R. Gregory Christie

Philip Reid was an enslaved African American who volunteered to work with the delicate plaster mold needed to create Freedom, the statue that stands atop the capital building in Washington, D.C., playing an important role in seeing the statue through to completion.

This YA biography-in-verse of six important Black Americans from different eras, including Ona Judge, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barack Obama, chronicles the diverse ways each fought racism and shows how much -- and how little -- has changed for Black Americans since our country's founding.

Lee, a jazz pianist, has to leave his band when he begins losing his hearing, but he meets a deaf saxophone player in a sign language class and together they form a snazzy new band.