KidLit RADIO: StoryMakers with Lesa Cline-Ransome BEING CLEM KidLit RADIO
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- Kids & Family
Coretta Scott King Author Honoree and Sonia O’Dell Award Medalist Lesa Cline-Ransome returns to StoryMakers to share the third book in her award-winning
Finding Langston Trilogy: BEING CLEM!
Learn about the characters and key historical events featured in these amazing stories!
About The Book
The final novel in the award-winning Finding Langston trilogy from Coretta Scott King Author Honoree and Scott O’Dell Award medalist Lesa Cline-Ransome.
Clem can make anybody, even his grumpy older sisters, smile with his jokes. But when his family receives news that his father has died in the infamous Port Chicago disaster, everything begins to fall apart. Clem’s mother is forced to work long, tough hours as a maid for a wealthy white family. Soon Clem can barely recognize his home–and himself. Can he live up to his father’s legacy?
In her award-winning trilogy, Lesa Cline-Ransome masterfully recreates mid-twentieth century America through the eyes of three boys: Langston, Lymon, and, now, Clem. Exploring the impact of the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, Jim Crow laws, and much more, Lesa’s work manages at once to be both an intimate portrait of each boy and his family as well as a landscape of American history.
★★★THE REVIEWS ARE IN!★★★
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!
Praise for Finding Langston, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book and winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction
“There aren’t any explosions in this spare story. Nor is there a happy ending. Instead, Langston discovers something more enduring: solace.”–The New York Times
* “This crisply paced book is full of historical details of the Great Migration and the role a historic branch library played in preserving African American literary culture.”–The Horn Book, Starred Review
* “This is a story that will stay with readers long after they’ve finished it.”–School Library Journal, Starred Review
Read Lesa’s TRILOGY!
Finding Langston, Leaving Lymon, Being Clem
WATCH Lesa Cline Ransome’s StoryMakers
ABOUT Lesa Cline-Ransome
Lesa Cline-Ransome is the writer of many picture books. Her picture book biography titles include Satchel Paige, Major Taylor, Champion Cyclist, Young Pele, Soccer’s First Star, Helen Keller, The World in Her Heart, Before There was Mozart, and Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass. Other titles are Quilt Alphabet, Quilt Counting and her newest is Light in the Darkness, A Story about How Slaves Learned in Secret. Originally from Malden, Massachusetts, Lesa has worked as a proofreader, fashion copywriter, publicist, teacher in the New York City Schools, and taught writing for adults. She has a B.F.A. in Merchandising and Management from Pratt Institute and an M.A. in Education from N.Y.U. She lives in Rhinebeck, New York with her husband and frequent collaborator, illustrator James Ransome, four children, and St. Bernard, Nola.
Sponsored by HOLIDAY HOUSE
Coretta Scott King Author Honoree and Sonia O’Dell Award Medalist Lesa Cline-Ransome returns to StoryMakers to share the third book in her award-winning
Finding Langston Trilogy: BEING CLEM!
Learn about the characters and key historical events featured in these amazing stories!
About The Book
The final novel in the award-winning Finding Langston trilogy from Coretta Scott King Author Honoree and Scott O’Dell Award medalist Lesa Cline-Ransome.
Clem can make anybody, even his grumpy older sisters, smile with his jokes. But when his family receives news that his father has died in the infamous Port Chicago disaster, everything begins to fall apart. Clem’s mother is forced to work long, tough hours as a maid for a wealthy white family. Soon Clem can barely recognize his home–and himself. Can he live up to his father’s legacy?
In her award-winning trilogy, Lesa Cline-Ransome masterfully recreates mid-twentieth century America through the eyes of three boys: Langston, Lymon, and, now, Clem. Exploring the impact of the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, Jim Crow laws, and much more, Lesa’s work manages at once to be both an intimate portrait of each boy and his family as well as a landscape of American history.
★★★THE REVIEWS ARE IN!★★★
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!
Praise for Finding Langston, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book and winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction
“There aren’t any explosions in this spare story. Nor is there a happy ending. Instead, Langston discovers something more enduring: solace.”–The New York Times
* “This crisply paced book is full of historical details of the Great Migration and the role a historic branch library played in preserving African American literary culture.”–The Horn Book, Starred Review
* “This is a story that will stay with readers long after they’ve finished it.”–School Library Journal, Starred Review
Read Lesa’s TRILOGY!
Finding Langston, Leaving Lymon, Being Clem
WATCH Lesa Cline Ransome’s StoryMakers
ABOUT Lesa Cline-Ransome
Lesa Cline-Ransome is the writer of many picture books. Her picture book biography titles include Satchel Paige, Major Taylor, Champion Cyclist, Young Pele, Soccer’s First Star, Helen Keller, The World in Her Heart, Before There was Mozart, and Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass. Other titles are Quilt Alphabet, Quilt Counting and her newest is Light in the Darkness, A Story about How Slaves Learned in Secret. Originally from Malden, Massachusetts, Lesa has worked as a proofreader, fashion copywriter, publicist, teacher in the New York City Schools, and taught writing for adults. She has a B.F.A. in Merchandising and Management from Pratt Institute and an M.A. in Education from N.Y.U. She lives in Rhinebeck, New York with her husband and frequent collaborator, illustrator James Ransome, four children, and St. Bernard, Nola.
Sponsored by HOLIDAY HOUSE