For February, Black History Month, Sopris Sun illustrator Larry Day highlights an influential African American each week, accompanied by an illustration. This is the final installment of the 2025 series.
One of the essential priorities for a children’s picture book is it’s got to be something that a child would love over and over and etch itself into that curious and open mind.
My guess is that’s at the top of the list for picture book makers Lesa Cline-Ransome, poet and author, and her husband, James Ransome, illustrator. Their books take subjects often more known to adults, thus enlightening children. Stories such as that of African American Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige, the first African American to pitch in a World Series; or about America’s great musician Louis Armstrong in “Just a Lucky So and So: The Story of Louis Armstrong”; or “Overground Railroad” where a young girl journeys by train from cotton fields to New York’s Penn Station wherein Lesa and James weave story and art with the writings of Frederick Douglass.
Their inspiring story of Harriet Tubman, “Before She Was Harriet,” won a Coretta Scott King Honor. Lesa’s recent work, “One Big Open Sky,” received a 2025 Newberry Honor. Other awards included an American Library Association Notable Book award for “Satchel Paige” and the 2025 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award for “They Call Me Teach: Lessons in Freedom.”
Lesa received a New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Legacy recognition for her impact in children’s literature. She is also a MacDowell Fellow and has received numerous honors and awards including an NAACP award and Kirkus, New York Public Library and School Library Journal Best Book awards.
James, an illustrator of over 50 books, is also an award magnet. The Children’s Book Council named James as one of 75 authors and illustrators everyone should know. Among many, he’s received an International Board on Books for Young People accolade, the NAACP Image Award for Illustration and a Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year recognition.
“It’s better to read in the library. Sitting at my favorite table by the window reading and listening to the sound of other folks turning pages makes me feel like I’m in a house full of company I don’t have to talk to.” – Lesa Cline-Ransome