By Carole Boston Weatherford

Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

Ovella's one-room school has a leaky roof, wind whistling through walls, and a sheet that splits the classroom into two. When word spreads around town that Julius Rosenwald-president of Sears, Roebuck and Co., is donating money to help build a brand-new school, Ovella is ecstatic. But in order to have the school, the community must come together to raise a lot of money to help. How on earth will poor people find money to give away? Ovella wonders.

Based on the true story of the Rosenwald schools, which empowered thousands of African American communities to build schools for children in the 1920's and 30's, Dear Mr. Rosenwald is a powerful and uplifting story for anyone who has dreamed of a better life.

Hardcover.

Scholastic Press.

See A Force for Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund through August 16, 2009 at Spertus Museum.