Dave the Potter by Laban Carrick Hill illustrated by Bryan Collier

2010/40 pgs

About the Book: A picture book biography of a a slave named Dave who has a talent for pottery and etches poems into his pots.

Sarah Teenlibrarian Says: Looking at the pictures in Dave the Potter, it's easy to see why this book ended up on the Caldecott list! The illustrations are beautiful, detailed and bring Dave to life.

As far as picture book biographies go, the text is written in a lyrical poetic format, which echoes to poems Dave etched into his pots. We don't know much about Dave and a lot of what we do know is pieced together from the words he wrote. But he made a lasting impression and his talent deserves to be noticed. Dave the Potter gives us a story of a man many children may never have learned about otherwise and I think they should hear Dave's story. Messages of being not giving up and using your talents come across in a subtle way. The thing I liked most about the book that this isn't a story about Dave, a man who was a slave, but instead a story of Dave, a man who was a talented potter and poet.