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Who Needs a Statue?

2025 Notable Books for a Global Society Award Winner

Did you know the U.S. Capitol building features one hundred statues? Each state selects two prominent figures in their history to be included as statues to represent the state in Washington, D.C. But who is chosen to represent this nation? Why are they chosen? And do they really represent this diverse and multifaceted country? This story examines some of the women and BIPOC figures included at the Capitol--and featured in statues around the country--as well as examines the timely question: who needs a statue?
Eve LaPlante is the author of Marmee & Louisa, American Jezebel, Seized, and Salem Witch Judge, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award. She has degrees from Princeton and Harvard. Who Needs A Statue? is her first book for children. Learn more about Eve LaPlante online.

Margy Burns Knight received the National Education Association’s Author-Illustrator Human & Civil Rights Award for her work with Anne Sibley O’Brien and the Children’s Africana Book Award for Africa Is Not a Country. She is also the author of Talking Walls. She writes a blog, “Discover Your World,” and is a Service Learning Coordinator, an English teacher, and a Peace Corps veteran. Margy lives in Maine.

Alix Delinois is a fine artist and art teacher living in Harlem, New York. He was born in Saint Marc, Haiti and moved to Harlem as a child. His formal training began at fourteen when he was selected to the City College Arts Institute for inner city students. He went on to the High School of Art and Design, the Fashion Institute of Technology and Pratt Institute. In addition to his art training, Delinois holds a Master’s in Art Education from Brooklyn College. Alix’s work displays dynamic color palette and bold compositions to express human emotions and experience. In addition to Who Needs a Statue, he has illustrated multiple children's books including two children's books written by award-winning authors Walter Dean Myers and Edwidge Danticat.
"Expressive illustrations captured with a dynamic color palette portray kids posing next to sculptures, imitating poses, or seemingly engaged in conversation, adding immediacy to the bronze and marble works. Ample back matter provides additional biographical information. This inclusive and fresh approach to communities will pep up local history collections. Starred Review."― Kathleen McBroom, Booklist

"A reportorial work that opens conversations about public representation... LaPlante, making a children’s book debut, and Knight (Africa Is Not a Country) introduce sculptures across the country that immortalize people of color and women... Paintings by Delinois (Greetings, Leroy) show scenes from the subjects’ lives as well as the statues in their setting." ― Publishers Weekly

"Powerful… A gallery of intrepid American groundbreakers, pathfinders, and activists who have earned commemorative statues… Deserving but less prominent luminaries shine more brightly here." ― Kirkus Reviews

"Who Needs a Statue? addresses not just who is worthy of commemoration but why we need statues at all...Who Needs a Statue? is meant to provoke thought and to start discussions and to show that history is never a settled matter, and that what we value today may not be quite the same as what was valued in the past, or what may be valued in the future." ― Carl Rollyson, The New York Sun

"With intriguing information and full-color illustrations, this is a highly-recommended and thought-provoking book for both kids and adults."― Story Monsters Ink