From a bestselling and award-winning husband and wife team comes an
innovative, beautifully illustrated novel that delivers a front-row seat
to the groundbreaking moments in history that led to African Americans
earning the right to vote.
"Right here, I'm sharing the honest-to-goodness." -- Loretta
"I'm gon' reach back, and tell how it all went. I'm gon' speak on it.
My way." -- Roly
"I got more nerve than a bad tooth. But there's nothing bad about being
bold." -- Aggie B.
Loretta, Roly, and Aggie B., members of the Little family, each present
the vivid story of their young lives, spanning three generations. Their
separate stories -- beginning in a cotton field in 1927 and ending at
the presidential election of 1968 -- come together to create one
unforgettable journey.
Through an evocative mix of fictional first-person narratives,
spoken-word poems, folk myths, gospel rhythms and blues influences,
Loretta Little Looks Back weaves an immersive tapestry that
illuminates the dignity of sharecroppers in the rural South. Inspired by
storytelling's oral tradition, stirring vignettes are presented in a
series of theatrical monologues that paint a gripping, multidimensional
portrait of America's struggle for civil rights as seen through the eyes
of the children who lived it. The novel's unique format invites us to
walk in their shoes. Each encounters an unexpected mystical gift, passed
down from one family member to the next, that ignites their experience
what it means to reach for freedom.
