I couldn't have written this column when I began reviewing children's books a quarter century ago. That was before Black History Month became a widely recognized event. Back then I was delighted to find any characters of color in a mainstream children's book. Now African-American history books for children come in all lengths, genres and styles.

In Angela Johnson's picture book "Just Like Josh Gibson" (Aladdin Paperbacks, $6.99, ages 4-8), the story connects larger events with personal history. A little girl remembers her grandmother's tall tales about Josh Gibson, "the Babe Ruth of the Negro Leagues" who "once hit a baseball in Pittsburgh so hard that it didn't come down" until a day later when Josh was playing in Philadelphia and "the ball dropped out of the sky and right into a fielder's glove." In the same rhythmic style, Grandmama tells how she "would play all day, with everybody saying, she could do it all, hit, throw, and fly around the bases. 'But too bad she's a girl.' " Connections between race and gender are clear, but the family context and the songlike quality keep it from being a treatise. Beth Peck's energetic pastels accent the vitality of both characters and words.

Margot Theis Raven's "Night Boat to Freedom" (FSG, $16, ages 7-10) tells the story of a young slave boy named Christmas growing up in Kentucky "a boat trip away from Ohio and freedom." His family was sold away and he has been raised by Granny Judith, an older woman who dyes threads and weaves them into fabrics. When Christmas grows old enough, she urges him to risk his life rowing slaves to freedom, each time asking him what color the passenger wore. Raven's prose -- and her use of colors as metaphors for love and freedom -- combine with E.B. Lewis' illustrations -- which often place bits of bright hue against blue-black and monochromatic background -- to show the connection between colors and feelings.

Ellen Levine combines story and biography in "Henry's Freedom Box" (Scholastic, $16.99, ages 5-9). "Henry Brown," she begins, "wasn't sure how old he was. Henry was a slave. And slaves weren't allowed to know their birthdays." Kadir Nelson's poignant paintings show a small boy sitting on a stool, his sad eyes inviting children to understand his plight. Other emotional vignettes let children understand Henry's despair as family members are ripped away from him like leaves torn from a tree. We also share his sense of triumph when he devises a clever escape plan: placing himself in a box mailed North to freedom. The final page shows a smiling Henry climbing from a box on his birthday, "March 30, 1849, his first day of freedom!"

Biographies for older children come in all lengths. In "M.L.K. Journey of a King" (Abrams, $19.95, ages 10 and up) Tonya Bolden tells the story of King's life though his struggle with the concept of agape -- "a higher, harder love: a love that has nothing to do with liking a person, a love worthy of people who do you no good and even do you wrong." Her rhythms and repetitions bring beauty to her biography in the same way King brought richness to his speeches. Bolden chooses powerful pictures to make King's life more real. Celebration suffuses his body as Coretta kisses him on release from a Georgia prison. His robes spread wide as he welcomes an immense crowd on Washington's National Mall in 1957. The biography gives a new vivid picture of a man who has been the focus of so many biographies.

Ann Bausum's "Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement" (National Geographic, $18.95, ages 10 and up) was named a 2007 Sibert Honor Book. Instead of just rehashing key events from the civil rights movement, the author provides a personal perspective by zooming in on these pivotal figures. Lewis was a black student leader of nonviolence; Zwerg was a white Wisconsin native who became a figurehead after a brutal beating in Alabama. Their differing backgrounds, and honest memories of those momentous times combine with poignant photographs to make this a dramatic book. Song lyrics, resource notes, timelines and engaging writing broaden their views and the civil rights events.

Gary Paulsen mixes fiction and fact to give new perspectives on the Old West in "The Legend of Bass Reeves: Being the True and Fictional Account of the Most Famous Marshal in the West" (Random, $15.95, ages 9-12). Paulsen debunks heroic figures like Billy the Kid who actually "shot men in the back, murdered his own friends, and killed a deputy guarding him as the man pled for his life." In contrast, he tells the story of an honorable African-American for whom so little is written that Paulsen composes a story based on the few surviving facts. He uses three sections to describes Reeves' life. In the first we see Reeves growing up, brave and bright, as a slave to a drunken, gambling Texas rancher. In the second, Reeves nearly loses his life saving a young Creek girl from an attacking wolf, then lives with her people for 22 years. Finally we see Reeves as a free man who becomes a marshal at 51 and rides out alone 3,000 times to face killers, rapists, molesters and thieves.

Times certainly have changed since I searched for people of color in children's books. Now there are too many new titles to cover in one column. For those who want more, I'm including a listing of equally wonderful new titles that celebrate African-American history.