Best Selling Books by Ashley Bryan

Coretta Scott King Award–winning creator Ashley Bryan’s adaptation of a tale from the Ila-speaking people of Zambia is now available in board book format, featuring Bryan’s cut-paper artwork. We’ll see the difference a touch of black can make. Just remember, whatever I do, I’ll be me and you’ll be you. Explore the appreciation of one’s own heritage and beauty. In this story, the colorful birds of Africa ask Blackbird, who they think is the most beautiful of birds, to color them black so they can be beautiful too, though Blackbird reminds them that true beauty comes from the inside.

Coretta Scott King Award winner Ashley Bryan celebrates three favorite spirituals in this colorful and joyous picture book. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Come, sing, and celebrate the power of the beloved songs “This Little Light of Mine,” “Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In,” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” through kaleidoscopic illustrations of color and cut paper.

Recipient of a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award Recipient of a Bologna Ragazzi Non-Fiction Special Mention Honor Award A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of 2019 From celebrated author and illustrator Ashley Bryan comes a deeply moving picture book memoir about serving in the segregated army during World War II, and how love and the pursuit of art sustained him. In May of 1942, at the age of eighteen, Ashley Bryan was drafted to fight in World War II. For the next three years, he would face the horrors of war as a black soldier in a segregated army. He endured the terrible lies white officers told about the black soldiers to isolate them from anyone who showed kindness—including each other. He received worse treatment than even Nazi POWs. He was assigned the grimmest, most horrific tasks, like burying fallen soldiers…but was told to remove the black soldiers first because the media didn’t want them in their newsreels. And he waited and wanted so desperately to go home, watching every white soldier get safe passage back to the United States before black soldiers were even a thought. For the next forty years, Ashley would keep his time in the war a secret. But now, he tells his story. The story of the kind people who supported him. The story of the bright moments that guided him through the dark. And the story of his passion for art that would save him time and time again. Filled with never-before-seen artwork and handwritten letters and diary entries, this illuminating and moving memoir by Newbery Honor–winning illustrator Ashley Bryan is both a lesson in history and a testament to hope.

From celebrated legend Ashley Bryan, a lavishly depicted cautionary tale of fearlessness and many-headed monsters. There was a little boy who knew no fear... Nope, no fear at all. Not even when his grandma warns him of the giants—the two-headed giant and his three-headed brother, that is. Because this wild, fearless boy isn’t scared of any many-headed giants at all! So one day, he slips away. He just takes off and leaves his grandma behind. After all, what does he care? He’s got his mangoes, and the sunshine, and his flute. And he isn’t scared one bit. But our boy isn’t really bad, you know; just wild. And soon he misses his grandma. So he turns around, and runs right into—those monsters. He’s about to discover that he may indeed have something to fear…their terrible, horrible singing voices! This trickster tale from the French Artilles will have readers toe-tapping and trying out their own singing voices.

Who built the stable where Jesus lay? Multiple Coretta Scott King Award–winner Ashley Bryan has a very good idea in this beautiful and moving new layer to the nativity story. The boy looked in the infant’s eyes And in his heart he knew The babe would be a carpenter He’d be a shepherd too. This beautifully crafted picture book that envisions a young boy, a shepherd and carpenter both who, out of love and kindness, cleared the way for another shepherd and carpenter to be born on Christmas day. Told in gentle rhyme and illustrated with Ashley Bryan’s enormous talent, this is a picture book that captures the reason for the season in all its wonder and beauty, celebrating Christmas, the kindness of children, and the new hope born with each new baby.

Beloved Coretta Scott King Award–winning storyteller and creator Ashley Bryan reveals the vibrant spirit of found objects in this magnificent treasury of poetry and puppets. Little Cranberry Island. It’s a small island, with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, but it’s got more than its share of treasures—including the magnificent Ashley Bryan himself, a world-renowned storyteller and author of such classics as All Night, All Day and Beautiful Blackbird. Daily, for decades, Ashley has walked up and down the beach, stopping to pick up sea glass, weathered bones, a tangle of fishing net, an empty bottle, a doorknob. Treasure. And then, with glue and thread and paint and a sprinkling of African folklore, Ashley breathes new life into these materials. Others might consider it beach junk, but Ashley sees worlds of possibilities. Ashley Bryan’s two-foot-tall hand puppets swell with personality and beauty, and in this majestic collection they make their literary debut, each with a poem that tells of their creation and further enlivens their spirit.

Newbery Honor Book Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book Using original slave auction and plantation estate documents, Ashley Bryan offers a moving and powerful picture book that contrasts the monetary value of a person with the priceless value of life experiences and dreams that a slave owner could never take away. Imagine being looked up and down and being valued as less than chair. Less than an ox. Less than a dress. Maybe about the same as…a lantern. This gentle yet deeply powerful way goes to the heart of how a slave is given a monetary value by the slave owner, tempering this with the one thing that can’t be bought or sold: dreams. Inspired by the actual will of a plantation owner that lists the worth of each and every one of his “workers,” the author has created collages around that document, and others like it. Through fierce paintings and expansive poetry, he imagines and interprets each person’s life on the plantation, as well as the life their owner knew nothing about—their dreams and pride in knowing that they were worth far more than an overseer or madam ever would guess. Visually epic, and never before done, this stunning picture book is unlike anything you’ve seen.

"And God stepped out on space, And he looked around and said: I''m lonely -- I''ll make me a world." -- James Weldon Johnson Thus begins Coretta Scott King Award-winner Ashley Bryan''s collection of inspiring excerpts of poems by celebrated African American poets. Beautifully illustrated with his own tempera and gouache paintings, Ashley Bryan''s unique alphabet book will delight readers of any age.

Award-winning author and illustrator Ashley Bryan has selected twenty best-known and best-loved African-American spirituals, including the title song, "All Night, All Day," and such others as "This Little Light of Mine," "O When the Saints Go Marching In," and "He''s Got the Whole World in His Hands." Glorious full-color pictures, piano accompaniment, and guitar chords help capture the spirit and essence of these timeless songs that can be enjoyed by people of every age and every level of musical skill.

In this retelling of a West African tale, Ma Sheep Thunder and her impetuous son Ram Lightning are forced to leave their home on Earth because of the trouble Ram causes.

A collection of poems and African folktales.

From award-winning author Elissa Brent Weissman comes a collection of quirky, smart, and vulnerable childhood works by some of today’s foremost children’s authors and illustrators—revealing young talent, the storytellers they would one day become, and the creativity they inspire today. Everyone’s story begins somewhere… For Linda Sue Park, it was a trip to the ocean, a brand-new typewriter, and a little creative license. For Jarrett J. Krosoczka, it was a third grade writing assignment that ignited a creative fire in a kid who liked to draw. For Kwame Alexander, it was a loving poem composed for Mother’s Day—and perfected through draft after discarded draft. For others, it was a teacher, a parent, a beloved book, a word of encouragement. It was trying, and failing, and trying again. It was a love of words, and pictures, and stories. Your story is beginning, too. Where will it go?

Includes four traditional tales told by the Hausa, Angolan, Masai, and Bushmen people of Africa.

Com base um conto tradicional da Zâmbia, este é um livro ilustrado poderoso que celebra a beleza ancestral. Rosa, verdes, amarelos, roxos, laranja, azuis e vermelhos. Há muito, muito tempo, os pássaros de África eram de todas as cores do arco-íris, mas não tinham nem um sinal de preto nas penas. Sem igual, Pluma-Preta era o único pássaro preto em cena. "É o maioral!", cantavam os outros, se perguntando se também seriam tão lindos depois de um toque de tinta mágica.

An illustrated collection of African American spiritual songs.

An illustrated collection of African American spiritual songs.

"Mungalo s’empressa de faire ce que disait son bœuf. Il frappa trois coups légers sur la corne droite. Au troisième coup, le sol se couvrit d’herbe fraîche et de coupes emplies de fruits juteux et de mets odorants." Pourquoi la grenouille et le serpent ne jouent-ils plus ensemble ? Pourquoi le buffle et l’éléphant ne seront-ils jamais bons amis ? Pourquoi et depuis quand les animaux ont-ils une queue ? Pourquoi celle du lapin est-elle si ridicule ? Écoutons la réponse du conteur...

Offers fanciful illustrated poems set in a dream-like, colorful world.

A lavishly illustrated fable follows the story of the People and how they used the power of the spoken word and its masters, the Storytellers, to win over the mythical kingdoms of the earth, sea, and sky. Reprint.

In this retelling of a West African tale, Ma Sheep Thunder and her impetuous son Ram Lightning are forced to leave their home on Earth because of the trouble Ram causes.

Ashley Bryan illustrates and writes children''s books and spiritual books

Réunit plus d''une soixantaine de fables sur les animaux de la savane, les croyances et les traditions des hommes.

Littérature jeunesse: conte, fable