The Power of a Picture: Hector by Adrienne Wright

Hector is an ordinary twelve-year-old boy. His weekends are filled with playing soccer, doing chores, watching his favorite movies, and visiting family.

Sometimes Hector runs errands for money for treats and tickets to the movies, and he and his friends spar with each other, using the karate moves they've seen. Sometimes he has to outrun bullies who try to take his money, but mostly he's a happy kid, trying to please his big sister Antoinette.

But when the school is order to teach half of their classes in Afrikaans, the Dutch language of the political leaders of South Africa, some of the students are angry. One chilly day when Hector gets to school, he finds everyone gathering outside in small groups, whispering to each other.

"Why is nobody going to school?" he asks.

Hector and his friends are drawn to the sound of chanting and singing. Everybody is going to Orlando Stadium to protest the new law requiring schools to teach half of their lessons in Afrikaans.

Hector is swept up in the excited activity of the growing crowd.

Hector's big sister Antoinette has heard rumors of the march, and when she hears the noise of the marchers, thousands of them carrying signs and chanting, she fearfully begins to look for her younger brother. In the melee' she spots him, just as tear gas canisters start to explode among the crowd.

"Hector! You shouldn't be here!

We have to get you home! NOW!"

Antoinette tries to make her way toward her little brother, just as the police begin to fire on the marchers. And someone else sees Hector fall, photographer Sam Nzima, who quickly runs toward him.

The police shoot! Sam snaps.

Nothing like this has ever happened in South Africa.

Not to an ordinary boy like Hector.

And Nzima's photo of an ordinary boy being carried by a stranger for help becomes one of the famous images of South African resistance to Apartheid, in author-illustrator Adrianne Wright's forthcoming Hector: A Boy, A Protest, and the Photograph that Changed Apartheid (Page Street Kids, 2019). The struggles against Apartheid were big worldwide news stories, but author Wright's account, told to her by eyewitnesses, is the story of just one boy, an ordinary boy, whose trip to school ended his life, and of a snapshot that helped change his country. Says Wright in her Author's Note, "The richly detailed, first-hand accounts of Hector's life and the events of June 16, 1976, by Dorothy Molefi, Antoinette Sithole and Sam Nzima helped build a distinct picture of how I wanted to tell this story."

June 16 is now a South African holiday, and the Hector Peterson Memorial and Museum in Soweto tells the story "to honor the youth who gave their lives in the struggle for freedom and democracy."

The Genie Inside: Oscar Lives Next Door by Bonnie Farmer

ROOT-A-TOOT-TOOT GOES OSCAR'S TRUMPET.

BING BANG BOP GOES OSCAR'S PIANO.

"WE'RE MOVIN'!" SAYS DADDY, PULLING THE PILLOWS UP OVER HIS EARS.

"THAT OSCAR BINGS, BANGS, AND BOPS TOO MUCH!"

But Milly loves Oscar's trumpet, and the horns and piano his brothers and sisters play next door. And she's glad that they never do move away from the fun next door.

Oscar is her friend. Together they race each other down the streets of St. Henri, pretending to be elephants with swinging trunks or high-stepping horses. Sometimes they are partners in crime.

WE GIDDYUP BACK TO THE CHURCH TO PLAY A TRICK ON REVEREND JAMES.

WE BANG ON THE CHURCH DOOR AND HIDE. REVEREND JAMES POKES HIS HEAD OUT OF A WINDOW.

"OSCAR! MILDRED!" HE YELLS! "COME OUT OF THOSE BUSHES!"

WE DON'T STOP RUNNING 'TIL WE'RE BACK HOME.

Then one day Oscar's cough turns into a fever and he's very sick. The doctor says he has tuberculosis and must stay in the hospital until he gets well. Millie misses her friend and is sorry to hear that he is so lonely there that he refuses to speak to anyone. She can't visit Oscar, but she can send him a special card.

Dear Oscar,

The trick that we played on Reverend James did not make you sick.

Get better and come home soon,

Love, Millie  XOXOXOXO

After a long time Oscar comes home, but he is discouraged to learn that he when he blows into his trumpet, no sound comes out.

He patiently disassembles his instrument to look for the problem.

"I WANT TO SEE WHERE THE MAGIC COMES FROM," HE SAYS.

"MAYBE THERE IS A GENIE INSIDE THE PIANO, TOO," I SAY.

WHEN OSCAR'S FINGERS TOUCH THE KEYBOARD, IT SOUNDS LIKE ROLLING THUNDER.

But the genie is not inside the piano, but in Oscar's mind and fingers, in Bonnie Farmer's Oscar Lives Next Door: A Story Inspired by Oscar Peterson's Childhood (OwlKids, 2015). Farmer, who grew up decades later in the same neighborhood in Montreal as Oscar Peterson, nostalgically provides a warm setting for the childhood of one of the piano jazz greats of the twentieth century. Told simply through the eyes and voice of Oscar's fictional friend Millie, we see Oscar studying and practicing his piano and getting that magic inside himself. Marie LaFrance's soft faux naif illustrations, night scenes in deep blue tones and sunny city streets where children play, capture the charm and warmth of a small enclave where a girl can watch and listen from her porch to hear her best friend playing next door. This is a homey look at the boy before he grew into the man who became a jazz star.

Some people say, "it's the music that is important," and of course that comes first. But lasting music comes out of the mind and heart and, yes, the body of a musician, and a book for children that portrays how that happened for the celebrated greats has value in opening up the music to children. There is a magic in the music--a genie inside the horn or the piano--but it takes a real person to coax that spirit out. Farmer's elegant picture book biography captures the time and place, the musical family, and the milieu of the close community in which his talents grew. Oscar, heartbroken that he can no longer get a song from his trumpet, nevertheless courageously turns to another instrument and the rest is jazz history.

For young fans, picture biographies of famous musicians include Bird & Diz, Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix, Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane's Musical Journey When Bob Met Woody: The Story of the Young Bob Dylan Mister and Lady Day: Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her, Fab Four Friends: The Boys Who Became the Beatles, and Keith Richards' memoir of his grandfather, Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar