A Celebration of Books,
Writers & LIterary Excellence

Save the Date


Gaithersburg
Book Festival

May 17, 2025

10am – 6pm

Bohrer Park


Cheryl Willis Hudson

Latest Title: When I Hear Spirituals
When I Hear Spirituals
When I Hear Spirituals by Cheryl Willis Hudson

Your spirit will soar! A girl connects with heritage, history, and a higher power through the lyrics of twelve beloved spirituals and four seminal events in African American history.

A beautiful keepsake to be shared by multiple generations.

When I hear spirituals 
Sometimes
A big, full feeling
Grows in my chest . . .

Her heart pounds, she gets a lump in her throat, and tears flow down her cheeks. She wants to clap her hands and stomp her feet. There is healing, tenderness, strength, pride, and above all, hope.

The author of the classic picture book Bright Eyes, Brown Skin, Cheryl Willis Hudson, has woven together lyrics of twelve timeless, Black spirituals with a moving exploration of how music holds memories, emotions, and empowerment.

Songs include “Go down, Moses,” “Nobody Knows the Troubles I See,” “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” “Rock-a-My Soul,” “Get on Board, Little Children,” and more.  

Evocative illustrations by award-winning artist London Ladd depict important people and places in Black history and culture: Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr.,  the Great Migration, and the Enslaved People’s Uprising of 1811. 

Journey through Black history and music in this layered picture book.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

About Cheryl Willis Hudson

Cheryl Willis Hudson is an author, editor, publisher and respected member of the children’s book community. She is co-founder, with her husband Wade, of Just Us Books, Inc., an independent publishing company that focuses on Black interest books for young people, as well as co-author of “Bright Eyes, Brown Skin,” a groundbreaking picture book. Cheryl is the author of “When I Hear Spirituals,: illustrated by London Ladd and published by Holiday House. Outside of her full-time immersion in children’s books, Cheryl enjoys creating handmade story quilts and singing spirituals a cappella.

Facebook

Instagram: @author_cheryl_willis_hudson