Awards

• Nominated for ALSC Notable Children's Books 2024
• Nominated for NAACP Image Award 2024
• Short-listed for Jane Addams Children's Book Award 2024
• Winner of Children's Book Council - Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards 2024

Overview

A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book ""This moving picture book portrays a girl who met injustice with dignity and excelled.""—Booklist (starred review) From a multi-award-winning pair comes a deeply affecting portrait of determination against discrimination: the story of young spelling champion MacNolia Cox. MacNolia Cox was no ordinary kid. Her idea of fun was reading the dictionary. In 1936, eighth grader MacNolia Cox became the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee. And with that win, she was asked to compete at the prestigious National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, where she and a girl from New Jersey were the first African Americans invited since its founding. She left her home state a celebrity—right up there with Ohio’s own Joe Louis and Jesse Owens—with a military band and a crowd of thousands to see her off at the station. But celebration turned to chill when the train crossed the state line into Maryland, where segregation was the law of the land. Prejudice and discrimination ruled—on the train, in the hotel, and, sadly, at the spelling bee itself. With a brief epilogue recounting MacNolia’s further history, How Do You Spell Unfair? is the story of her groundbreaking achievement magnificently told by award-winning creators and frequent picture-book collaborators Carole Boston Weatherford and Frank Morrison.

Full Product Details

9781536215540

Table of Contents

Reviews

In this thoughtfully conceived picture book, Boston Weatherford centers MacNolia Cox (1923-1976), who achieved celebrity status in 1936 after becoming the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee, thus qualifying for the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. . . a powerful, word-by-word telling of a child's personal triumph. -Publishers Weekly (starred review) Weatherford tells of MacNolia's experiences in concise, direct narrative, while occasionally asking a question such as, Can you spell discrimination? D-I-S-C-R-I-M-I-N-A-T-IO-N. . . . Capturing the characters' emotions and their personalities, Morrison's vibrant oil-and-spray-paint illustrations are riveting. This moving picture book portrays a girl who met injustice with dignity and excelled. -Booklist (starred review)

In this thoughtfully conceived picture book, Boston Weatherford centers MacNolia Cox (1923-1976), who achieved celebrity status in 1936 after becoming the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee, thus qualifying for the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. . . a powerful, word-by-word telling of a child's personal triumph. -Publishers Weekly (starred review) Weatherford tells of MacNolia's experiences in concise, direct narrative, while occasionally asking a question such as, Can you spell discrimination? D-I-S-C-R-I-M-I-N-A-T-IO-N. . . . Capturing the characters' emotions and their personalities, Morrison's vibrant oil-and-spray-paint illustrations are riveting. This moving picture book portrays a girl who met injustice with dignity and excelled. -Booklist (starred review) MacNolia Cox was neither the first African American child to win a national spelling contest (1908) nor the next (2021)-but she was the first even to win a spot as a finalist in all the intervening decades. . . the author pays tribute to the Akron, Ohio, eighth grader's indomitable spirit and focus as well as her love of words while recording the public excitement she caused. . . Spells out reasons to vow N-E-V-E-R A-G-A-I-N. -Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Weatherford cleverly structures this picture book biography around the repetition of the question Can you spell...? . . . Smooth oil and spray paint illustrations emanate the characteristic warm richness of Morrison's art, and a balance between the neutral color palette and pops of jewel tones at key moments guides readers' emotional journey through the narrative. . . . Despite stylistic similarities to Weatherford and Morrison's other biography collaboration R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul (BCCB 07/20), this story is superb in its own right. -The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Cox is remembered for her perseverance under pressure, and both the affecting text (with its spelling-centered refrain: Can you spell dedication?...Can you spell excited? ) and brilliantly hued oil- and spray-paint illustrations portray her with dignity while reflecting the intensity of the times. An epilogue reinforces how every victory encourages others. -The Horn Book

Author Information

Carole Boston Weatherford, a New York Times best-selling author and poet, was named the 2025 Children’s Literature Legacy Award winner. She was also named the 2019 Washington Post Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award winner. Her numerous books for children include the Newbery Honor Book Box: Henry Box Brown Mails Himself to Freedom, illustrated by Michele Wood; the Coretta Scott King Author Award winner Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre, illustrated by Floyd Cooper; the Robert F. Sibert Honor Book Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, illustrated by Ekua Holmes; and the critically acclaimed Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library and Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time, both illustrated by Eric Velasquez. Carole Boston Weatherford lives in Maryland. Frank Morrison has won numerous awards for his picture book illustration, including two Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards. He previously collaborated with Carole Boston Weatherford on Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Modern Retelling of the Classic Spiritual; R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul; How Sweet the Sound: The Story of Amazing Grace; and The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop. Frank Morrison lives outside Atlanta.

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