Ashley Bryan Books In Order

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Trophy Picture Books Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Ashley Bryan was a children’s author, a poet, and an illustrator.

He was born in Harlem, New York on July 13, 1923 and passed away on February 4, 2022.

He grew up with the sound of his mother singing at all times of the day from the morning to the night. He would go on to share the love of song with children. He was an accomplished illustrator and he was named a Newbery Honoree for Freedom Over Me, his picture book. Ashley has also received the Coretta Scott King- Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award.

Ashley has also been a May Hill Arbuthnot lecturer and received the Coretta Scott King Award as well as many other awards and different forms of recognition. Some of the books that he has written that he might be known for by readers include Sail Away, Beautiful Blackbird, Freedom Over Me, Beat the Story-Drum, Pum Pum, Ashley Bryan’s Book of Puppets, and more.

When still alive, he resided in Islesford, which is one of the Cranberry Isles located off of the coast of Maine.

Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan is a book that readers won’t want to miss. It was not only a Newbery Honor Book but a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book. If you’ve been looking for a picture book that is inspiring and informative, this book is a good place to pick up and begin.

Utilizing original slave auction and plantation estate documents, the late author and illustrator gives readers a picture book that is powerful and moving at times. It contrasts the monetary value of a person along with the value that comes along with life experiences and focuses on the dreams that even a slave owner would not be able to take away from them.

What if you were looked up and down by someone and evaluated for what you were worth? What if you were found to be worth less than a chair or an ox or a dress, perhaps the same as a lantern? This book ends up going to the very center of the matter of how a slave is deemed to be of a certain monetary value by way of the slave owner, and tempers it by putting forth an alternative to this and the one thing that cannot be bought or sold, and those are dreams.

Bryan has been inspired by the real life will of a plantation owner that had noted the worth of each of his workers and he has come up with collages around that document as well as others that are similar.

Through the exhibition of paintings and poetry, Bryan is able to put together an imaginative look at each person’s life and interpreting them on the plantation. He’s also able to include the life that their owner likely didn’t know anything about, and put down their dreams as well as the pride that they had in their knowledge that they were at the end of the day worth more than an overseer could deem them to be.

This book is full of epic visualizations that bring this author’s unique vision to life. There are many books out there but this one is one of a kind. Celebrate the life of Ashley Bryan and get some insight into an amazing work by getting your hands on a copy of this book today!

Infinite Hope: A Black Artist’s Journey From World War II to Peace is a 2019 nonfiction book by Ashley Bryan. It was the recipient of a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award, a Bologna Ragazzi Non-Fiction Special Mention Honor Award, and a Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of 2019.

Picture books are usually intended for children but this book is one that you are definitely going to get something out of and perhaps even be moved in the process in this book memoir that is all about the author’s own experiences while he was serving in the segregated army in World War II and how love and the pursuit of art was able to keep him going.

It was May of 1942. Ashley Bryan was eighteen years old when he ended up getting drafted to fight in World War II. Going through the next three years would be very difficult as he would catch a glimpse of the horrors of war while serving as a black soldier in a segregated army.

Ashley also had to deal with the lies that white officers would tell about the black soldiers, which were intended to keep them apart and isolate them from those showing kindness, even when it was each other. He would get treated even more poorly than the Nazi prisoners of war.

Ashley was given the most grim and horrible tasks, such as burying fallen soldiers. He was told that he should get rid of the black soldiers first due to the fact that the media did not want them to be featured in their news reels. All this time, he was waiting and just wanted to go back home, as he watched each white soldier obtain safe passage to go back to the their home in the states while black soldiers were being passed by.

Ashley decided to keep the time that he spent in the war to himself and kept it a secret. At last, it is the time for him to tell his story and he has done so through this book. It tells the story not only of those who were kind enough to support him but also about the bright moments that he experienced that were able to take him through these dark times, and the story of the passion that he felt within himself for art that continually saved him.

This book is full of amazing hand-written letters, diary entries, and artwork that has never before been seen. You will be touched at this amazing autobiography– read for yourself or share with a friend!