This is a strange and ambitious picture book. It succeeds in some ways, and does not succeed fully in others…and I should start by admitting my bias.
A Change is Gonna Come is a new (2025) picture book built on, as a subtitle indicates “Words and Music by Sam Cooke.” And that’s the source of my bias. Cooke’s 1964 song is a classic. Rolling Stone named it the greatest protest song of all time. The BBC called it the “unofficial anthem of the US civil rights movement.” Countless artists have covered it: Otis Redding, Beyonce, James Taylor, Wayne Brady, and more. It’s been referenced in movies and presidential campaigns. If you haven’t heard it, stop and listen now. Oh. My. God.
And again, that’s the source of my bias. This book sets out to introduce the words of Sam Cooke to a new generation of readers, and that’s a worthy goal, but without the sound, the call of the song…it’s a shadow. I want a soundtrack to the picture book.
That being said, Nikkolas Smith’s illustrations work well. They are vivid, energetic, and at times jagged. They provide a larger context for the lyrics, and sketch in the history implied in Cooke’s haunting song. As readers we glimpse segregation and Jim Crow. We are silent attendees at Medgar Evers’ funeral. We join boycotts and lunch counter protests and the Great Migration and the crowd at King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Some of the historical figures here will be recognizable like Muhammad Ali or Dr. King. Others may be less so: I didn’t recognize Gordon Parks, even though I’m familiar with his work.
This is a book for reading with, actively, so you can explain all the pain and joy and struggle that is found here. Even with the pages of explanation at the end (one from Cooke’s estate, one from the illustrator, two on the historical figures and events), more explanation will be needed, and I’m not sure kids will ever read this one alone.
But you can read this, and play them the song, and talk with them. Maybe about the change.
