Get ready to swing with A Child's Introduction to Jazz, an interactive journey into one of the richest and most soulful music genres in the world. Listen while you learn with QR codes that will connect you to the instruments and musical flair of jazz. Welcome to jazz! Feel the music and rhythms of all the different styles of jazz, from swing and Dixieland to the blues and bebop, with this interactive introduction to the world's coolest music.Author Jabari Asim will take you on the journey through the history of jazz as you discover the most important musicians and singers while hearing some really cool sounds. You'll learn all about the roots of jazz in Africa and New Orleans and how the music traveled to different parts of the United States and around the world. Along the way you'll meet legendary trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who shaped a new form of jazz called improvisation; pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington, who helped create the big band sound of the swing era; and the singer Billie Holiday, whose songs such as "God Bless the Child," "Don't Explain," and "Lady Sings the Blues" have become jazz standards.Listen along to the sounds of jazz by downloading music and hearing instruments such as trumpets, clarinets, trombones, and even singers scatting as they improvise melodies. With a pull-out poster showing the different instruments of jazz, A Child's Introduction to Jazz hits the perfect beat and will have you bebopping and scatting in no time!

The perfect Halloween gift for your baby or toddler! With My Baby Loves Halloween, celebrate all the lovely things that Baby discovers about Halloween: Baby loves the crisp autumn air. Baby loves candles in pumpkins that grin. Baby loves candy... Celebrate all the sweet things that Baby discovers about Halloween. This Own Voices board book, the perfect gift for a new baby, features rhythmic poetry from Jabari Asim and adorable art from Tara Nicole Whitaker.

This interactive board book that is perfect for lap sharing celebrates the classic giggle-inspiring game of This Little Piggy. The whimsical illustrations hide the little girl's face until the final climactic spread. Fun, rhyming text is paired with bold artwork full of toddler appeal reminiscent of the style of Caldecott-award winning illustrator Ezra Jack Keats.

In the My Baby Loves Christmas board book, celebrate all the lovely things that baby discovers about Christmas.

Baby loves candy canes wrapped in bows.

Baby loves jingle bells.

Baby loves snow. . . .

Celebrate all the lovely things that Baby discovers about Christmas. This board book, the perfect gift for a new baby, features rhythmic poetry from Jabari Asim and adorable art from Tara Nicole Whitaker.

"Captivating." —Jane Ciabattari, NPR Book Concierge: Best Books of 2015 "Incomparable charisma and verve." —The Root, Best Fiction of 2015 "Lean, mean, and moving." —Kirkus Reviews, Kirkus Prize nominee Jabari Asim’s debut novel returns readers to Gateway City, the fictional Midwestern city first explored in his acclaimed short story collection, Taste of Honey. Against a 1970s backdrop of rapid social and political change, Only the Strong portrays the challenges and rewards of love in a quintessential American community where heartbreak and violence are seldom far away. Moved by the death of Martin Luther King Jr., Lorenzo "Guts" Tolliver decides to abandon his career as a professional leg-breaker and pursue a life of quiet moments and generous helpings of banana pudding in the company of his new, sensuous lover. His erstwhile boss, local kingpin Ananias Goode, is also thinking about slowing down—but his tempestuous affair with Dr. Artinces Noel, a prominent pediatrician, complicates his retirement plans. Meanwhile, Charlotte Divine, the doctor’s headstrong protégée, struggles with trials of her own. With prose that's sharp, humorous, and poetic, Asim skillfully renders a compelling portrait of urban life in the wake of the last major civil-rights bill. Massive change is afoot in America, and these characters have front-row seats.

This illustrated introduction to African American history goes beyond what's taught in the classroom giving young readers a more comprehensive look at this timely and important topic. Author Jabari Asim chronicles the story of African Americans from the slave trade, the American Revolution, and the Civil War to the Tuskegee experiments, the Civil Rights movement, and the election of Barack Obama. Sections throughout highlight the contribution of African Americans to the arts, music, literature, culture, sports and more. Lives of inspiring African American artists, inventors, and politicians including Harriet Tubman, Langston Hughes, Oprah Winfrey, Louis Armstrong, Serena Williams, are also featured. Following in the tradition of Black Dog's best-selling Child's Introduction books, which include The Story of the Orchestra and A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky, A Child's Introduction to African American History includes 120 charming illustrations that bring the people and events to life. The book also features interactive projects that kids can do on their own or with their guardians including recipes and crafts.

The perfect Valentine's gift for your baby or toddler! In My Baby Loves Valentine's Day, celebrate all the lovely things that Baby discovers about Valentines Day: Baby loves hearts made of paper and lace. Baby loves kisses and a loving embrace. Baby loves pretty red roses... Celebrate all the lovely things Baby discovers about Valentine's Day! This Own Voices board book, the perfect gift for a new baby, features rhythmic poetry from Jabari Asim and adorable art from Tara Nicole Whitaker.

This interactive board book that is perfect for lap sharing TK. "Whose knees are these?" The whimsical illustrations hide the little boy's face until the final climactic spread. Rhyming text is paired with bold artwork full of toddler appeal reminiscent of the style of Caldecott-award winning illustrator Ezra Jack Keats.

Booker dreamed
of making friends with words,
setting free the secrets
that lived in books.
Born into slavery, young Booker T. Washington could only dream of learning to read and write. After emancipation, Booker began a five-hundred-mile journey, mostly on foot, to Hampton Institute, taking his first of many steps towards a college degree. When he arrived, he had just fifty cents in his pocket and a dream about to come true. The young slave who once waited outside of the schoolhouse would one day become a legendary educator of freedmen.
Award-winning artist Bryan Collier captures the hardship and the spirit of one of the most inspiring figures in American history, bringing to life Booker T. Washington's journey to learn, to read, and to realize a dream.

Critically-acclaimed author and cultural historian Jabari Asim presents eight essays that seek to reclaim the narrative of Black history and culture in America, focusing on how Black bodies, Black words, and Black culture and society have been policed, punished, and stolen for hundreds of years. In We Can't Breathe Jabari Asim takes what Toni Morrison has called "The Master Narrative" and rewritten it - whether it is the history of jokes, black fatherhood, black literature, or "strutting," to create a more accurate and empowered view of Black history in America. Asim emphasizes the power of narrative capital, which he see as critical to Black Americans' well-being along with intellectual capital, economic capital and social capital. We Can't Breathe points to the insidious nature of racism in centuries of American history, but it also highlights the vibrant and sustaining nature of Black culture and Americans who persist and thrive.

Poignant and powerful, this debut collection from preeminent writer and critic Jabari Asim heralds his arrival as an exciting new voice in African American fiction.
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Through a series of fictional episodes set against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent years in modern history, Asim brings into pin-sharp focus how the tumultuous events of '68 affected real people's lives and shaped the country we live in today.
The sixteen connected stories in this exciting debut are set in the fictional Midwestern town of Gateway City, where second generation off-spring of the Great Migrators have pieced together a thriving, if fragile existence. With police brutality on the rise, the civil rights movement gaining momentum, and wars raging at home and abroad, Asim has conjured a community that stands on edge. But it is the individual struggles with love, childrearing, adolescence, etc, lyrically chronicled here, that create a piercing portrait of humanity.
In "I'd Rather Go Blind" and "Zombies," young Crispus Jones, who while sensitive to the tremors of upheaval around him is still much more concerned with his crush on neighbor Polly and if he's ever going to be as cool as his brother. When Ray Mortimer, a white cop, kills the owner of his favorite candy store, Crispus becomes aware of malice even more scary than zombies and the ghost that he thinks may be haunting his house.
In "The Wheat from the Tares" and "A Virtuous Woman," Rose Whittier deals with her abusive husband with a desperate resignation until his past catches up with him and she's given a second chance at love. And Gabriel, her suitor, realizes that his whole-hearted commitment to The Struggle may have to give way for his own shot at romance.
And in "Ashes to Ashes" we see how a single act of despicable violence in their childhoods cements a lasting connection between two unlikely friends.
From Crispus' tender innocence to Ray Mortimer's near pure evil, to Rose's quiet determination, the characters in this book and their journeys showcase a world that is brimming with grace and meaning and showcases the talents of a writer at the top of his game.

This is our moment. This is our time, Barack Obama declared in his victory speech on November 4, 2008. Such a moment is an opportunity to explore who we are, where we've been, and what the emergence of a leader like Obama can tell us about our culture, our politics, and our future. In "What Obama Means", Jabari Asim, author of the acclaimed "The N Word", provides the context needed to understand what the Obama presidency means to people of all backgrounds. Asim moves easily from the contemporary to the historical, showing how performers and athletes, such as Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan, laid the groundwork for Obama as much as did leaders such as Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DuBois, and Martin Luther King Jr. He examines the impact of Sidney Poitier (whose "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" could have been the story of the president's parents) and how the actor's navigation of Hollywood was a forerunner for Obama's own path in wooing America's white voters. Asim places Obama within the history of the black rhetorical tradition, alongside such figures as James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Barbara Jordan. He also describes how the 'Obama phenomenon' grew from the ground up, focusing on the people who caught on even before their leaders did. He demonstrates how Obama turned the old civil-rights model of African American leadership on its head, and shows that Obama's election is evidence of the progress that has been made in healing wounds and broadening America's concept of leadership and inspiration.

The debate over the N word touches almost every aspect of American popular culture. Does it ever have an appropriate place in the media? Are rappers justified in using it? Should Huckleberry Finn, which repeats it 215 times, be taught in high school?
As the cultural critic Jabari Asim explains, none of these questions can be addressed effectively without a clear knowledge of the word's bitter legacy. Here he draws on a wide range of examples from science, politics, the arts, and more to reveal how the slur has both reflected and spread the scourge of bigotry in America over the last four hundred years. He examines the contributions of such well-known figures as Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain, W.E.B. Du Bois and Margaret Mitchell, Dave Chappelle and NWA. Through this history, Asim shows how completely our national psyche is affected by the use of the word, and why it's such a flashpoint today.