A picture book about a Supreme Court case? Selina Alko does a great job making this 1966 case, which made interracial marriage legal, accessible to young readers.  The book starts with the familiar playground chant, “First comes love, then comes marriage” and then shifts to the viewpoint of the children of Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving; they “had two parents who loved them, and who loved each other.”

The book shows how the Loving family was affected, for eight years, by laws that wouldn’t allow them to live as a family in Virginia until they finally took their case to the Supreme Court.

The back matter has a wonderful pair of photos–one of the Lovings together and one of the author/illustrator couple, who are also married to each other, thanks to the law that the Lovings tested so many years ago. Alko wrote a blogpost with great photos of the art-in-process for the book here.

The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage, by Selina Alko, illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko. Arthur A. Levine: 2015