“Before John Lewis was old enough to read the word ‘love’ in his Bible, he could feel it all around him.” The childhood and young adulthood of John Lewis unfold across this lengthy, lively picture book biography. The dynamic storytelling weaves facts about Lewis into spirited prose that propels the reader from page to page, chronicling Lewis’s experiences, influences, and growing passion for activism and justice. The narrative builds to the moment that John Lewis and other marchers for voting rights, facing “a wall of police officers,” stepped out onto the Edmund Pettis Bridge in 1965. An author’s note detailing what happened next follows. A narrative timeline and source notes are included at volume’s end. The idea of marching and marchers is a repeated motif in the marvelous artwork, which includes bold, colorful compositions spanning page spreads, along with more intimate insets.

Five starred reviews!
A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of the Year

The “informative, resounding” (Booklist, starred review), and “inspiring” (The Horn Book, starred review) story of a groundbreaking civil rights leader John Lewis comes to life in this compelling and beautifully told, “excellent” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) nonfiction picture book by the award-winning team Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome.

John Lewis left a cotton farm in Alabama to join the fight for civil rights when he was only a teenager. He soon became a leader of a movement that changed the nation. Walking at the side of his mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis was led by his belief in peaceful action and voting rights. Today and always his work and legacy live on.