Equality’s Call

Writ­ten by Deb­o­rah Diesen in read­able-out-loud verse with a refrain that reflects the cumu­la­tive action in the pre­ced­ing pages, this pic­ture book traces the dili­gent efforts of those who worked for decades to make Amer­i­ca’s vot­ing rights more inclu­sive. There is his­to­ry here for every­one to know.

The illus­tra­tions add pas­sion and under­stand­ing to the text, help­ing us with more infor­ma­tion. Mag­dale­na Mora cre­at­ed them with gouache, water­col­or, ink, pas­tel, pen­cil, and dig­i­tal col­lage. The results are movi­ing. There is a soft­ness and an edge, the faces are dis­tinct and diverse, the col­ors are warm, invit­ing us to under­stand that we are part of the ongo­ing effort to make equal­i­ty the law.

“The jour­ney’s not over.
The work has­n’t ended.
Democ­ra­cy’s dream
must be con­stant­ly tended.”

Read this book in the class­room, your library, and at home to start dis­cus­sion and piqué curios­i­ty. In this pres­i­den­tial elec­tion year, the more our chil­dren (and future vot­ers) under­stand about the ongo­ing his­to­ry of our democ­ra­cy, the more they will feel a part of nec­es­sary deci­sions and under­stand the mean­ing of their right — and respon­si­bil­i­ty — to vote.

Equal­i­ty’s Call: The Sto­ry of Vot­ing Rights in America
writ­ten by Deb­o­rah Diesen
illus­trat­ed by Mag­dale­na Mora
Beach Lane Books, 2020
ISBN 978 – 1534439580