Ida B. Wells Voice of Truth, an effortlessly enjoyable illustrated book

Ida B. Wells Voice of Truth is a fabulous example of an illustrated book that is greater than the sum of its parts. Non-fiction illustrated books can sometimes be a tough read for those younger audiences. Sometimes they’re too long for the attention spans of those young readers, while other times there’s just something that doesn’t connect. Voice of Truth connects with young readers and does so in a simple, less-is-more manner that deftly balances the text by Michelle Duster, to the art by Laura Freeman, with the difficult to quantify X factor. 

In this case, the X factor is the conversations and thinking that young audiences will have after engaging in Voice of Truth. Those fourth-grade students are starting to learn about civil rights on a deeper level. They’ll learn even more about it in fifth grade, and it’s very possible that the name Ida B. Wells might not be introduced to them until middle school conversations about civil rights, if that.

To some extent, that’s understandable, but still, Ida B. Wells was the co-founder of the National Association of Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a founder of the Negro Fellowship League, was a teacher, journalist, and more. Prior to Voice of Truth, she was a person who sounded familiar to me through some college courses that I took in communication, but I couldn’t tell you any specifics.

I think that I was introduced to her through journalism due to her work at Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, the newspaper that she co-owned in 1888. She was writing for them, selling subscriptions, and doing anything necessary to make the paper a success. In 1892, a trio of black business-owners, who operated a popular grocery store, was killed in Memphis. Back then, as almost all media was controlled by white people, the narrative was simply to blame black men attacking white women.

Wells wrote about the event the way that it happened, which caused lots of friction in Memphis. Shortly after writing the story up in her newspaper, she traveled to Philadelphia and her office was destroyed. She never returned to the area and continued speaking, writing, and teaching.

Voice of Truth is a fabulously illustrated book for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the book is one that can be enjoyed by mid-elementary readers. The text is simple enough for some of them to read, yet not too complex or graphic to put off kids who want non-fiction. Some pages have three short paragraphs on them, others have only one sentence and some simply have an illustration on them. It’s this variety, as well as the different places it puts the text, that will draw in curious readers. Also, its approach to her life is first hand, the book is written by her great granddaughter.

The illustrations are realistic, but not so much so that they will intimidate, or scare away young readers. It’s obviously a more serious story, but there’s an underpinning of hope that readers will walk away with. Voice of Truth is also very brief. There’s enough story to get the point through to young readers, but not so much that it’ll feel heavy or like it’s a textbook. If anything, those curious young readers will read Voice of Truth and want to read more about Ida B. Wells.

Ida B. Wells Voice of Truth is by Michelle Duster with illustrations by Laura Freeman and available on Henry Holt and Co., an imprint of Macmillan Books.

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