Carlos Moreno’s 2025 a kids book about THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE is a serious book about a serious and under-discussed topic, the Tulsa Race Massacre of June 1, 1921.
It is also a bit strange in ways that make me wonder if it belongs here. Not due to the topic: it needs discussed, and I’ve written about other books that did so, like Unspeakable. It is strange in that my library grouped it with picture books, but it is completely without images. Pictures exist of the crime, and Unspeakable created its own images, so this is a choice. Instead, the pages are all black and white; black pages with white words, white pages with black words. The words vary in size: some are small, while some are very large, in line with the words’ importance, with some pages featuring only a single word like “HOPE.”
The second and much more easily understood aspect that sets this book apart is that it is tagged as “better together*” and “*This book is best read together, grownup and kid.” I agree. Even with the book’s clear language and careful, methodical introduction of the horrors, this book–and crime–demands discussion. Kids will need it, and kids and adults will benefit from it.
The book explains the context of the massacre and the events, but it also comments on them, and makes an explicit call to learn from the tragedy and its aftermath, and to act to make the world better.
Even as an adult, I found aspects of this book hard to read. (Dropping bombs from planes? Seriously?)
An interesting attempt on a crucial topic. If I were teaching this, I would pair it with other books or outside images, to flesh it out.
