No Ordinary Sound: A Classic Featuring Melody (Beforever: Melody Classic)

I really liked this- while Melody also has a loving family and happy life like Maryellen, there's realistic historical strife, like facing discrimination in a department store or being shocked to her core by the bombing of a church in Birmingham. A grounded and necessary addition to the American Girl historical canon (though, as mentioned on twitter, I do think it's limiting to confine Black historical characters to civil war slavery and the civil rights movement- BIPOC have existed in all eras and it's not like they pop out of the ground for those two topics specifically?)

But yeah- as a non-black person of color who grew up in a predominantly white environment, I didn't learn about Lift Every Voice and Sing as the "Black national show more anthem" until the Beychella performance in 2018, so I'm happy to see its inclusion here. Advisory board, and an #ownvoices author were good decisions here, which really makes me question why Kirby Larson was picked for authoring the Nanea books (sure, she writes about WWII dogs but like... eeeeh). show less

Back pages “Inside Melody’s World” has more information on the time period. American Girl book.