When you gaze on the quilted cowl of A Flag for Juneteenth, you’ll want to attain out and contact it. The paintings depicts a lady carrying a fuchsia costume and kerchief standing proudly in entrance of a flag, the intense colours of her outfit vibrant towards the flag’s mushy yellows and greens. The lady’s brown face has no options—nor do the faces of any of the ebook’s characters—as a result of author-illustrator Kim Taylor needs readers to have the ability to think about themselves on this story.
Then you open A Flag for Juneteenth and uncover that Taylor quilted all of the illustrations in her debut image ebook, and also you notice that her textile artwork completely enhances her evocative prose, creating a wonderful portrayal of Huldah, a Black lady residing together with her enslaved household on a Texas plantation in 1865.
As the ebook opens, it’s the morning of Huldah’s tenth birthday. Taylor’s embroidering transforms mottled brown materials into textured tea muffins, a particular deal with baked by Huldah’s mom for her daughter’s birthday. “The scent of nutmeg and vanilla floated through our cabin,” Taylor writes, and her stitched textual content varieties a winding ribbon of phrases that waft up from the plate as Huldah breathes within the candy scent.
Soon, Huldah hears the “loud clip-clippity-clop of heavy horses’ hooves” as troopers journey onto the plantation. She witnesses their historic announcement: President Abraham Lincoln has freed all enslaved individuals! Taylor emphasizes the significance of this declaration by putting a lone soldier onto a white quilted background. She embroiders the proclamation that he reads “in a booming voice,” forming 4 strains of textual content that radiate from his determine.
Elation follows, and Huldah hears shouting and singing. Images of celebration characteristic the outlines of shocked, ecstatic individuals leaping and elevating their palms within the air for pleasure. Taylor units their multicolor silhouettes towards mild yellow-orange ombre cloth that’s quilted with sunburst strains, as if the individuals have been caught up in rays of mild.
Huldah watches as a gaggle of girls begins to stitch freedom flags. Children collect branches to make use of as flagpoles, however Huldah goes one step additional. She climbs her favourite tree and captures a sunbeam in a glass jar, preserving this extraordinary second in time without end.
Juneteenth grew to become a federal vacation in 2021, and A Flag for Juneteenth exquisitely conveys the day’s spirit of jubilation and freedom.
Read our Q&A with ‘A Flag for Juneteenth’ author-illustrator Kim Taylor.
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