Cover of book shows diverse group of people demonstrating for voting rights

One of the problems writers face in celebrating advances in social justice is acknowledging that those advances didn’t solve everything. Equality’s Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America tackles the problem head-on.

With a rhythmic rhyming text that invites reading aloud, Deborah Diesen lays out the gap between the ideals in America’s founding and the ways they were enacted.

“White men with property

Went to the polls,

But the rest of the people

Were left off the rolls.”

Diesen chronicles the slow expansion of voting rights to new groups of people. The elements of the story are connected with a refrain:

But nothing could muffle

Equality’s call.

A right isn’t right

Till it’s granted to all.

The illustrations by Magdalena Mora are gentle and vibrant. She often shows children in the illustrations, connecting young readers to the story.

This book invites conversation–for example the spread about women’s suffrage features women of color on one page and white women on the opposite while the text celebrates women getting the vote but recognizes that some people faced “suppression” of vote. The first image in the book is of a teacher next to a blackboard with the phrase “Voting Rights” on it. I think this book is made just for those moments–whether they’re in the classroom or home.

Equality’s Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America by Deborah Diesen, illustrated by Magdalena Mora. (Beach Lane: 2020)

Image shows a tree growing from a book and reads Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge 2020
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