Tobe

When UNC Press published Stella Gentry Sharpe’s <i>Tobe</i> in 1939 it was hailed as one of the first children’s books to offer a dignified portrayal of an African American child and his family. Today the power of <i>Tobe</i> lies as much in the questions it raises: Whose story gets told? Who gets to tell it? How do stories shape how we see ourselves and each other?<br/><br/>This volume reproduces the original volume’s text and images places the book in the context of its time and offers thought-provoking ways to read <i>Tobe</i> with fresh eyes. Benjamin Filene explores the book as a story told in words as a world constructed through photographs as a chapter in the history of juvenile literature and (through interviews with the people photographed and their descendants) as a window into community memory. Encouraging close readings and second looks Filene presents a project kit for exploring a historical text yielding surprising insights. This new edition of a children’s classic opens up questions of race voice and power in ways that encourage fruitful conversation and resist easy answers.