A Wreath for Emmett Till: A Printz Award Winner

2006 Coretta Scott King Honor Book

In 1955, people all over the United States knew that Emmett Louis Till was a fourteen-year-old African American boy lynched for supposedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The brutality of his murder, the open-casket funeral, and the acquittal of the men tried for the crime drew wide media attention.

Award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson reminds us of the boy whose fate helped spark the civil rights movement. This martyr’s wreath, woven from a little-known but sophisticated form of poetry, challenges us to speak out against modern-day injustices, to “speak what we see.”

AWARDS

 ALA Notable Children’s Book

 Book Links Lasting Connection

 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award

 Coretta Scott King Honor Book

 Kirkus Reviews Best Books

 Michael L. Printz Award

 Michael L. Printz Honor Book

 Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies (NCSS/CBC)

 Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts (NCTE)

 Publishers Weekly Best Book