More Than Anything Else by Marie Bradby

This inspiring, fictionalized story, based on the early life of Booker T. Washington, provides experiences in figurative language, cause and effect, as well as distingusing between fact and opinion in the discussions and conversations during and after the read aloud session. The author has a website to check out. Filled with beautiful illustrations, interpretation of things like the meaning of holding on to the frog and where the blue book came from add intrique to the story. Check out the illustrator, Chris Soentpiet's link. Connections to other texts are many.