Just Jerry: How Drawing Shaped My Life

Jerry Pinkney’s memoir recounts his childhood in a Black Philadelphia neighborhood during the 1950s. Drawing helped Jerry make sense of the world as he grew up in crowded spaces, struggled with dyslexia, and lived during segregation. He was constantly drawing or thinking about it, and a teacher recognized him as the class artist and incorporated art assignments into his schoolwork. While selling papers at a newsstand, he sketched passersby and sold the drawings. A customer, comic-strip artist John Liney, later invited Jerry to observe his studio process.