Ashley Bryan: Beautiful Blackbird

Ashley Bryan adapted a folktale from Zambia for Beautiful Blackbird, his first foray into cut-paper collage, and he was awarded the prestigious Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for his efforts. Bryan recalls, “I grew up hearing so many stories of black being the lousy color. Well, when I came upon that tale from Zambia in southeastern Africa, I said, ‘Oh, a story that celebrates black. I’m going to retell that.’ So that became my very first book of African folktales in full color collage. I love the spirit of the story because that blackbird is the character that all the birds look up to and admire.”