The Butler Children’s Literature Center is excited to announce a new Wednesday feature of our Effie Lee Morris Collection of African American Books. The original literature collection was bequeathed to us in 2012 by librarian and children’s services advocate Effie Lee Morris, and the Butler Center has continued to grow it each year.

Comprised of both contemporary and historical works, the Morris collection includes a variety of genres published over the course of the last century, including works from award-winning authors such as Walter Dean Myers’ Hoops (Delacorte Press, 1981) as well as newer standout authors like Kacen Callender’s King and the Dragonflies (Scholastic Press, 2020). The collection also contains older and possibly lesser-known titles like John Shearer’s I Wish I Had an Afro (Cowles Book Company, 1970) and works from acclaimed illustrators like Brian Pinkney and Faith Ringgold. As a non-circulating collection, the titles are available for public use in the Butler Children’s Literature Center, Rebecca Crown Library Room 214.

Read and learn more about Effie Lee Morris here, including a digital archive with interviews and their full transcripts.