A review by sducharme
More Than Anything Else by Marie Bradby

4.0

A young African American boy works hard alongside his father at a salt factory and dreams of the day he'll learn to read. He watches and listens as another man reads aloud to his community and yearns to be the one reading, the one everyone will listen to someday. When he tells his mother he wants to learn, she gives him a book, one she can't understand herself; he puzzles over it, tracing letters, and imagining sounds. But he can't figure it out alone; he needs the newspaper man to "sing" the sounds of the letters. When he finds him, all the pieces fall into place and when he learns the letters and sound of his own name it's a joyful moment for him and an emotional one for us. Double page, full bleed realistic watercolors.

< Spoiler >

His name is "Booker" and we know what he doesn't: he WILL be a person others listen to!