The life of Emmett Till is memorialized in a series of sonnets that are heart-wrenchingly beautiful. An innocent 14-year-old whose "stuttering whistle" at a white woman leads to his brutal beating and drowning death, the boy's story is one of several incidents that sparked the Civil Rights Movement. A Coretta Scott King honor award book for 2006.
Author: Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Philippe Lardy.