Freedom in Congo Square

This poetic, nonfiction story about a little-known piece of African American history captures a human's capacity to find hope and joy in difficult circumstances and demonstrates how New Orleans' Congo Square was truly freedom's heart.

Winner of a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2016
A School Library Journal Best Book of 2016: Nonfiction
Starred reviews from School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and The Horn Book Magazine
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Selected for the Barack Obama Presidential Library

Mondays, there were hogs to slop,

mules to train, and logs to chop.

Slavery was no ways fair.

Six more days to Congo Square.

As slaves relentlessly toiled in an unjust system in 19th century Louisiana, they all counted down the days until Sunday, when at least for half a day they were briefly able to congregate in Congo Square in New Orleans. Here they were free to set up an open market, sing, dance, and play music. They were free to forget their cares, their struggles, and their oppression. This story chronicles slaves' duties each day, from chopping logs on Mondays to baking bread on Wednesdays to plucking hens on Saturday, and builds to the freedom of Sundays and the special experience of an afternoon spent in Congo Square. This book includes a forward from Freddi Williams Evans (freddievans.com), a historian and Congo Square expert, as well as a glossary of terms with pronunciations and definitions.

Carole Boston Weatherford (Author)
Carole Boston Weatherford has written many award-winning books for children, including Coretta Scott King winner RESPECT: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul; Newbery Honor winner BOX: Henry Box Brown Mails Himself to Freedom; Caldecott Honor winners Freedom in Congo Square; Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer; and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, as well as Golden Kite Award winners Dear Mr. Rosenwald; Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library; and The Roots of Rap. She is currently a professor of English at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina where she created a hip-hop course. Find out more about her at cbweatherford.com.

R. Gregory Christie (Illustrator)
R. Gregory Christie is a three-time recipient of a Coretta Scott King Award Honor for illustration (Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan; Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth; The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children), a two-time winner of the New York Times' 1 Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year (in 2 for Only Passing Through and in 22 for Stars in the Darkness), a honor winner of the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for illustration (Jazz Baby), and a recipient of the NAACP's Image Award. He operates GAS-ART GIFTS, a children's bookstore with autographed copies in Decatur, Georgia. You can find more about Greg online at gas-art.com.