About this item
John Roy Lynch spent most of his childhood as a slave in Mississippi, but all of that changed with the Emancipation Proclamation. Suddenly people like John Roy could have paying jobs and attend school. While many people in the South were unhappy with the social change, John Roy thrived in the new era. He was appointed to serve as justice of the peace and was eventually elected into the United States Congress.This biography, with its informative backmatter and splendid illustrations, gives readers an in-depth look at the Reconstruction period through the life of one of the fi rst African-American congressmen.Watch the book trailer here:
About the Author
I'm the author of picture books including bestseller SHARK VS. TRAIN, Sibert Honor-winning THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS, and WHOOSH! LONNIE JOHNSON'S SUPER-SOAKING STREAM OF INVENTIONS, which has been included on 21 state reading lists. Other well-known titles of mine include HOW TO MAKE A BOOK (ABOUT MY DOG) , FIRE TRUCK VS. DRAGON, DAZZLE SHIPS, THE AMAZING AGE OF JOHN ROY LYNCH, and WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A VOICE LIKE THAT?My newest books include GLITTER EVERYWHERE! WHERE IT CAME FROM, WHERE IT'S FOUND & WHERE IT'S GOING (illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat; 2023) and MOVING FORWARD: FROM SPACE-AGE RIDES TO CIVIL RIGHTS SIT-INS WITH AIRMAN ALTON YATES (illustrated by Steffi Walthall; a School Library Journal Best Book of 2022) .I visit schools by the score and also love speaking to professional gatherings of librarians, educators, and fellow writers. I'm married to middle-grade/YA novelist Jennifer Ziegler (WORSER, HOW NOT TO BE POPULAR) . Jennifer and I have four adult children and one dog, and we co-host the children's literature video series "This One's Dedicated to ... " in which we talk with other authors and illustrators about the dedications they've written for their books. Jennifer and I live in Austin, where I serve as a council member of the Texas Institute of Letters, a 501(c) (3) non-profit honor society founded in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and to recognize distinctive literary achievement. For more information about me, please visit or
