Granddaddy's Turn

Based on the true story of one family’s struggle for voting rights in the civil rights–era South, this moving tale shines an emotional spotlight on a dark facet of U.S. history.

Life on the farm with Granddaddy is full of hard work, but despite all the chores, Granddaddy always makes time for play, especially fishing trips. Even when there isn’t a bite to catch, he reminds young Michael that it takes patience to get what’s coming to you. One morning, when Granddaddy heads into town in his fancy suit, Michael knows that something very special must be happening—and sure enough, everyone is lined up at the town hall! For the very first time, Granddaddy is allowed to vote, and he couldn’t be more proud. But can Michael be patient when it seems that justice just can’t come soon enough? This powerful and touching true-life story shares one boy’s perspective of growing up in the segregated South, while beautiful illustrations depict the rural setting in tender detail.

“This seemingly simple read-aloud to introduce young readers to the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act achieves complexity in its images. --Kirkus Reviews A visually detailed tale of patience and delayed triumph that highlights an important aspect of history. --School Library Journal The plainspoken text offers a slice-of-life example of the injustices endured by African Americans during the mid-twentieth-century. --The Horn Book Bandy and Stein succinctly explore a close family bond, set against historical injustice. Ransome's emotive watercolors strongly convey the grandfather's dignity and Michael's quiet pride as he reaches a milestone that was kept from his forebear. --Publishers Weekly This engaging picture book demonstrates how the legal right to vote was derailed for many African Americans in the mid-twentieth century...Ransome's beautiful, lifelike watercolors show important, accurate period details, and the faces of onlookers telegraph the prevailing attitudes of the time. --Booklist”

The accomplished illustrator James E. Ransome renders the story in warm, realistic watercolors...It’s a message so crucial it almost can’t be delivered with too much sentiment, and the authors and illustrator of “Granddaddy’s Turn” spare none.
—The New York Times

This seemingly simple read-aloud to introduce young readers to the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act achieves complexity in its images.
—Kirkus Reviews

A visually detailed tale of patience and delayed triumph that highlights an important aspect of history.
—School Library Journal

The plainspoken text offers a slice-of-life example of the injustices endured by African Americans during the mid-twentieth-century.
—The Horn Book

Bandy and Stein succinctly explore a close family bond, set against historical injustice. Ransome’s emotive watercolors strongly convey the grandfather’s dignity and Michael’s quiet pride as he reaches a milestone that was kept from his forebear.
—Publishers Weekly

This engaging picture book demonstrates how the legal right to vote was derailed for many African
Americans in the mid-twentieth century...Ransome’s beautiful, lifelike watercolors show important,

accurate period details, and the faces of onlookers telegraph the prevailing attitudes of the time.
—Booklist

...the story is straightforward and Ransome’s paintings offer literal support for the text...
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The poignancy of the story is enhanced by the warm, earth tones of the watercolor illustrations, as readers experience the lives of the grandfather and the child.
—Literacy Daily

Certain to spark a lively discussion on the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
—School library Connection

Michael S. Bandy is the co-author, with Eric Stein, of White Water, which was adapted into a screenplay that awarded the authors a Bill Cosby Screenwriting Fellowship. He lives in Los Angeles.

Eric Stein, co-author with Michael S. Bandy of White Water, has written for the children’s TV series Star Street. He lives in Santa Monica, California.

James E. Ransome, the 2023 winner of the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, is the illustrator of Granddaddy’s Turn by Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein, as well as the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner The Creation and many other books for children. James E. Ransome lives in Rhinebeck, New York.

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