Carole Boston Weatherford is a prolific children’s writer who has become a mainstay in the field, with last year marking her third decade of crafting books for young readers that highlight the experiences and history of African Americans. Upon reaching that milestone, Weatherford’s catalogue continues to expand. This year, she has no fewer than three picture book releases—Let It Shine, Black Hands, and Troubled Waters—hitting shelves, highlighting the importance of affirmations, the impact of African American contributions to the United States, and the value of setting as a historical bookmark. Weatherford spoke with PW about how she came to writing books that capture history for young readers, how the forthcoming anniversary of the U.S. inspired her work, and her perspective on her success.
Let It Shine: A Celebration of You is about building the self-esteem of Black children. Why did you want to focus on affirmations in this picture book?
Often books that are affirmations, although they’re intended for children, can be used for any age group—even adults. The perfect example is [Dr. Seuss’s] Oh, The Places You’ll Go! That was originally seen as a children’s book, maybe for graduations. But there was no book like it that centered African Americans. And so I wanted to create a book that African Americans and others could have to celebrate a loved one’s achievements, or even their own. But it’s particularly necessary for children, because it’s important that we build them up. Because if we don’t, then they’re going to be lacking the self-determination and the faith in themselves to achieve what they might have otherwise. It’s important that we celebrate our children’s gifts, their talents, and our own successes. It’s important to participate in our own joy. That’s one lesson that I’ve learned from life as I’ve gone along. It’s one thing to achieve, but it’s another to stop and celebrate it.
At what point do you think you learned that lesson?
I’m still learning it and I’m 70. But at any rate, it’s hard to slow down because you want to keep on when you’re doing well. And that’s where affirmations like Let It Shine come in: that you know you will continue to shine. It might not even be in the same field of endeavor that you’re celebrating right now, but you will continue to shine as long as you continue to strive.
Speaking of achievements, 2025 marked 30 years in children’s publishing for you. How does it feel to have reached that milestone in your career and what does the future look like for you?
This is a conversation that I’ve been having with a friend and with myself. I could say I want to achieve a certain number of books, but ultimately, it’s not really important. But it’s very fulfilling to look back on my career. I never dreamed that I would have the career that I had, that I would have this many books, that the books would be as celebrated as they are, or that people would even know my name at this stage. When I heard that I had gotten the ALA Children’s Literature Legacy Award [last year], and even when I walked onto the dais to accept the award, as people were clapping, I thought, they know who I am?
So, it’s been an incredible ride, and it’s been particularly rewarding to not only know the impact that my books might be having on kids, but maybe even that my books do double duty with adults. Adults will ask me, “Why didn’t I know that happened? Why didn’t I learn that this happened?” My books are not just teaching kids about these historical moments, but also teaching adults, and that enables them to then have the necessary conversations with children about it. Because it’s not just about reading the book, but it’s about taking something away and being able to talk about it.
Both of your projects Black Hands and Troubled Waters offer reflections on history. How did bookmarking moments in history become so important to you as a writer?
I think it just dawned on me at one point that I had been touching on these different periods of history, and they look like surveys. Black Hands focuses on the contributions of African Americans. Troubled Waters is a survey of the Alabama River. The Beatitudes: From Slavery to Civil Rights is a survey, and so is The Sound That Jazz Makes, one of my early books. There’s also The Roots of Rap. Surveys allow people to learn a lot in a concentrated space. It’s like poetry itself. It intensifies the emotions and condenses what’s going on using an economy of language. It gives people a lot to digest, but it’s not a real big plate, because it’s a picture book. We’re going to touch on these things, and the illustrations are going to provide a panoramic view of each scene, of each stanza. And it’s going to be, in the end, maybe a cinematic experience. That’s really what I strive for. All children need to have this knowledge because it’s not just African American history, it’s American history. And that’s important to underscore since we’re celebrating the 250th anniversary, which is what I wrote Black Hands to mark.
What feelings did the forthcoming anniversary bring up for you that led you to write this book?
When the 400th anniversary of 1619 [the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the U.S.] rolled around, I had been thinking about that and I wasn’t able to do anything with it other than spoken word. I really wanted to do a book to make sure that even though African Americans have been left out of so many tellings of our history, that I was writing us into the history. I think there’s room for a whole lot of books, not just from an African American perspective, but from various perspectives, and I’m sure there will be. It’s a good time to take account, not just of injustices, but also some points of pride: absolutely, the contributions of African Americans, whom I focus on in Black Hands, but what we all have contributed to the making of this nation and the responsibility that we all have at this moment, to carry it on. Especially at a time like today, when our democracy is in peril.
Why were hands the motif you chose to showcase how far Black contributions extend?
In the beginning, a lot of what we had to offer was physical, and not just African Americans. In the early days of our country, we did not have all the conveniences and creature comforts that we have today. If you wanted something, you would have to get your hands dirty, unless you were an enslaver. But for most of the people here, if you wanted a sweater, you were going to have to get some wool, and maybe even raise the sheep and spin the wool. Your hands were going to have to be involved. It was very tactile at that point. All Black hands were on deck in some way, whether it was in the military, whether it was building the Capitol, whether it was sewing the First Lady’s ball gowns or playing a piano and creating jazz. We contributed so much. And I want to make sure at this point that our ancestors are honored. Because we are founding fathers and founding mothers too.
Troubled Waters highlights the Alabama River’s impact as a setting for change. Why did you want to write from the perspective of the river?
Maybe I did that as a challenge for myself, because I’ve been in the industry so long. To keep it fresh, I have to do something different every now and then. But place has been a character in my books before. Place is very important to me. I don’t know whether it’s because of my own family’s relationship with the land, both during enslavement and then in the founding of nearby villages after emancipation during Reconstruction, having been farmers. So, place is just really important to me. I wanted to stretch myself artistically and figure out a telling of Selma to Montgomery that wouldn’t be straightforward. I wanted to create a more immersive experience in terms of the place, to show that the people who were bludgeoned on Bloody Sunday were not the only people who had suffered right on that land. It’s to show what Dr. King talked about, the arc of history. And I think that’s what that’s what I have tried to do.
You mentioned how we often reflect on history for individuals, rather than setting. In what ways did you want to pay homage to Alabama and what that land represents?
First of all, I wanted to show that it didn’t belong to the people who didn’t want African Americans to have the right to vote. It never belonged to them. If anything, it belonged to the Indigenous people who ultimately were driven away, coincidentally, to Oklahoma. I wanted to take it back there and show how steeped the land was in the civilizations that inhabited it, and also how they shaped the land and how they used it. Ultimately, despite all this history, the river is still there. The river’s still flowing just like it always has—just like time. There’s a metaphor: time is a river. So how better to tell the story then through the eyes of the river? Because the river has seen it all.
Let It Shine!: A Celebration of You by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Tequitia Andrews. Crown Books Jan. 18.99; ISBN 978-0-593-80575-6
Black Hands: Builders of Our Nation by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by R. Gregory Christie. Crown Books Apr. 28 $19.99; ISBN 979-8-21703-185-6
Troubled Waters: A River’s Journey Toward Justice by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Bryan Collier. Bloomsbury, Jan. $20.99 ISBN 978-1-68119-818-7
