We Miss You, George Floyd

We wel­come Nan­cy Bo Flood, guest reviewer:

Our democ­ra­cy asks that every cit­i­zen has the right to life.  That means that a child can go to school and not be wor­ried about being mur­dered. Or you can go jog­ging and not be afraid of get­ting shot … or step into a local store, pay with a twen­ty dol­lar bill and not have some­one call 911.

This pic­ture-book trib­ute to George Floyd is elo­quent and pow­er­ful in its sim­plic­i­ty.  The words flow like a song: 

“He was a father, a broth­er, a son, a hip-hop artist, a foot­ball and bas­ket­ball play­er, and a friend.  He was also my neigh­bor …”

In this pic­ture book, We Miss You, George Floyd, writ­ten by Shan­non Gib­ney and illus­trat­ed by Leeya Rose Jack­son, we hear the voice of a young per­son try­ing to under­stand how some­one who was her neigh­bor, some­one who made peo­ple laugh with his fun­ny danc­ing, some­one who called out to his moth­er as he was dying, how some­one inno­cent of any crime, how could that per­son be mur­dered by police?

Shan­non and Leeya have com­bined their words and images to cre­ate a book so we as read­ers will ask this same ques­tion, why?  And then how can we pro­tect the right of every per­son, every child, to “life and lib­er­ty” with­out the fear of being mur­dered on the street while jog­ging, in one’s home while sleep­ing, or at one’s school while learn­ing how to read?

This pic­ture book, We Miss You, George Floyd, invites us to pause, to ques­tion and to par­tic­i­pate, how­ev­er we are able, in the fight for justice.