Main Street
A Community Story About Redlining
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jan 27, 2026
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
A girl learns how the history of redlining has affected her neighborhood in this intergenerational picture book about racism, community action, and resilience by two New York Times bestselling authors.
Olivia can’t wait to invite her friends to the 62nd annual Main Street Block Party. But when she does, Alison says that Main Street isn’t safe. Olivia’s eyes fill with tears, and she begins to wish that she didn’t live on Main Street at all.
Then, Olivia learns what happened when her neighbor Ms. Effie was about her age: Ms. Effie's family was also told that Main Street wasn’t good enough. The bank wouldn’t give them a loan to buy their house based on where it fell on a color-coded map: Mostly Black people lived near Main Street, so the neighborhood was colored red on the map. To fight back against this practice called redlining, Ms. Effie’s family became friends with their neighbors and got organized.
With vibrant illustrations by David Wilkerson and engaging text by Britt Hawthorne and Tiffany Jewell, Main Street celebrates what might happen when neighbors come together for a common goal and everybody pitches in.
Features backmatter with an author's note about the full history of redlining and ideas for further engagement with your community!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hawthorne and Jewell introduce the concept of redlining in this digestible first-person story of community care. When young Olivia, who reads as Black, invites peers to attend their neighborhood's annual block party, a pale-skinned friend replies, "I can't. My mom says Main Street isn't safe." Unsettled, Olivia chats with elderly neighbor Ms. Effie, who asks to hear more, then shares her own early experiences with having their home derided. A flashback depicts a young brown-skinned family being denied a bank loan, told "It just isn't a good neighborhood." Noting that "we knew Main Street was just right for our family. It still is," Ms. Effie explains how the family became members of a co-op that approved their loan application, and how the U.S. government's labeling neighborhoods where Black, brown, and Jewish people lived as "hazardous" denied resources to communities. "Even though the government abandoned us," Ms. Effie says, "we won't abandon us." Employing gouache brushes and oil paint textures, Wilkerson's airbrush-like digital illustrations depict a vibrant neighborhood lavished with its residents' care. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. An author's note concludes. Ages 7–10.
