How Do You Spell Unfair?: Macnolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee: (A Picture Book Biography of an African American Girl in the Era of Segregation

A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book

"This moving picture book portrays a girl who met injustice with dignity and excelled."--Booklist (starred review)

From a multi-award-winning pair comes a deeply affecting portrait of determination against discrimination: the story of young spelling champion MacNolia Cox.

MacNolia Cox was no ordinary kid.
Her idea of fun was reading the dictionary.

In 1936, eighth grader MacNolia Cox became the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee. And with that win, she was asked to compete at the prestigious National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, where she and a girl from New Jersey were the first African Americans invited since its founding. She left her home state a celebrity--right up there with Ohio's own Joe Louis and Jesse Owens--with a military band and a crowd of thousands to see her off at the station. But celebration turned to chill when the train crossed the state line into Maryland, where segregation was the law of the land. Prejudice and discrimination ruled--on the train, in the hotel, and, sadly, at the spelling bee itself. With a brief epilogue recounting MacNolia's further history, How Do You Spell Unfair? is the story of her groundbreaking achievement magnificently told by award-winning creators and frequent picture-book collaborators Carole Boston Weatherford and Frank Morrison.

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
Published: 04/11/2023
Pages: 40
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 11.10h x 8.50w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9781536215540
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.1
Point Value: 0.5
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 520865 / How Do You Spell Unfair? Macnolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee


Award: Coretta Scott King Award - Honor Book


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/23/2023
Booklist 02/01/2023 pg. 49
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2023
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 04/01/2023
Horn Book Magazine 03/01/2023 pg. 103
School Library Journal 06/01/2023 pg. 92
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2023 - Superior,Well Above Average

About the Author
Carole Boston Weatherford, a New York Times best-selling author and poet, was named the 2025 Children's Literature Legacy Award winner. She was also named the 2019 Washington Post Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award winner. Her numerous books for children include the Newbery Honor Book Box: Henry Box Brown Mails Himself to Freedom, illustrated by Michele Wood; the Coretta Scott King Author Award winner Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre, illustrated by Floyd Cooper; the Robert F. Sibert Honor Book Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, illustrated by Ekua Holmes; and the critically acclaimed Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library and Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time, both illustrated by Eric Velasquez. Carole Boston Weatherford lives in Maryland.

Frank Morrison has won numerous awards for his picture book illustration, including two Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards. He previously collaborated with Carole Boston Weatherford on Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Modern Retelling of the Classic Spiritual; R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul; How Sweet the Sound: The Story of Amazing Grace; and The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop. Frank Morrison lives outside Atlanta.