautiful alphabet picture book that presents key names, moments, and places in Black history with text lyrically written by poet Rio Cortez. This is an opportunity for children to learn their ABCs to the sound of words beyond apple, boy, and cat, and an opportunity for young thinkers to prepare for big ideas.

Brimming with passion, beauty, flow, and style, here is an ABC book like no other—a celebration of Black history and culture in lively verse, matched with illustrations that are each like a folk painting.

Written by the poet Rio Cortez and illustrated by Lauren Semmer, the book teaches the ABCs in a far more interesting and meaningful way than the usual “A is for apple, B is for ball.” Letters represent history— G is for the Great Migration. Culture—K for Kwanzaa. People and places—H is for Harlem and Zora Neale Hurston. And big ideas—like B for beautiful, bold, brave, brotherhood.

R is for rise, to reach for the top. Relentlessly striving, refusing to stop Like ballplayers, boxers, and gymnasts who fly. Like presidents and justices who dared to ask why?

In addition to the rhyming text, the book includes back matter with a timeline plus more information on the events, places, and people mentioned in the poem, from Mae Jemison to W. E. B. DuBois, Fannie Lou Hamer to Sam Cooke, the Little Rock Nine, and DJ Kool Herc.

About the Author

Rio Cortez is a writer and Pushcart-nominated poet who has received fellowships from Poet's House, Cave Canem, and CantoMundo foundations. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The New Yorker, and Prairie Schooner, among others. Rio writes and lives in Harlem where she works as a bookseller and buyer for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Lauren Semmer is an artist, children's book illustrator, and designer. She studied drawing at St. Paul College of Visual Arts and art history at New York University. Lauren's bright and charming work is featured on everything from kid's wall art to children's apparel. She lives in Manhattan with her family.