When he was still a boy, Jacob Lawrence moved with his family from the South to Harlem, like countless African Americans looking for a better life early in the 20th century. He had begun to draw and paint at an early age, and folks always told him he had talent. In Harlem he found a community of like-minded artists who encouraged the talented teenager, in particular, sculptor Augusta Savage, who served as his mentor. Outside Harlem, however, he faced the sorts of obstacles familiar to many African-American men in his era who were trying to gain acceptance in a segregated nation. Through it all, he committed himself and his art to the subjects he knew and loved: his people's past and present. There is a reproduction of a Jacob Lawrence painting on every double-page spread of this attractively designed, accessible biography of the African-American painter. (Ages 9-14)