A Flea for Justice - by Valerie Bolling (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Marian Wright Edelman was a lifelong flea for justice--making people itch--as she pushed for racial equality"--

Book Synopsis

Marian Wright Edelman is a flea for justice. Just like her hero, Sojourner Truth, Marian pushes for change even when it's uncomfortable. She makes people itch, just like a flea.

A historical and political picture book biography for 6-9-year-olds about Black perseverance. An aspiring read for future activists and changemakers!

As Marian Wright Edelman grows up, she never loses the spirit she had as a child when she swapped the signs on water fountains designating where Black and white people were allowed to drink.

Marian learns about Sojourner Truth, and she decides to make people itch in order to make change, just like Sojourner did. Marian becomes the first Black woman lawyer in Mississippi, and she creates the Children's Defense Fund, which continues to be a voice for poor children, children of color, and children with disabilities today.

A Flea for Justice is an accessible read with a unique, kid-friendly structure; award-winning educator Valerie Bolling directly asks the kid readers questions, like--"Do you know what Sojourner told that man?" to engage in the story. An inspiring, call-to-action biography that's sure to make readers itch!

"Marian has spent six decades bending the moral arc of the universe toward justice, and we are all the beneficiaries of her noble mission."
--Hilary Rodham Clinton

Review Quotes

A Civil Rights activist began her quest for justice as a child.
Growing up in segregated South Carolina, Marian Wright Edelman was admonished for drinking from a fountain meant for white people--an experience that left its mark on the then-4-year-old. Her hero, the abolitionist Sojourner Truth, once responded to a white man's dismissive remarks ("Why I don't care any more for your talk than I do for the bite of a flea") with a determined "Perhaps not, but Lord willing, I'll keep you scratching." Calling herself a "flea for justice," Marian fought injustice any way she could: As a child, she switched the signs on segregated water fountains, and while in college, she participated in protests at restaurants that refused to serve African Americans. As the first Black female lawyer in Mississippi, she defended activists arrested for helping African Americans register to vote. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and, after he was killed, channeled her efforts into young people's education, establishing the Children's Defense Fund and Freedom Schools. Bolling writes in a lively, even playful tone, frequently posing questions to her young audience, returning often to the flea metaphor, and leaving readers with a final challenge: "What will you do to make someone scratch?" Close-ups of faces--Marian's, Sojourner Truth's, and King's, as well as those of the students whom Marian touched--dominate Grooms' vivid digital art.
A spirited account of a life devoted to service.
--Kirkus Reviews

Bolling builds a third-person narrative around a Sojourner Truth quote in this forthright picture book biography of children's and civil rights leader Marian Wright Edelman (b. 1939). When the then-four-year-old subject drinks from a fountain labeled "White Only" and is pulled away by a teacher, she "didn't like being told that she couldn't do something." After learning about Sojourner Truth's response to her talk being compared to the bite of a flea ("Lord willing, I'll keep you scratching"), Wright Edelman seeks to end segregation-era inequities. She finds more and more ways "to make people scratch" as a college-age protestor and Mississippi's first Black woman lawyer. And Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she founds the Children's Defense Fund to ensure that, through education, "all children had a future." Grooms's airbrush-style digital illustrations show Wright Edelman across the decades as this thought-provoking title asks, "What will you do to make someone scratch?" Back matter includes more about the subject and an author's note.
--Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Valerie Bolling is an award-winning educator with more than thirty years of experience and the author of many books for children. Her picture books include I See Color; Let's Dance!; Together We Ride; Together We Swim (a Kirkus Prize finalist); Ride, Roll, Run: Time for Fun!; and Bing, Bop, Bam: Time to Jam! Valerie is also the author of the early reader series Rainbow Days. She is passionate about creating stories in which all children can see themselves and feel seen and heard, valued, and validated. Valerie lives in Connecticut with her husband.

TeMika Grooms is a writer and illustrator passionate about creating stories for young readers. She grew up in a military family rooted in the southern United States. She now lives near Atlanta, Georgia, a city with civil rights justice woven into its fabric. TeMika uses her art for storytelling and building community connections to inspire others to think and improve our world. www.TeMikaTheArtist.com