Best Illustrated Children’s Book of 2010
Knopf Publishing. Busing Brewster. Children's Picture Book
The New York Times Sunday Book Review
Its collage, ink and watercolor illustrations, by R. G. Roth, call to mind Ezra Jack Keats, but with their own distinctive look and emotional power. I loved the illustrations in “Busing Brewster”: the ’70s clothes and hairstyles and other sly period references, like the inside-cover images of a librarian’s rubber checkout stamp. I loved even more its understated honesty, the way it introduces violence without melodrama, and avoids the easy ending. Busing is an opportunity. It is also a pain. No one is immediately converted away from racism and prejudice, but the book does not reject the possibility of redemption — even for Freckle-face.
Lawrence Downes
The NY Times.
