This week: What Do You Do With a Voice Like That? by Chris Barton and Ekua Holmes

What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? came home with me from a visit to the Eric Carle Museum a few years ago and I read it again and again. It’s the story of a child who recognizes her gift and follows her calling. The child is the magnificent Barbara Jordan, who was raised in Houston and drawn to public speaking and politics, which led to her renowned Congressional service, teaching and legacy.

Full disclosure, I’m in love with Ekua Holmes’ work, so it’s pretty much guaranteed that any book she’s a part of is going to be on my list of great loves. (Holmes is well known as a fine artist - she already had a big voice in the art world before she created children’s book illustrations. Check out this great interview with Ekua Holmes on The Brown Bookshelf)

For an NESCBWI Conference Keynote in 2019, Holmes said “Every book is its own universe”and i scribbled her words in one of the little journal books that goes everywhere with me, and put a big heart next to the quote. I especially love the layered, textured universe of this book — the handprinted papers with their torn edges delineating a sunset, the beautiful warm ranges of browns applied painterly or like a collage of wood veneers, the clothing rendered with paint, ink printing, fabric and decorative papers . I’m always spending a lot of time on a page looking at the ways Holmes illustrates clothes and the ways atmospheric spaces are activated.

And Chris Barton’s writing is sublime.

“The president, Barbara said, must go.

The president went.”

Barton has direct questions for the reader interspersed throughout the chronology of Jordan’s life. The questions have a lyrical quality— they’re alternate versions of the title question, with emphasis on different words each, so the “you” is both universal and speaking directly to the reader.

Mixed media art full spread by Ekua Holmes, image from https://www.ekuaholmes.com/