Light in the Darkness

Secretly meeting late at night with other slaves to learn how to read and write, young Rosa heeds her mother's warning to keep her educational pursuits hidden from their punishing master, in a tale illustrated by the artist of the Coretta Scott King Award-winning The Creation.

In college, Lesa Cline-Ransome thought she would be an investigative journalist. After her first child was born, she fell in love with children's books and began writing them at her husband's urging. Her first collaboration with him wasSatchel Paige. Since then she and James Ransome have paired up to create five acclaimed picture books.

James Ransome's illustrations have appeared in nearly fifty books for children, includingThe Creation, a Coretta Scott King Award Book; Uncle Jed's Barbershop, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book;This Is the Dream; and A Pride of African Tales, an NCSS/CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies. His traveling exhibit "Visual Stories" has been touring the United States since 2003. Lesa and James live in Rhinebeck, New York, with their four children.