Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass

by Dean Robbins

Overview

Some people had rights, while others had none.
Why shouldn't they have them, too?

Two friends, Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, get together for tea and conversation. They recount their similar stories fighting to win rights for women and African Americans. The premise of this particular exchange between the two is based on a statue in their hometown of Rochester, New York, which shows the two friends having tea.

The text by award-winning writer Dean Robbins teaches about the fight for women's and African Americans' rights in an accessible, engaging manner for young children. Two Friends is beautifully illustrated by Selina Alko and Sean Qualls, the husband-and-wife team whose The Case for Loving received three starred reviews! Two Friends includes back matter with photos of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545399968
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	01/05/2016
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	209,650
Product dimensions:	10.30(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD430L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Dean Robbins is an award-winning writer based in Madison, Wisconsin. He contributes arts, features, and news stories to publications around the country and reads his cultural commentaries on Wisconsin Public Radio. Dean was also a longtime newspaper editor and syndicated television critic. This is his first picture book. Visit him online at deanrobbins.net.

Sean Qualls has illustrated many celebrated books for children, including The Case for Loving by Selina Alko, Giant Steps to Change the World by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Little Cloud and Lady Wind by Toni Morrison and her son Slade, Dizzy by Jonah Winter, and Before John Was a Jazz Giant by Carole Boston Weatherford, for which Sean received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Selina Alko, and their two children.

Selina Alko is the author of The Case for Loving, which she illustrated with her husband, Sean Qualls. She is the author and illustrator of several other acclaimed books for children, including Daddy Christmas & Hanukkah Mama and B Is for Brooklyn. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with Sean Qualls and their two children.

Editorial Reviews

…charming…Qualls and Alko blend lovely, lush painting and an elegant layer of text art, with regal streams of smudgy handwritten words and snippets of vintage print.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

10/19/2015
Robbins’s debut introduces two mutually supportive U.S. civil rights activists, Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. After Douglass drives his horse-drawn wagon down a snowy street, the subsequent spread of a room aglow in warm candlelight shows the two friends facing each other, teacups in hand. Short, parallel biographies of these 19th-century crusaders comprise most of the narrative; each “read about rights in the United States. The right to live free. The right to vote. Some people had rights, while others had none.” The husband-and-wife team of Qualls and Alko (The Case for Loving) uses paint, colored pencil, and collage to create symbolic illustrations with a folk-art feel. Flowery script is woven cleverly into the pages: steam from teacups, Anthony’s ahead-of-her-time bloomers, and even sidewalks are filled with words and ideas endemic in their campaigns ( “Right is of no gender... is of no color”). An author’s note and bibliography conclude a visually appealing primer on these civil rights reformers. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Marietta Zacker, Nancy Gallt Literary Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Two Friends :

"A visually appealing primer on these civil rights reformers." -- Publishers Weekly

"Robbins deftly moves between [Anthony's] objectives and words to those of Douglass.... Young readers can picture two people of action and resolve and hopefully be equally inspired." -- Kirkus Reviews

"In remarkably economic prose, Robbins reveals the similarities in their childhoods and demonstrates the enormous impact these friends had on history.… Bold colors lend an upbeat feel to the illustrations, while layers of paint and mixed media create subtle texture and depth." -- Booklist

Praise for The Case for Loving by Selina Alko and Sean Qualls:

• "Despite the gentle way this book unfolds, the language and images deal a blow to racist thinking and just might inspire the next generation of young civil rights activists." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

• "Inspirational, never heavy-handed, and appropriate for just about everyone." -- Booklist, starred review

Praise for Dizzy by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Sean Qualls:

• "Qualls's acrylic, collage, and pencil illustrations swing across the large pages with unique, jazzy rhythms, varying type sizes and colors, and playful perspectives, perfectly complementing the text." -- School Library Journal, starred review

• "Qualls is able to translate the story (and the music) into shapes and colors that undulate and stream across the pages with a beat and bounce of their own." -- Booklist, starred review

From the Publisher

Presenting concepts such as freedom and the right to vote within their historical context is not an easy task to accomplish in a book for young readers. Here, however, pictures and text work hand in hand; and the result is highly successful. In Rochester, New York, resident Frederick Douglass visits his friend Susan B. Anthony at her Madison Street home for tea. These reformers worked together for abolition and for women’s suffrage and so they are a natural for this book. Readers discover how their childhoods influenced their work as reformers in the mid-nineteenth century. The spare text allows time for the reader or listener to peruse the mixed-media spreads. Font variations in the text provide emphasis on key statements and words are an important part of the illustrations. There are ideas on Anthony’s bloomers and ideas rising on the steam on the teacups. At the end of the book, when Anthony and Douglass state, “So many speeches to give. So many articles to write. So many minds to change,” readers will understand that words, thoughts and ideas are crucial to reform. The author took a little poetic license with sequencing events (bloomers were worn in the 1850s; Anthony did not move into the pictured house on Madison Street until 1866) but this does not undermine the emphasis on the concepts. An author’s note offers further information on the subjects, and an illustrators’ note offers insight into their artwork. The back of the book also includes a solid bibliography and mid-nineteenth century photos of a youthful Anthony and a youthful Douglass. This provides a good introduction to their friendship and the work they did together to achieve equality. Reviewer: Sharon Salluzzo; Ages 5 to 9.

Children's Literature - Sharon Salluzzo

01/01/2016
K-Gr 3—Robbins imagines the meeting between Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass at Anthony's house over tea. Both were champions of freedom and voting rights—Anthony for women and Douglass for African Americans. Emphasizing the commonality between these two famous Americans, the author effectively uses parallel phrasing: "Some people liked [his/her] ideas about rights…. Others didn't." A note mentions that Anthony and Douglass spoke out for each other's causes. Husband-and-wife team Qualls and Alko's beautiful illustrations are rendered in acrylic and gouache, and the two used collages of cutout strips with ink writing, giving the book an 18th-century look. VERDICT Readers will come away remembering a brief episode in history that demonstrates that cooperation can be found in unexpected places.—Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA

School Library Journal

2015-10-14
Two cups of tea for two powerful advocates for equal rights. The setting is genteel as the titular two good friends sip afternoon tea by the soft glow of candlelight. But wait! She is wearing bloomers—outrageous garb for a woman in the 19th century—and he is carrying a book—not an expected accoutrement for a black man. She is Susan B. Anthony, who campaigned for women's rights, and he is Frederick Douglass, who spoke vehemently and eloquently for equal rights for people of all colors. The two were friends, and in his imagined scenario, Robbins deftly moves between her objectives and words to those of Douglass. He gives a basic introduction to what society expected of women and how African-Americans were denied rights. The husband-and-wife illustrator team uses paint, collage, and colored pencils in scenes that vary from tea-table serenity to tableaux of public speaking with hecklers in the foreground. Some of the double-page-spread scenes are fanciful, but all show determination. The full-bleed artwork is embellished with swirls of script from their respective writings, a plus for both artistic presentation and content. Young readers can picture two people of action and resolve and hopefully be equally inspired. (author's note, bibliography, photographs) (Picture book/biography. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews