By and By

Carole Boston Weatherford is an ALSC Children’s Literature Legacy Award winner, an honor given to an author or illustrator who has made a substantial and lasting contribution to children’s literature. Her award-winning books include Kin, illustrated by her son Jeffery and a Coretta Scott King Author Honor recipient; Box, which won a Newbery Honor; Unspeakable, which won the Coretta Scott King Award, a Caldecott Honor, and was a finalist for the National Book Award; Respect: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award; ALA Notable Children’s Book You Can Fly; and Caldecott Honor winners Freedom in Congo Square; Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement; and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Carole lives in North Carolina. Visit her at CBWeatherford.com. 

Bryan Collier is a beloved illustrator known for his unique style combining watercolor and detailed collage. He is a four-time Caldecott Honor recipient for Trombone Shorty, Dave the Potter, Martin’s Big Words, and Rosa. His books have won many other awards as well, including six Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards. His recent books include By and By, Thurgood, The Five O’Clock Band, and Between the Lines. He lives in New York with his family.

* "Simply written, evocative text . . . expressive watercolor-and-collage artwork . . . This picture book conveys that Tindley lived his life with purpose and left a lasting legacy of faith expressed through gospel music."
"Weatherford tells Tindley's story in rhyming verse that captures his drive for spiritual growth, service, and musical expression. Collier's strong, vivid watercolor-and-collage illustrations enhance the text and visually depict the various facets of Tindley's life. . . . A lively salute to an important, influential life of music and service."
"Weatherford’s couplets thrum like drumbeats, and they’re interwoven with italicized lines from songs (identified in end matter as coming from spirituals that inspired Tindley and hymns he himself wrote). . . . A sonorous readaloud."
"Weatherford’s first-person, somewhat singsong-y rhyming narrative includes italicized lines from Tindley’s hymns (some of which also appear in the art), further emphasizing the preacher’s foundation in his faith. Collier’s watercolor and collage images beautifully reflect the man’s life and times, from the wide expanse of emerald-hued fields in which Tindley labored as a child and the bright blue sky above, to luminous, larger-than-life portraits of him orating as an adult."
"This beautiful volume will make an excellent addition to biography collections and broaden available resources for black history studies in elementary and middle school classrooms."
"Weatherford weaves the words of hymns the figure wrote into lines that describe his slow, steady rise . . . until he became pastor of an urban church with 15,000 parishioners and wrote dozens of hymns for them to sing. Collier creates one compelling watercolor and collage spread after another, from a view of the small boy shadowed by tall trees as he trudges to church to congregants joined in song with Tindley at the pulpit. . . . Weatherford artfully champions Tindley’s achievements, and Collier portrays both the man and his life events with memorable visual power."