The Green Book

 

RUTH AND THE GREEN BOOK by Calvin Alexander Ramsey, illustrations by Floyd Cooper

This picture book is about a family road trip in their fancy new car. What could be more fun or exciting?  Eating at cafés and roadside restaurants…sleeping at motels with swimming pools…stopping at a souvenir stand or a drive-in for a root beer float.

But because you are Black, you have to pee in the woods. Blacks aren’t allowed. Not even allowed to use the restrooms.

Motel doors are slammed shut.  Gas stations refuse service.  Intolerance and discrimination are frustrating and even frightening.  This book shows from a child’s point of view the fear and humiliation created by discrimination.

FLOYD COOPER is the illustrator of this book and many other award-winning books.  His art and his words as an author open windows that show life from the emotional perspective of a child.  When asked about drawing and what advice he would give to students, he answered:

From the time I drew on our house as a three year old child, I have had a proclivity to expressing myself through art. I went to the University of Oklahoma and graduated with a BFA on an art scholarship (partly). I started freelancing as an illustrator while still an undergrad at OU. My advice for young illustrators is based on my own experience: READ and DRAW!      Keep your imagination saturated and stimulated  through story. Keep drawing.                     

Hope this helps! Best, Floyd

 

Floyd Cooper’s images celebrate being a kid and facing barriers – social, political, or educational – with courage and determination.  His art shows many different views of intolerance and discrmination in ways that are meaningful to young readers.

One of Floyd Cooper’s most recent books, BEN AND THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, written by Pat Sherman, 2009, was awarded this year’s Once Upon a World Children’s Book Award, given by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Museum of Tolerance.

BE GOOD TO EDDIE LEE, written by Virgina Fleming (1996) and illustrated by Cooper tells the story of Eddie Lee, a boy with Down Syndrome, and how hard it sometimes is to be accepted for who you are.

Cooper’s recent book, THESE HANDS, authored by Margaret Mason, 2010, shows through a grandfather’s funny tales, a very different perspective of discrimination in industrial Midwest.