Recipient of a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award
Recipient of a Bologna Ragazzi Non-Fiction Special Mention Honor
Award
A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of 2019
From celebrated author and illustrator Ashley Bryan comes a deeply
moving picture book memoir about serving in the segregated army during
World War II, and how love and the pursuit of art sustained him.
In May of 1942, at the age of eighteen, Ashley Bryan was drafted to
fight in World War II. For the next three years, he would face the
horrors of war as a black soldier in a segregated army.
He endured the terrible lies white officers told about the black
soldiers to isolate them from anyone who showed kindness--including each
other. He received worse treatment than even Nazi POWs. He was assigned
the grimmest, most horrific tasks, like burying fallen soldiers...but
was told to remove the black soldiers first because the media didn't
want them in their newsreels. And he waited and wanted so desperately to
go home, watching every white soldier get safe passage back to the
United States before black soldiers were even a thought.
For the next forty years, Ashley would keep his time in the war a
secret. But now, he tells his story.
The story of the kind people who supported him.
The story of the bright moments that guided him through the dark.
And the story of his passion for art that would save him time and time
again.
Filled with never-before-seen artwork and handwritten letters and diary
entries, this illuminating and moving memoir by Newbery Honor-winning
illustrator Ashley Bryan is both a lesson in history and a testament to
hope.
