I really loved this book. I learned so much about people who paved the way for others to achieve greatness too. I also learned about new people and learned more about others I heard of. I highly recommend this book because you will not be disappointed.

I'm so thankful that I was approved for this book. I felt it would be so important to educate my son and others on these special people. He asked a lot of questions and was so intrigued. Thanks so much for sharing. I will be recommending this to others!

This book belongs in every classroom. It has wonderful information and illustrations/art for 30 different important black trailblazers in American history. I have already purchased this for several gifts and highly recommend it.

Black Trailblazers: 30 Courageous Visionaries Who Broke Boundaries, Made a Difference, and Paved the Way is a collection of short illustrated biographies of famous men and women of color in a wide variety of fields written by Bijan Bayne. Released 27th Sept 2022 by Andrews McMeel, it's 128 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is an accessible and well written anthology of short bios for 30 innovators and icons from a broad section of media, entertainment, science/medicine, philosophy, politics, sports, aviation, mathematics, and more. These famous men and women excelled and succeeded despite racism and phenomenal hindrances.

Each of the biographies is accompanied by one or more portraits and illustrations. The art is rendered by Joelle Avelino. The art is simple, but effective and suits the direct nature of the book very well. The themes of racism and segregation are written in age-appropriate language, but also honestly.

Five stars. This would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, home use, and gift giving. Lexile 1040, intended for readers aged circa 10-15 years.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This short work is an exploration of Black trailblazers who made meaningful contributions throughout American history. Some of them are well known, others aren’t, which made this read interesting and informative.

I really enjoyed how the work is set up with a full illustration of the person, followed by a short biography that includes smaller illustrations and a quote or two, as well as a couple highlighted facts. This made the biographies accessible and easy to read. I highly recommend this work be added to schools, especially homeschools! I learned much from it, loved the art style, and think it’s an excellent way to learn.

My thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for allowing me to read and review this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Black Trailblazers by Bijan Bayne highlights 30 visionaries with mini-biographies.  From activists, innovators, and thinkers.  This children's book is perfect for children.
The illustrations by Joelle Avelino are beautiful and appeal to young children.  Using vibrant colors it showcases special details of each visionary's life.  The quotes from each person were also a favorite part added to the book.

Bijan Bayne makes this book stand out because although we find the mini-biographies of some well-known Black figures from history.  Like Nina Simone, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sojourner Truth.  Black Trailblazers also bring attention to other Black figures, who are known but are not talked about a lot in children's books.  Visionaries like James Baldwin, Dick Gregory, and Thurgood Marshall to name a few.  It also highlights more recent visionaries like Misty Copeland, Kamala Harris, and Barack Obama.  These are just a few of the amazing people you can read about in this book.

What a wonderful book to teach us about African Americans who made worthy contributions to our history. I love the assortment of people within the book, both past and present. A great book to introduce children to these aspiring people.

This is the type of book I love having on hand. Various examples of amazing people changing the world due to their inner drive to succeed.

I have seen many similar books, but I notice for reasons I cannot explain they tend to use more athletes, singers and other celebrities throughout time. All those things are well and good (I'm useless at all of the above), but they didn't become the first self made woman millionaire or devolope blood banks in WW1

Black Trailblazers is a fascinating book that introduced young readers to some of the Black figures in history that made a difference. Coupled with bright illustrations, Black Trailblazers methodically details some of the life events of people like Soujourner Truth, W.E.B. DuBois, Shirley Chisholm, James Baldwin and Mahalia Jackson.

The Black figures included in Black Trailblazers range from singers, scientists, writers, activists, artists, athletes and more. Each figure has a short biography that is filled with interesting tidbits, quotes and dates. Some sections include illustrations that add to the information being discussed, for example, the chapter on James Baldwin has an illustration of novels, with the title of Baldwin's books on the spines.

Some figures in Black Trailblazers aren't just historical figures, people that are still alive and active in their communities are included. People like Quincy Jones who still mentors Black artists and Diane Nash who is still an activist in her own right. Oprah Winfrey and Stevie Wonder get their own biographies told in addition to Barack Obama.

Black Trailblazers is a fun book marketed toward those children who want to learn more about Black historical figures in a fun illustrated way!

How many of the people on this book’s cover can you or a young reader that you know identify? Whatever your answer, take a look inside this title to find thirty biographies filled with inspiration. Just some of those featured in this title are Sojourner Truth, Mahalia Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Oprah Winfrey Barack Obama and Kamala Harris. There were other people whose lives I learned about for the first time, for example, Ella Baker and Bessie Coleman.

Each entry features bold and appealing graphics. There is also a biography for each person.

This book will remind children that so much is possible and that, despite obstacles, there are many who have achieved great things.

This book deserves a spot in both home and school libraries. It is a wonderful and invitingly written resource.

Many thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for this title. All opinions are my own.

An absolutely gorgeous collection of bit-sized biographies featuring a wide assortment of Black pioneers who broke new grounds and changed history. I found <i>Black Trailblazers</i> to be eye-opening and profoundly delightful from the diverse career paths and manners of activism, to the fair representation of genders, and then down to the adorable illustrations and visually attractive page design. I highly recommend to young and older readers alike.

I really loved this and I can’t wait to share it with my son. He will learn so much from the book We need more books like this

Black Trailblazers is a fantastic book that can be read by not only children but anyone who would like to learn about important Black historical figures. I knew of most of them but not necessarily their stories and the book made it interesting and engaging to learn. Each person has a mini bio that includes pretty illustrations. There is a lot of text and might be tough for younger kids but could be read together instead! It's a great resource for information to help with research projects.
Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for an advanced copy of this book.

A beautiful book filled with such inspirational and courageous people who aren’t always taught about in schools! Black history IS our history and I would love to see this book used as a tool in every classroom in America!

A pretty good book. I might buy the book when it publishes. The illustrations were cute.

I liked both the book and the illustrations.

A MUST READ not only for kids but for parents, teachers, EVERYONE! This is why black history is so important and needs to be taught in schools. What a great book for parents AND teachers to use to teach their kids. Loved seeing all the phenomenal figures of Black history from Madam CJ Walker to Shirley Chisholm to Nina Simone.

This picture book biography tells the stories of several black role models who have made history in their leadership roles. Each person chosen to be a part of this book has a short section with: a full page, colourful portrait, words that describe them, basic biographical information, smaller pictures related to their story, and quotes or details about the impacts they made. The pictures are detailed and colourful and add to comprehension of the story. The font is a good size, is simple and easy to read and is mainly black text on white or light coloured backgrounds. Some sections have colourful monotone backgrounds with black or white font as well, but these are smaller and are usually intentional in order to point out or differentiate between parts of text. The people chosen for the book have a range of backgrounds and have made a variety of contributions to history in their fields and include a wide range of generations and time periods. This is great for readers who may be looking for a role model in a specific field or from a specific time in history. I think this book is very well written and would be great for middle grade classrooms. As a grade 3 teacher I do think there is a little too much text and the vocabulary is a little high for my students, though the content would be fine for adults to read with them. I would recommend this book to parents and teachers of children in the age 8-14 range, with the target grade levels being around 5-8. I think this book would be a perfect source of information for research projects. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

A much needed publication! This book reminds me a lot about the Rebel Girls series and I truly appreciate the inclusion of the other genders in this compilation.

I love such books which accurately gives the basic description of these amazing personalities. Got to learn a lot about some familiar as well as some unfamiliar visionaries.

The entire book is colourful inside out. I wish the colours used were a little easy to the eyes.

It's uplifting. It's inspirational. Just go for it.

Thank you, Andrews McMeel Publishing, for the advance review copy.