Grandpa, Is Everything Black Bad?

Holman, L. Sandy and illustrated by Sandy Lynne Grandpa, Is Everything Black Bad? Davis, California: The Culture C.O.-O.P. , 1998-2005

The children’s book called Grandpa, Is Everything Black Bad? by Sandy Lynne Holman, is a nonfiction book. This story focuses on an African American child named Montsho who struggles with his identity, and how throughout his life everything he has seen that is Black has been presented in a negative way. One character that helps to demolish these thoughts is his grandpa who teaches Montsho that African Americans are an outstanding race of people who have helped to develop this country. The story is told from a first person narrative, the book is mainly told in chronological order until the middle of the book where it presents a flashback to provide background information about the African American race.

The illustrator uses a lot of folk art design to help create and convey the African American culture using water colors. Throughout the first nine pages of the book the word Black is emphasized in bold letters to show how important black is. The artist has created a picture or image on every page that helps to hold the readers attention. The artist uses bright colors and some pictures of African art to help thicken the plot. The author of this book says the reason why she wrote this, was because many African American children would comment on how much they disliked the color black and their own skin color.