“A good children's book can pack a punch in very few pages,” Dianne Johnson-Feelings, a University of South Carolina English professor, says.
She’s holding her newest book, which does just that. At 48 pages, Ida B. Wells Marches for the Vote covers the first 50 years of the life of Ida B. Wells, an African American journalist and leader in the women’s suffrage movement. Last month, the book won the Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, recognizing it as the best nonfiction text for young readers published in 2024.
One reason the honor thrilled Johnson-Feelings was the special place that books for young readers play in literature. In addition to publishing about a dozen titles, Johnson-Feelings has studied and taught about stories for children for years.
“In some ways, children's literature is the most important literature,” Johnson-Feelings says. “The importance of instilling a love of literature in young people cannot be overstated. Also, children's literature reveals, to a great extent, the values of a society.”
I want to cultivate a love of both the written and spoken word. My goal is to help literature come alive for them, to help them see the beauty, the power and the magic.
‒ Dianne Johnson-Feelings
The idea for Ida B. Wells Marches for the Vote began when the U.S. marked the centennial anniversary of the 19th amendment establishing women’s right to vote. Johnson-Feelings, who writes under the pen name Dinah Johnson, says her editor at Christy Ottaviano Books approached her with an idea ― the reverse of the standard practice of authors pitching ideas to editors.
“She asked me to write about Black women and the vote. She didn't say how to approach it," Johnson-Feelings says. She conducted research and talked to historians, ultimately choosing Wells for her subject.
Born in 1862, Wells was about six months old when the Emancipation Proclamation declared her family free from slavery. After the 15th Amendment extended voting rights to Black men, her family learned how tenuous that right was.
“When her father tried to exercise his right to vote in 1870, his boss was so angry that he fired him,” Johnson-Feelings says. “I think that was the root of her activism.”
Johnson-Feelings' book explores how Wells became a prominent activist: Teaching school as a teenager to support her siblings after her parents died, suing a railroad for racial discrimination, starting a newspaper that exposed the brutality of lynchings, and more. The book leads up to the 1913 Women's Suffrage March, where thousands of women gathered in Washington, D.C., to protest for their right to vote.
The book shows how Wells was an example of standing up for one’s beliefs. “I hope that readers will be inspired to exercise their rights as citizens ― above all, to vote,” she says.
Ida B. Wells Marches for the Vote follows other recent books by Johnson-Feelings, including the alphabet book H is for Harlem (Little,Brown/Christy Ottaviano, 2022) and Indigo Dreaming (Harper Collins, 2022), a story of a Gullah girl in South Carolina imagining a girl like her on the coast of Africa.
More books are on the way, too. Johnson-Feelings is looking forward to the release of a book about Kitty Black Perkins, a South Carolina native who was the lead clothing designer for Barbie-maker Mattel for years. Another book, Face to Face, was inspired by her daughter’s kindergarten class more than 20 years ago but is finally scheduled for publication in summer of 2026.
With each book comes more opportunities to pique children’s interest in reading. In addition to teaching university students about writing and literature, Johnson-Feelings visits many elementary schools to read her books and talk with young readers.
“I want to cultivate a love of both the written and spoken word,” she says. “My goal is to help literature come alive for them, to help them see the beauty, the power and the magic."