Marguerite de Angeli has made the life of a specific cultural group as real and warm as a next-door neighbor\u2019s. Most of all, as always, she has made a picture story book that is fun to read.<\/p>\n
Believing that all children are basically the same, no matter what their national origin, de Angeli broke literary ground by writing of an African-American family and racial prejudice in her book\u00a0Bright April<\/em>\u00a0(1946).<\/p>\n The favorite childhood book of Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress. From Publishers Weekly: Hayden recalled the transformative moment when, at age seven in Jamaica, Queens, she was given a copy of Marguerite de Angeli\u2019s picture book\u00a0Bright April<\/em>\u00a0by a local librarian. \u201cThat was the first time I saw myself\u2014a brown girl\u2014in a book.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like the month she was born in and named after, April was bright one moment and dark the next. But mostly she was Bright April\u2014because of her happy family, her Brownie Scout troop, and all her friends in the Philadelphia suburb where she lived.<\/p>\n This is April\u2019s story. It is especially the story of her tenth birthday, which brought the best surprise she could have ever imagined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_cat":[683],"product_tag":[],"composite_virtual":false,"composite_layout":"","composite_add_to_cart_form_location":"","composite_editable_in_cart":false,"composite_sold_individually_context":"","composite_shop_price_calc":"","composite_components":[],"composite_scenarios":[],"bundled_by":[],"bundle_stock_status":"instock","bundle_stock_quantity":null,"bundle_virtual":false,"bundle_layout":"","bundle_add_to_cart_form_location":"","bundle_editable_in_cart":false,"bundle_sold_individually_context":"","bundle_item_grouping":"","bundle_min_size":"","bundle_max_size":"","bundled_items":[],"bundle_sell_ids":[],"yoast_head":"\n