Carol Boston Weatherford (Africa Dream) begins this inspiring picture book biography of the groundbreaking soprano in 1927 Laurel, Miss., where "the line between black and white was as wide as the Mississippi River was long," and demonstrates how Leontyne Price broke barrier after barrier in a society largely hostile to African Americans.
Raúl Colón (Draw) reflects Price's journey through a palette of the earthen browns and creams of the Cotton Belt where she grew up. The music that moved and emanated from Price infuses the scenes in a swirl of rainbow colors. Still a girl, Leontyne watches Marian Anderson "[glide] onstage in a whoosh of satin." Author and artist here link the lives of the two singers, laying out how one paved the way for the other. A stream of colors envelops Anderson like a low-lying mist, "Her song, like a torch, sparked a light in Leontyne." In 1939, as Anderson sings the famous Easter concert at the Lincoln Memorial, young Leontyne sings in her church choir on the facing page. Her college president hears Leontyne sing and urges her to study voice: "Led by song, she cracked the door that Marian had opened years earlier."
The author chronicles how Price's voice led to Juilliard, Broadway and finally to New York's Metropolitan Opera House, against the backdrop of a United States where much remained closed to her. Weatherford describes the journey that built Price's personal and professional strength and power; Colón makes visible the music that fueled her path. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness