Harlem at Four

Datcher, Michael

ISBN 10: 0593429338 / ISBN 13: 9780593429334

Published by Random House Studio, New York, 2023

About this Item

DOUBLE SIGNED - Children's Picture Book. Pink spine, colorful artwork covered boards are all clean and bright. This is a new book that has not been previously owned, but it does have light bumping at the tail of the spine. Colorful artwork endpapers. Signed by both author Michael Datcher and Coretta Scott King award-winning artist Frank Morrison on the title page in black pen. Binding is straight and tight. Pages are all clean and crisp and filled with Morrison's amazing artwork. The first part of the story is a celebration of the author's relationship with his daughter Harlem and the second a peek at the history behind the city after which she has been named. Dust jacket has some light wrinkles right around the bumped tail of the spine - jacket otherwise clean, bright, and sharp. A gorgeous book. Signed for the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association's 2023 Fall Discovery Show.

Seller Inventory # 010575

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Harlem at Four
• Publisher: Random House Studio, New York
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593429338
• ISBN 13: 9780593429334
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Illustrator: Morrison, Frank
• Edition: First Edition, First Printing.
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New
• Signed: Signed by the Author & Artist
• Seller catalogs:
  • Art & Artists
  • Children's Picture Books

About this title

Synopsis

A stunning picture book comprising two incredible stories—the first part chronicles the adventures of a four-year-old Black girl named Harlem, while the second part describes the history of Harlem the neighborhood. From a New York Times bestselling author and a critically acclaimed illustrator.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

In this beautiful picture book in two parts, meet Harlem: the girl and the neighborhood. Part one follows the adventures of a little girl named Harlem and her single father as they go on a museum “playdate” with painters Romare Bearden and Jean-Michel Basquiat, listen to John Coltrane records, and conduct science experiments in their apartment ("The volcano erupts /Red lava on Valentine’s Day!").

Part two takes us back to the fourth year of the twentieth century in Harlem the neighborhood. Here, we are introduced to Philip A. Payton Jr., aka Papa Payton, whose Afro-American Realty Company gave birth to the Black housing explosion, helping to start America's Great Black Migration. Because of Papa Peyton, Black families—like Harlem and her father a century later—could move to Harlem and thrive and flourish.

This is a completely unique, absolutely gorgeous picture book by a New York Times bestselling author and a Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator that weaves together the lives of a modern Black family and a historically Black neighborhood in New York City.

About the Author

Dr. Michael Datcher received his B.S. from UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. from UC Riverside in English Literature. He is the author of the New York Times Bestseller Raising Fences and the critically-acclaimed Ferguson-area historical novel Americus. His book Animating Black and Brown Liberation: A Theory of American Literatures was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Datcher has made numerous media appearances, including Oprah, Today Show and Dateline. Dr. Michael Datcher is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Writing at New York University’s School of Liberal Studies.

Frank Morrison started his journey as a graffiti artist in New Jersey, tagging walls with spray paint. It wasn’t until he visited the Louvre Museum in Paris as part of the Sugar Hill Gang's dance entourage that he realized painting was his true creative path. His work has been featured at Art Basel, SCOPE Miami Beach, and Red Dot art fairs, and shown at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Mason Fine Art Gallery in Atlanta. He is the illustrator of over twenty children’s books, including the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner R-E-S-P-E-C-T, the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award winner Jazzy Miz Mozetta, and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor books Little Melba and Her Big Trombone and Let the Children March. Frank was a Society of Illustrators Original Art Silver Medal Honoree two years in a row, for The Roots of Rap and R-E-S-P-E-C-T.