Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor
Kirkus Best Books of the Year
Chicago Public Library Best Books of the Year
New York Public Library Best Books of the Year
ALSC Notable Children's Books
Horn Book Fanfare
BolognaRazzi Award: Braw Amazing Bookshelf Sustainability Selection
ILA 2025 Notable Books for a Global Society
CLA/NCTE 2025 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts
NCSS 2025 Septima P. Clark Book Award Winner (Middle Level)
Five Starred Reviews
From an award-winning author and illustrator comes this picture book biography about beloved librarian and storyteller Augusta Braxton Baker, the first Black coordinator of children’s services at all branches of the New York Public Library.
Before Augusta Braxton Baker became a storyteller, she was an excellent story listener. Her grandmother brought stories like Br’er Rabbit and Arthur and Excalibur to life, teaching young Augusta that when there’s a will, there’s always a way. When she grew up, Mrs. Baker began telling her own fantastical stories to children at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library in Harlem. But she noticed that there were hardly any books at the library featuring Black people in respectful, uplifting ways. Thus began her journey of championing books, writers, librarians, and teachers centering Black stories, educating and inspiring future acclaimed authors like Audre Lorde and James Baldwin along the way.
As Mrs. Baker herself put it: “Children of all ages want to hear stories. Select well, prepare well and then go forth and just tell.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Augusta Braxton Baker grew up to be a master storyteller. But before that she was an amazing story listener," begins this glowing account of legendary storytelling librarian Baker (1911–1998). Starting with her Baltimore childhood, where her grandmother "shaped incredible worlds and passed them down," McDaniel's telling highlights Baker's route to helping "other people become better listeners." Following teacher's college, Baker becomes a children's librarian at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library. Though many of the Harlem branch's youngest patrons are Black—among them James Baldwin and Audre Lorde—the library's books featuring Black characters are "JUST PLAIN WRONG." Wanting "Black children to have heroes that rose up and looked, talked, and shined bright," she creates a collection to that end, disseminates her book lists widely, and spends her career promoting the storytelling she has loved since childhood. Harrison's intricate mixed-media collages employ shifting scale to bring to life this vital history of a vital figure. An author's note follows. Ages 5–8.
