Bea Breaks Barriers!

How Florence Beatrice Price’s Music Triumphed Over Prejudice
Caitlin DeLems ● Illustrated by Tonya Engel
Bea Breaks Barriers!

— 2025 NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Book Winner

— A Bank Street Best Book 2025

— 2025 Arkansas Gem Selection

— 2025 Kansas NEA Reading Circle List

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Educational Resource

“The book celebrates Price’s awe-inspiring determination and talent, offering a compelling look at a woman who broke barriers in classical music. VERDICT This is an engaging introduction to an important, often overlooked figure in Black history and a great choice for children’s music education or Women’s or Black History Month.”

–School Library Journal

“Through snappy sentences and sonorous diction, DeLems imbues this text with musicality, while Engel’s acrylic and oil paintings emphasize movement and light in a biography that zooms in on the figure’s career triumphs.”

–Publishers Weekly

“Readers enticed by this remembrance to seek out [Price’s] music won’t be disappointed.”

–Booklist

“A touchingly narrated and gorgeously illustrated introduction to the life and music of Florence Beatrice Price. What a gift that young readers will be able to learn about this awe-inspiring composer and musician. Classical music has always been diverse and Caitlin DeLems’s compelling portrait of Bea will help make this known to new generations.”

–Dr. Samantha Ege, music historian, pianist, and author of South Side Impresarios: How Race Women Transformed Chicago’s Classical Music Scene

“This wonderful book should be a must-read for everyone, period. The story is beautifully told. The artwork is positively delightful. The entire journey is a true gift. I’m giving this book to my 31-year-old twin daughters, because it’s never too late to be inspired.”

–Thomas Wilkins, artistic advisor, education and community engagement, Boston Symphony, and principal conductor, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra

FLORENCE BEATRICE PRICE was ALWAYS breaking barriers—especially when it came to music! Raised in the Deep South, Bea broke through the barriers of racism and prejudice to master the piano and excel at school. And when opportunity came to study at the New England Conservatory of Music, Bea traveled north, one of only two Black students to attend.

Bea continued to break barriers when she returned to the South to teach and find inspiration for her music, drawing from many different genres. Bea fought hard to have her works played. One of her triumphs was being the first Black American woman composer whose symphony was performed by a major orchestra. But Bea’s music eventually became lost to time. When her musical scores were recently found in an abandoned house, Bea’s music was rediscovered—bursting forth for all to hear.

BEA BREAKS BARRIERS!
How Florence Beatrice Price’s Music Triumphed Over Prejudice
Caitlin DeLems | Illustrated by Tonya Engel
Published by Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers
October 29, 2024 | 48 Pages | 7-10 years | ISBN: 9781635924275

FLORENCE BEATRICE PRICE was ALWAYS breaking barriers—especially when it came to music! Raised in the Deep South, Bea broke through the barriers of racism and prejudice to master the piano and excel at school. And when opportunity came to study at the New England Conservatory of Music, Bea traveled north, one of only two Black students to attend.

Bea continued to break barriers when she returned to the South to teach and find inspiration for her music, drawing from many different genres. Bea fought hard to have her works played. One of her triumphs was being the first Black American woman composer whose symphony was performed by a major orchestra. But Bea’s music eventually became lost to time. When her musical scores were recently found in an abandoned house, Bea’s music was rediscovered—bursting forth for all to hear.

BEA BREAKS BARRIERS!
How Florence Beatrice Price’s Music Triumphed Over Prejudice
Caitlin DeLems | Illustrated by Tonya Engel
Published by Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers
October 29, 2024 | 48 Pages | 7-10 years | ISBN: 9781635924275

Resources

Educational Resource

— 2025 NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Book Winner

— A Bank Street Best Book 2025

— 2025 Arkansas Gem Selection

— 2025 Kansas NEA Reading Circle List

Meet-Caitlin-Author

As far back as I can remember, love of story and books grabbed me.

Meet the author