Schomburg

Starred review from August 7, 2017
In graceful free verse, Weatherford delivers a remarkable tribute to Arturo Schomburg, the Afro-Puerto Rican historian, collector, and activist who unearthed the hidden history and achievements of “Africa’s sons and daughters.” In addition to charting the path Schomburg’s life took after emigrating to the U.S. from Puerto Rico, she gives ample attention to the knowledge he uncovered as he amassed books: “Schomburg chased the truth and turned up icons/ whose African heritage had been whitewashed,” among them John James Audubon, Alexandre Dumas, and Alexander Pushkin, all of whom are captured with vibrancy and life in Velasquez’s oil portraits. Schomburg’s ambitions, scholarship, and accomplishments were tremendous—“There was no field of human endeavor/ that he did not till with his determined hand”—and Weatherford and Velasquez more than do justice to them. Ages 9–12. Agent: Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content.