Big Boy 4014 Roars Back to Life

Lynn: Train-lovers, big and small, will love Marsha Diane Arnold’s new picture book, Big Boy 4014 and the Steam Team: the World’s Largest Steam Engine Roars Back to Life (Sleeping Bear Press, 2025). The Big Boys, 25 huge locomotives, were built between 1941 and 1944. They were used to pull extremely heavy loads through the Wasatch Mountains in Utah and were critical in hauling soldiers and military supplies during WWII. So long at 132 feet, the Big Boys had to be articulated to manage curves on the tracks. After the war, diesel locomotives began to replace steam, and Big Boy 4014 pulled her last load in 1959. Eventually, all but 8 were scrapped. 4014 sat in a museum in Pomona, California, for over 50 years.

But in 2013, something amazing happened. The Union Pacific Railroad wanted to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Golden Spike – the completion of the 2 ends of the first transcontinental railroad. A Big Boy was needed, and the “Steam Team” had only 6 years to get 4014 operational once more!

Since she sat more than a mile from any track, the first huge task was to move her somehow to the tracks. New tracks and a huge loader got 4014 connected to tracks, where two diesel engines then pushed and pulled her all the way to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the Union Pacific Steam shop. The Steam Team went to work!

The story chronicles their efforts and ultimate success in getting 4014 rolling once again. Not only did she make the Celebration, she also started on a series of cross-country tours. allowing people around the country a chance to see her roaring past.

Adam Gustavson’s glorious illustrations take full advantage of the extra-wide pages with dynamic scenes and nearly steal the book. He uses perspective wonderfully, providing extraordinary views from above, below, close up, and far away.

Arnold’s text is perfectly suited for young readers but provides ample information for train fanatics. The sound effects make the book a wonderful read-aloud, as does the large size. A lengthy and fascinating Author’s Note with much more historical information and photos is included.

Let your readers roll with this outstanding book, which will be loved by readers of ALL ages.

Pack Your Bags! Border Crossings Will Have You Booking a Trip!

Lynn: I have never wished to be 20 years younger any more intensely than while reading Border Crossing: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railroad (Harper Design, 2022) by Emma Fick! Every page made me yearn to rush out, buy railroad tickets and set out on this Trans-Siberian journey. Fick ‘s unique and entrancing tale of the train journey she and her husband Helvio took from Beijing to Moscow made me yearn to pack my backpack and replicate this trip. Travel books are hard to write! Too often they turn into a dull list of places seen, food eaten and history learned. Emma turns the genre on its head and this journal-style story is crammed with vividly evocative watercolor illustrations and hand-written observations. I learned an amazing amount while falling in love with the intrepid Emma and Helvio who saw, explored, tasted and enjoyed everything they encountered. Somehow there is a wealth of information, history, geology, and culture shared but it is never boring! I loved the descriptions of the opulent interiors of the Mongolian Gers, etiquette for sharing train couchettes, visits to markets, the views from the train windows, Russian subway stations and the food – especially the food! I’m not sure I’d be as delighted as Emma with “Herring Under a Fur Hat” dish as Emma was but I loved her enthusiasm for sampling so much. I had no idea that the largest fresh water lake in the world is in Siberia or that Russia has ELEVEN time zones! The friendliness of the people was encouraging but there were also real challenges and bureaucratic roadblocks. The charm of the story underplays a bit the actual demanding nature of the conditions but it is also guaranteed to amplify any traveler’s itch residing in readers everywhere. This is a not-to-be missed book and I sincerely hope that Emma will undertake and chronicle another exotic journey! I am ready to travel with her and I think teens will be too,

A “Dam” fine book about the taming of the wild Colorado River

Lynn: The iconic Hoover Dam is familiar to lots of us. Many young readers have visited the dam, driven over it or heard about it in the current news about lowering water levels. It is so familiar that perhaps the astonishing details of its development, construction and impact have been overlooked lately. Happily, Simon Boughton has remedied those issues with his new and fascinating book, The Wild River and the Great Dam: The Construction of Hoover Dam and the Vanishing Colorado River (Little, Brown, 2024).

I’m one of those who has visited the dam, toured its visitor center and driven over it multiple times. I have always marveled at its sheer height and construction but lately my interest has increased. I have a sister who moved to nearby Henderson and on our trips to see them, we have gotten to learn some amazing history of the area at the Clark County Historical Museum, monuments, and state and national parks throughout the region. And what a history it is! The dam played a central role in shaping not only the physical landscape but also the area’s economic, social, and cultural aspects. I could go on and on about some of the amazing things we’ve discovered but I’ll spare you. What I do want to rave about is Boughton’s new book that brings much of this incredible history to life for young people.

He begins the book by reminding readers that the Colorado was indeed a wild and untamed river prior to the dam. It flooded often with disastrous results. It was the height of the Great Depression and the U.S. Government sought to not only control the river, but bring water and power to the agricultural industries of the California valleys and also provide jobs to the millions of jobless Americans. The book details the process that determined the site and chose the construction company that faced the incredible task that lay ahead. Not only did they have to take on an unprecedented engineering project but they had a relatively short timeline with monetary penalties!

I was fascinated with the sheer technical challenges of the project. Some of the advances in technology that made the dam possible were brand new and without them the dam could never have been built. The conditions for the workers were beyond hazardous with life-threatening heat, carbon monoxide levels, appalling work sites, rock falls, dynamite mistakes and more. If workers complained, there were hundreds more ready to take their places. Many workers brought their families to this hostile place where there were no living facilities ready for them. Throughout the book, I marveled that the dam was ever constructed at all, AND that it was finished 2 years early!

The book does an excellent job of describing the history of the time, the lasting impact of the influx of workers on the area, and the deliberate discrimination that occurred against Blacks and Native Peoples who owned the land for millennia. The concluding chapters address the serious water issues that over-use, climate change and seriously low river levels are bringing – a sobering next chapter in the great Colorado’s story,

Excellent backmatter includes a detailed timeline, lists and maps of other dams, and extensive notes. The book contains many archival black-and-white photographs that chronicle the dam’s construction. This is a terrific choice for middle and high school library collections.

Alerting the World to the Holocaust – Sheinkin Introduces Rudi Vrba to Today’s Teens

Lynn: Award winner Steve Sheinkin’s new book for teens, Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe (Roaring Brook, 2023) is once more a true and important piece of history told with a dynamic and immersive style.

In 1942 Rudolf Verba and school mate Gerta Sidonova were ordinary teens, classmates in their Slovakian town, and suddenly aware of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi rule and the rounding up of Jewish people into concentration camps. Their country, Hungary, had resisted so far but was crumbling under Hitler’s demands. Time was running out. And so begins parallel stories of what Rudi and Gerta did, not just to survive, but to fight back in this terrible time.

Rudi was determined to journey across occupied lands to Britain and join the forces fighting Hitler. He was captured almost immediately and sent to Auschwitz. Young and fit, he was put to work in the camp instead of being sent to the gas chambers. While fortunate, this was no easy life. Horribly malnourished, the prisoners did exhausting labor from sunup to sundown in desperate conditions, brutalized by guards. Workers died in appalling numbers and Rudi learned quickly that survival was a matter of determination, luck and paying close and constant attention. Rudi also learned the truth about what was happening at Auschwitz and other camps and he became determined to escape and tell the world.

Gerta and her family also fled, and with forged papers lived an undercover life for a time, always in fear and privation. Eventually her father was arrested and sent away, Gerta and her mother arrested and severely beaten. All during this time, Gerta worked with the underground resistance, determined to defeat the Nazi’s.

Rudi’s story is the more dynamic of the two and the events of his life and escape naturally dominate the book. Amazingly Rudi and his friend Alfred Wetzler managed a skillful and breath-taking escape from Auschwitz, one of the few to ever accomplish that feat. Making their way through occupied country with the Germans searching for them everywhere, Rudi and Fred astonishingly made it to Hungary. Here Rudi met with Jewish underground leaders and told the full story complete with carefully memorized details of what was happening in the camps and the extent of Hitler’s Final Solution. What had been unbelievable rumors to so many became solid truth that the world soon learned. Thanks to this 1944 Vrba-Wetzler Report, the world finally took action and an estimated 200,000 Jews were saved from extermination.

It is a truly compelling story and Sheinkin tells it wonderfully, providing background history of the larger war without slowing the urgency of the main story. Often young readers ask why history is important and here both Rudi Vrba and Sheinkin answer. For years after the war, Vrba gave lectures, interviews and documentary films about the Holocaust, even testifying in a trial of a Canadian Holocaust denier. When asked if the Holocaust could happen again he said, “If it was possible yesterday, it is possible again today unless we are always vigilant.” “That’s why it is so important,” he added, “that no one gets away with racial hatred and lies.” Sheinkin connects this answer unnervingly to our current time. Teens will be awed by this tale of courage and quiet heroism and its lessons will long remain in their minds.

The Mona Lisa Vanishes – the REAL Story for Kids about the Theft of the Lady with the Mysterious Smile

Lynn: Did you know that the Mona Lisa is painted on wood and that it weighs over 200 pounds and that the thief could barely carry it down the stairs? Or that a locked and jammed door knob nearly stymied the thief—until a helpful Louvre plumber came along and opened it? Or that Da Vinci carried the Mona Lisa with him on the back of a mule on his journey over the Alps into France?

All this and much much more await readers of The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity (Random Studio/Sept. 2023) by Nicholas Day. This nonfiction book for middle graders is as fascinating as its enticing cover suggests. Readers will love the flip and breezy style while inhaling a vast amount of history, science, biography and art information along the way. Day does an outstanding job of working so much important historical background into what may seem on the surface to be simply a caper/art theft plot.

The culture of Renaissance Italy, the history of policing, painting techniques, biographies of Da Vinci, Lisa Gherardini (as much as possible), Paris detectives, and even Pablo Picasso are woven into this fascinating tale. Told in thoroughly engaging text, the story is utterly compelling and kids will absorb information on every page. This is a “listen to this!” book, packed with facts to be shared.

Brett Helquist illustrates the book with black and white, slightly comedic drawings that perfectly match the tone of the text and they are as irresistible as the story.

Conspiracy theories and the ongoing belief in the most sensational theories (despite any facts to the contrary) and the issue of celebrity are serious and important threads that run through the entire book. These are timely themes in our world of social media gullibility and instant fame and hopefully ones that will have young readers thinking.

All the stars and more for this must-purchase!

Cindy: This is my first encounter with author Nicholas Day, but any author recommended by Mary Roach is going to get an audience with me. Roach is right, this book is “perfect” for its audience and funny to boot. I learned so much about Leonardo da Vinci, including the fact that he and I are kindred spirits—we much prefer learning something new and starting the adventure of a new project rather than finishing said projects! I don’t have his talent, but I resemble his method. Day handles the switches between the heist’s time period and Leonardo’s with aplomb and teens will be able to follow along easily. Who doesn’t love a heist caper and learning about the development of criminal ID from body measurements to fingerprints was fascinating. Lynn is so right about the “listen to this” moments in the book. I was reading it on a car trip and my husband heard half of the book! If I were an art teacher. Or a history teacher. Or a science teacher….I’d be reading this aloud to my students.

One Last Shot – Introducing Gerda Taro to YA Readers

Lynn: One important tenet of reviewing books is that you review the book you have not the book you WISH you had. I’m running aground a bit on staying with that in my consideration of Kip Wilson’s new verse novel, One Last Shot: The Story of Wartime Photographer Gerda Taro (Harper/Versify, 2023).

Wilson introduces readers to a young Gerta Pohorylle who has immigrated with her Jewish family to Germany. Gerta was a bright student who learned early to live two very separate lives, downplaying her Jewish faith, but keenly aware of a feeling of being “other.” Gerta was drawn early to oppose the growing repression of the fascism coming to power in the 1930s and worked actively for workers’ rights. After being arrested and held for 3 weeks by the Gestapo, Gerta and her family made the decision for her to leave Stuttgart and move to Paris. Struggling to survive, Gerta met and connected with other leftist young people, growing more and more involved with working against fascist regimes. It is during this time that she met and fell in love with Andre Friedmann. Andre sparked her passion for photography and the power of photojournalism and she practiced intensely with any camera she could borrow. It was during this period they adopted the names Gerda Taro and Robert Capa.

Wilson uses free verse to tell Taro’s story and the verse is wonderfully written. Vivid and evocative, it is written in present tense and provides snapshots of time, Gerda’s feelings, and reactions to the intensity of the events unfolding around her. Wilson does an excellent job of presenting Taro as a fierce, independent, and exuberant spirit determined to make her own way. She also provides the extremely complicated historical background of the time. Is there ANY period in history more convoluted than the Spanish Civil War??? I think Wilson gives teens an excellent grasp of the major issues of the period without slowing the pace of the narrative. So—I see real value in this book in that I think Wilson introduces an extraordinary talent to another generation and I hope they will be motivated to seek more information.

And here is where I veer from the path of reviewing. Wilson discusses in the back matter that while “sticking to the basic facts she has fictionalized Gerda’s thoughts, feelings, interactions, and correspondences.” For me, this emphasizes a perception of her spirit and the result is that so much is left unexplored or only briefly mentioned and those things are large in importance. Taro is pivotal in the development of modern photojournalism, she was a major talent in news photography and many of the philosophical decisions she and Capa made shape our view of photojournalism today. I would have liked to see this explored much more. And there is something missing when a book about a photographer contains no photographs!

I would like to suggest pairing this verse novel with the brilliantly written and documented book by Mark Aronson and Marina Buhos, Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism (Henry Holt, 2017). Suggest this book to students wanting a deeper look at Gerda Taro, and some of her revolutionary photographs.

True Courage and a New Leica – YA Nonfiction – Close-up On War

Lynn: Did you ever wonder where the term “snapshot” comes from? Mary Cronk Farrell includes this tidbit (from the sound made as a picture was taken and the film advanced) in her outstanding new book, Close-Up on War: the Story of Pioneering Photojournalist Catherine Leroy in Vietnam (Abrams/Amulet, 2022). This fascinating book is also a snapshot – a captured picture of a pivotal time and the determined woman who recorded it on film for the world to see.

French woman Catherine Leroy was just 21 years old when she arrived in Vietnam in early 1966. She spoke limited English, carried a new Leica camera she was still learning to use, and she was determined to make her way in what was then a man’s world of photojournalism. Barely 5 feet tall, slim and blonde, Catherine’s appearance belied her fierce ambition, persistence, initiative, and courage.

Farrell begins the book with an excellent and succinct overview of the history of Vietnam and the decades of conflict that had beset the area giving young readers a necessary background for a war that, while still painfully present for many of us, is ancient history to teens. Into this chaotic stew, Catherine Leroy arrived and the book then follows her from her early months struggling to win respect, get jobs, and make her way to the action. Farrell uses a wealth of primary sources including Catherine’s own letters to her mother, accounts from people who knew and worked with her, her articles, and a treasure trove of photographs.

Catherine was extremely humble and always gave credit to others but through these many sources, Farrell creates a sharp image of a remarkable woman, her struggles, obstacles, battle experiences, and the price she paid for her achievements. In her groundbreaking work, Catherine Leroy put an up-close and personal face on the distant war in Vietnam. She brilliantly caught the suffering and the human impact in her photography and brought it into the living rooms of America. Her work helped to align public understanding with the reality of that horrible war.

Wonderfully written and documented, Farrell has brought this important story to today’s young readers in an account that feels as if it is happening before our eyes. The included back matter is excellent. It includes an Author’s Note, lengthy glossary, timeline, and source notes. There is also a remarkably clear explanation titled “How a Camera Worked in 1960s” that will be eye-opening to teens accustomed to digital photography.

There are so many extraordinary photographs included in the book. Some are of Leroy, many are taken by her, and others are taken by others at the time. Abrams/Amulet has done an excellent job of book design and reproduction and this collection adds extraordinary interest and value to the book.

I am long-time admirer of Catherine Leroy and her work and of photography and photojournalism in general. For teens interested in these subjects, or in history or women’s history this is highly recommended. It will be an excellent resource for high school and college history classes as well.

Fallout – Sheinkin’s Terrifying Look for Teens at How Close the World Came to Destruction

Lynn: Where were you in October 1962? I know a whole lot of you weren’t even on this planet yet but how much do you know about how close we came to annihilating this place we call home? I was a young teen at the time, going to junior high in Belmont, MA and I remember those days quite well. I think I especially remember them because I realized my father was grimly worried, even scared. We watched the reports on the news and when I asked my dad if there would be a war, all he would do was shrug. I remember too, the sigh of relief when Russia “blinked” but I also remember an overwhelming sense of helplessness at these events that could wipe out the world and there was nothing I could do.

That is a long way of saying that if you read any historical nonfiction book this year, make sure it is Steve Sheinkin’s Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown. (Roaring Brook, 2021). Yes, it was 1962 but there are parallels here that need to be understood by all of us who inhabit this same fragile wanderer in space.

Sheinkin is a master of narrative nonfiction, of careful research, and is a compelling storyteller. He takes an event for which we know the trajectory and manages to keep readers hanging on by a thread as his chronicle unfolds. And in this book, he relates a tale as complex, convoluted, and shrouded in secrecy as anything in history. It is a tale of personal courage, thoughtful reflections, and a willingness to resist the pressures of other dominant opinions. It is equally a tale of luck, bungling, and terrible timing. I paused with awful frequency to shake my head in wonder and horror at the incredible chain of events that we call the Cuban Missile Crisis.

How close did we come to nuclear war? Closer than any of us outside of a very few people knew. There are true heroes in this story as well as reckless fools and power hungry zealots. This is a marvel of nonfiction writing. Succinct, wonderfully researched and cited, and thoughtfully recounted. It is also has the terrible fascination of watching a train wreck. If you were around then or are just now encountering the story, this book will hold you captive and maybe haunt your dreams with what could have been. As Robert McNamara, then Secretary of Defense, said, “At the end we lucked out. It was luck that prevented nuclear war.” See if you agree.

Cindy: Besides being stellar works of nonfiction, Steve Sheinkin’s books are a booktalker’s dream. Here’s the opening paragraph of the prologue, titled: “The Paperboy.”

“The kid hiked up the dark stairwell to the sixth floor, hoping only for a decent tip, maybe fifteen cents. Busting up a Russian spy ring was an unexpected bonus.”

Read that sentence to your students and stand back, hoping you’ve purchased a lot of copies! One of the nickels the paperboy received was a hollow coin that popped open after falling on the stairs and the boy discovered a tiny piece of film inside. Hmmmm….and away we go!

Bomb by Steve Sheinkin I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, and I was holding my breath in places (when I wasn’t gasping) even though I knew the outcome. What I didn’t know was many of the details and stories behind the Cold War build-up, the dangerous rescue efforts after the Berlin Wall went up, and the last hour unlucky mishaps during the Cuban Missile Crisis, any one of which could have could have been more than disastrous, but for some added good luck. Obviously, this is a natural sell to teen readers who were fascinated by Sheinkin’s earlier YA book, Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, but adults will want to read this as well.

Mexique: A Refugee Story from the Spanish Civil War

Cindy: When my middle school students and I read Alan Gratz’s novel, Refugee (Scholastic, 2017) we were introduced to the St. Louis, a ship of 900 Jewish refugees headed to Cuba in 1939. They did not know that story, and I did not know that another ship, the Mexique, left France two years earlier carrying 456 children, without their parents, for what was hoped to be a temporary exile from the dangers of the Spanish Civil War. Mexique: A Refugee Story From the Spanish Civil War (Eerdmans, 2020) by María José Ferrada is one of the most moving picture books I’ve read and it is a story for adults and teens as well as children. The “Children of Morelia” were bound for Mexico, for what they were told would be the length of a summer holiday, but history would tell another story. Older children on the ship comforted the younger ones during the long, scary voyage, while others played “war” on the ship’s deck. Their holiday would be anything but, and most of them would never see their parents or their country again. Spain, under Francisco Franco’s rule for the next four decades, remained dangerous for those people associated with the Spanish Republic he had defeated. Ferrada’s writing is poetic, and the illustrations haunting, based as they are on historical photographs from the Mexique. Reading this book the week that we learned that the parents of 545 children cannot be located after being separated by our government, is heartbreaking. Mexico took in these Spanish child refugees 83 years ago and when it was not safe to return them to their parents, they gave them homes and kept them safe. We are housing Mexico’s children (and children from other Latin and South American countries) in dog kennels in 2020. This story should be required reading for the adults “leading” our country today.

Lynn: Like Cindy, I was unaware of this chapter in history and grateful once again for the power of picture books. For her illustrations here, Ana Penyas worked from period photographs using a dark palette with an occasional and dramatic highlight of red. The result is a grim and foreboding mood foretelling the children’s future without their families. One of the most jarring two-page spreads juxtaposes scenes of the war in Spain and the children “playing war” on board the ship. That one is haunting my dreams and will for days to come.

Ferrada includes an Afterword which provides information about the fates of the young passengers destined to remain in Mexico far longer than anyone had imagined. This powerful book would be an excellent choice to use in a secondary classroom studying this period in history.

Stories That Need to Be Told – Picture Books Take Up the Challenge

Lynn and Cindy: One of the things we love about picture books is that authors and illustrators often take up the challenge of bringing a little known story to young readers. It is so important to keep our history and our stories alive! As reviewers, we also love that we get the benefit of these stories too. Here are two new picture books that do this important work—and do it wonderfully.

Lynn: Decades before Rosa Park refused to sit in the back of a bus, another brave determined woman demanded her rights on a streetcar in New York. Beth Anderson tells her inspiring story in Lizzie Demands a Seat: Elizabeth Jennings Fights for Streetcar Rights (Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek, 2020). It was 1854 in New York City and Elizabeth Jenkins, a teacher and organist from a wealthy family, was on her way to church. When the horse-drawn streetcar arrived it had empty seats and Lizzie and her friend hurried to board. But the conductor would not allow them on, telling them to wait for the car for “her people.” Lizzie had no intention of waiting. There was no law keeping anyone of color from riding the streetcars although there was a custom of not riding if a white passenger objected. When no one on board objected, Lizzie persisted and the conductor physically threw them from the car. Lizzie, whose family were leaders in their community and well connected, took the Third Avenue Streetcar company to court where, with her attorney Chester A. Arthur, she won her case, paving the way for people of color to fight for their rights to ride then and in the future.

The text is wonderful, lively, and compelling and I’m truly sorry it has taken me so long to learn about Elizabeth Jennings. The author notes that the “dialogue closely follows her account as it appeared in the newspapers of the time,” and this gives the story a very immediate and personal feel that will appeal to kids. The back matter is outstanding too with fascinating additional historical material on Elizabeth Jennings and her case in an Author’s Note, information on the research. a bibliography, a list of further readings, and a Note from the Illustrator.

And speaking of illustrators! I am a big admirer of E.B. Lewis’s illustrations and here they add wonderfully to the overall impact of the story. Lewis, who usually uses a muted palette, chose intense colors and the result is a wonderful sense of the drama of the event. In an artist’s note, Lewis says, “I wanted to go all out in the way of color—to stretch my own internal prism.” He even had to purchase colors he had never used before. I’m so glad he did as the result is beautiful and effective!

Once again a picture book has introduced me to a memorable and important historical person that I had never heard of before. I’m beginning to think that we should give up textbooks and flood our classrooms with shelves of outstanding nonfiction picture books!

Cindy: Another African American girl who took an important seat is featured in A Ride to Remember (Abrams, 2020) by Sharon Langley and Amy Nathan. Occasional peaceful protests at the Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Baltimore, Maryland were held for a decade asking for the right for people of color to visit the park. Nothing changed. But after new segregation laws were passed in Baltimore in 1962, a big protest was planned at the park for Independence Day, July 4, 1963. Arrests were made but the protest continued a few days later. When pressure mounted as the publicity surrounding the protests spread, change finally occurred and the park officials corrected their policy. On August 28, 1963, the park was opened to everyone. Sharon Langley’s parents bought tickets and they were the first family of color to walk through the gates. Sharon was photographed riding a horse on the carousel, a photo that ended up in the newspapers the next day. The carousel is now turning its circles on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and Sharon Langley’s name is on a horse’s saddle and horseshoe.

Co-author Amy Nathan wrote a book for teens and adults Round and Round Together: Taking a Merry-Go-Round Ride into the Civil Rights Movement that also includes the other historic event of 8-28-63, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington. Award-winning illustrator Floyd Cooper’ artwork helps tell this important story in moving paintings.