Steamboat School

By Deborah Hopkinson. Illustrated by Ron Husband.

Based on the true story of a school on a riverboat on the Mississippi after an 1847 Missouri law banned education for African-American children, this book is narrated by an initially ­reluctant student of the Rev. John Berry Meachum, the real-life figure behind the school. With art evoking retro wood blocks crossed with modern cartoons, James’s tale is both sobering and uplifting. “Funny how something you don’t care much about at first can end up becoming the most important part of you,” he says.