Coming September 16, 2025. Pre-order today!A Flea For JusticeMarian Wright Edelman Stands Up for ChangeBy: Valerie Bolling / Illustrated by: TeMika GroomsMake them itch.Marian Wright Edelman is a flea for justice. Just like her hero, Sojourner Truth, Maria
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By: Valerie Bolling / Illustrated by: TeMika Grooms
Marian Wright Edelman is a flea for justice. Just like her hero, Sojourner Truth, Marian pushes for change even when it’s uncomfortable. She makes people itch, just like a flea.She becomes the first Black woman lawyer in Mississippi and creates the Childrens Defense Fund, which continues to be a voice for poor children, children of color, and children with disabilities today.
A Flea for Justice is an accessible read with a unique, kid-friendly structure; award-winning educator Valerie Bolling directly asks the kid readers questions, like Do you know what Sojourner told that man? to engage in the story. An inspiring, call-to-action biography thats sure to make readers itch!
Marian has spent six decades bending the moral arc of the universe toward justice, and we are all the beneficiaries of her noble mission.
Hilary Rodham Clinton
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Valerie Bolling, author
Valerie Bolling is an award-winning educator with more than thirty years of experience and the author of many books for children. Her picture books include I See Color; Lets Dance!; Together We Ride; Together We Swim (a Kirkus Prize finalist); Ride, Roll, Run: Time for Fun!; and Bing, Bop, Bam: Time to Jam! Valerie is also the author of the early reader series Rainbow Days. She is passionate about creating stories in which all children can see themselves and feel seen and heard, valued, and validated. Valerie lives in Connecticut with her husband.
Read more about Valerie.
TeMika Grooms, illustrator
TeMika Grooms is a writer and illustrator passionate about creating stories for young readers. She grew up in a military family rooted in the southern United States. She now lives near Atlanta, Georgia, a city with civil rights justice woven into its fabric. TeMika uses her art for storytelling and building community connections to inspire others to think and improve our world.
Read more about TeMika.
Kirkus Reviews
A Civil Rights activist began her quest for justice as a child.
Growing up in segregated South Carolina, Marian Wright Edelman was admonished for drinking from a fountain meant for white peoplean experience that left its mark on the then-4-year-old. Her hero, the abolitionist Sojourner Truth, once responded to a white mans dismissive remarks (Why I dont care any more for your talk than I do for the bite of a flea) with a determined Perhaps not, but Lord willing, Ill keep you scratching. Calling herself a flea for justice, Marian fought injustice any way she could: As a child, she switched the signs on segregated water fountains, and while in college, she participated in protests at restaurants that refused to serve African Americans. As the first Black female lawyer in Mississippi, she defended activists arrested for helping African Americans register to vote. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and, after he was killed, channeled her efforts into young peoples education, establishing the Childrens Defense Fund and Freedom Schools. Bolling writes in a lively, even playful tone, frequently posing questions to her young audience, returning often to the flea metaphor, and leaving readers with a final challenge: What will you do to make someone scratch? Close-ups of facesMarians, Sojourner Truths, and Kings, as well as those of the students whom Marian toucheddominate Grooms vivid digital art.
A spirited account of a life devoted to service.
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-62354-582-6
Ages: 69
Page count: 32
11 x 81/2
Publication date:September 16, 2025
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