Extraordinary Magic

Praise for Extraordinary Magic:
A Bank Street College Best Book of the Year

* "Depicting the genesis of the imaginative world of a groundbreaking writer for children, this is the first picture book biography about Virginia Hamilton . . . Purchase this lovely picture book . . . to encourage future creators. With every page, readers will be inspired to follow their own magic."—School Library Journal, starred review

"Poems and pictures trace Virginia Hamilton’s family history, childhood, and growth into a writer…. In poem after poem—all in delicate, unrhymed verse—Crews carefully gives budding writers a role model…. Both a tribute to Hamilton’s genius and an invitation to those yet to come."—Kirkus

"Before she was an award–winning author of children’s books, Virginia Hamilton (1934–2002)  learned the art of storytelling from her close-knit family. Crews’s free-verse poems recount Hamilton’s Ohio upbringing learning from her father about Black luminaries, and wondering how she might shine like the starry individuals in her beloved family…. Digitally rendered, shape-based illustrations attend slice-of-life lines to emphasize Hamilton’s experiences walking through the world as a storyteller whose 'most extravagant trips/ were in her mind.'"—Publishers Weekly