Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace

by Ashley Bryan (Author) Ashley Bryan (Illustrator)

Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace
Reading Level: 6th − 7th Grade

From celebrated author and illustrator Ashley Bryan comes a deeply moving picture book memoir about serving in the segregated army during World War II, and how love and the pursuit of art sustained him.

In May of 1942, at the age of eighteen, Ashley Bryan was drafted to fight in World War II. For the next three years, he would face the horrors of war as a black soldier in a segregated army.

He endured the terrible lies white officers told about the black soldiers to isolate them from anyone who showed kindness--including each other. He received worse treatment than even Nazi POWs. He was assigned the grimmest, most horrific tasks, like burying fallen soldiers...but was told to remove the black soldiers first because the media didn't want them in their newsreels. And he waited and wanted so desperately to go home, watching every white soldier get safe passage back to the United States before black soldiers were even a thought.

For the next forty years, Ashley would keep his time in the war a secret. But now, he tells his story.

The story of the kind people who supported him.

The story of the bright moments that guided him through the dark.

And the story of his passion for art that would save him time and time again.

Filled with never-before-seen artwork and handwritten letters and diary entries, this illuminating and moving memoir by Newbery Honor-winning illustrator Ashley Bryan is both a lesson in history and a testament to hope.

Select format:
Hardcover
$21.99

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

This stirring visual memoir of WWII is a personal departure for Bryan (Freedom Over Me), an artist best known for his vibrantly illustrated folktales and poetry for children. Drafted during 1943, his third year at Cooper Union, Bryan found the U.S. Army segregated in baffling and infuriating ways. Barred from most meaningful work, soldiers of color were limited to service as custodians and laborers. They sat at the backs of buses while German POWs laughed and joked up front. Despite the injustice, Bryan used every spare minute to grow as an artist, and with his supplies stashed with his gas mask, he drew and drew, even under threat of punishment: "the harder it was to draw, the more important it was to do it!" Bryan's own drawings and paintings, letters to his college friend Eva ("I'm really writing you Eva now to cheer me up"), wartime photographs, and text combine in generous, beautifully designed spreads to produce a multimedia experience on each page. Illuminating, disturbing, and ultimately triumphant, this account of WWII, as seen through the eyes of a soldier of color and an artist of extraordinary power, is a precious resource for readers of all ages. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)

Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up-Part memoir, part social history, part artist's sketchbook, this title offers a rare insight into the treatment of black soldiers serving in World War II. Bryan, a renowned children's book creator and Newbery Honoree and Coretta Scott King Award winner, offers an impressionistic work. After facing discrimination when he applied to college, Bryan earned a scholarship to Cooper Union in New York. Just when he thought he was on his way to achieving his dream of working as an artist, 19-year-old Bryan was drafted into the United States Army in 1943. Although he'd encountered prejudice before, Bryan was surprised by the level of segregation he experienced in the military. Black recruits were immediately separated from white ones; they were assigned dangerous "service" jobs and were not offered the same opportunities to advance. Bryan used art as a way to feed his spirit as he faced perilous assignments, including taking part in the D-Day invasion and sleeping in a foxhole on Omaha Beach for months. Unlike his 2009 autobiography, Words to My Life's Song, this book focuses on one period of Bryan's life and touches upon larger social issues, namely the treatment of black soldiers. VERDICT This unique book, at times both beautiful and sadly horrifying, deserves to be studied and savored.-Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

*"A striking exhibition of a master artist and national treasure."—Shelf Awareness, starred review
Ashley Bryan
Ashley Bryan (1923-2022) grew up to the sound of his mother singing from morning to night, and he shared the joy of song with children. A beloved illustrator, he was named a Newbery Honoree for his picture book, Freedom Over Me. He also received the Coretta Scott King--Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, was a May Hill Arbuthnot lecturer, a Coretta Scott King Award winner, and the recipient of countless other awards and recognitions. His books include Freedom Over Me; Sail Away; Beautiful Blackbird; Beat the Story-Drum, Pum Pum; Let It Shine; Ashley Bryan's Book of Puppets; and What a Wonderful World. He lived in Islesford, one of the Cranberry Isles off the coast of Maine.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781534404908
Lexile Measure
990
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Atheneum Books
Publication date
October 15, 2019
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF007010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Art
JNF007050 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Cultural Heritage
JNF018010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | People & Places | United States - African-American
JNF025210 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | United States/20th Century
JNF025130 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | Military & Wars
Library of Congress categories
Soldiers
United States
Illustrators
World War, 1939-1945
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Biography & Autobiograp
Autobiographies
JUVENILE NONFICTION / History / Military & Wa
JUVENILE NONFICTION / People & Places / Unite
African American soldiers
Bryan, Ashley
African American illustrators
Participation, African-American

Subscribe to our delicious e-newsletter!