Call Me Miss Hamilton: An Interview with Creative Team Carole Boston Weatherford and Jeffery Boston Weatherford

Civil Rights activist Miss Mary Hamilton was found to be in contempt of court after she demanded that an Alabama judge address her with the same honorifics used to address white people. Her case ultimately went to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled in her favor in 1964 and brought about a permanent change in courtrooms nationwide.

Call Me Miss Hamilton: One Woman’s Case for Equality and Respect combines powerful free verse from award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford and striking scratchboard illustrations by Jeffery Boston Weatherford to honor this unsung heroine. Read on to hear what inspired the this family team to tell Miss Hamilton’s story and what surprised them on along the way!

There’s no time like the present to study the past. This season we have fascinating historical fiction and nonfiction titles spanning over 150 years. Meet a heroine of the Civil Rights Movement, learn about the childhoods of famous figures, and navigate the perils of the Transcontinental Railroad.

With each title in this blog post you’ll travel further and further back in time. Read on to find reviews, author info, and links to review each title for free on NetGalley!

When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington, he did not stand alone. He was joined by Rabbi Joachim Prinz, a refugee from Nazi Germany, who also addressed the crowd. Though Rabbi Prinz and Dr. King came from very different backgrounds, they were united by a shared belief in justice. And they knew that remaining silent in the face of injustice was wrong. The new picture book The Rabbi and the Reverend: Joachim Prinz, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Their Fight Against Silence tells the story of how these two figures spoke up and fought for a better future.

Audrey Ades, author of The Rabbi and the Reverend, joined us to talk about their own literary inspirations and reveal the inspiration they had for this impactful title.

Know Your Rights and Claim Them made lots of headlines recently with the book now available in the UK and our Zest Books US version launching on October 5. Read on for a list of some of the biggest media hits and a free poster download!

By Megan Ciskowski, Associate Publicist

In 2017 Cicely Lewis began developing a program called Read Woke that encouraged readers to explore books written by diverse voices and with diverse characters. Since that time the program has taken off and found great success with librarians across the United States. In 2020 Lewis won School Library Journal’s School Librarian of the Year for her ingenuity and resourcefulness.

This fall Lewis and Lerner Publishing Group partner up to create Read Woke Books™, a collection that seeks to challenge social norms, give voice to the silenced, provide information about groups that have been disenfranchised, disrupt the status quo, and share perspectives from underrepresented or oppressed groups. The first series, Issues in Action, is written by Cicely Lewis and Elliott Smith, an experienced freelance author in the Washington D.C. area. Read on to find series information, author interviews and more!

The Lerner Blog