Midnight Teacher: Lilly Ann Granderson and Her Secret School

This historical-fiction picture book tells of Lilly Ann Granderson, an enslaved African American woman in Petersburg, Virginia. After learning to read and write in secret from her enslaver’s children, she sought out more reading material, including newspapers. As her skills grew, Lilly Ann began a school to pass what she had learned to other people, despite the danger involved in doing so during slavery.