Patricia McKissack

Children’s author, Patricia McKissack died this week at age 72. She won many prestigious awards including the Caldecott Honor, a Newbery Honor, and together with her husband, Fred McKissack, won 9  Coretta Scott King awards and honor awards. As an African  American children’s author, she sought to publish biographies and titles to help expose children to less well-known public figures. Her biographies of Sojourner Truth, Paul Dunbar and Jesse Jackson earned her many positive reviews. She has a title scheduled for release in 2019. McKissack grew up in the south where she was “the only black student in her sixth grade class,” a fact which directed the subject of her books.