Battle-Lavert, Gwendolyn

Rashaad gets his hair cut by the best barber in town who also introduces him to the joy of learning new words.

After his son helps him learn to write his name, Samuel T. Blow goes to the courthouse in his Southern town to cast his ballot on the first election day ever on which African-Americans were allowed to vote.

An old African-American woman willingly shares all she has and is repaid with a bag that provides for all her needs.

Uncle Booker T., who makes magic by playing his harmonica music from his heart, spends the summer teaching Derrick how to play.

Wezielee, the youngest child in a sharecropper's family, longs to go to school, but during harvest season Papa insists that she stay home and prepare the midday meal while he and the others work in the fields.