The format of going through the calendar and noting significant events that occurred on each date seems of little use for reference service, but it can make for interesting browsing and perhaps as a tool for teachers who use the calendar as an entry point for helping young people discover history. For those who value such projects, Carrillo’s guide will be welcome.

As with similar one-volume works, the entries are single paragraphs, sometimes very short, but there is a lead entry for each date to which Carrillo, who is an award-winning journalist, adds interesting scholarly touches. There is an extensive, sourced quotation related to the entry, and then bibliographic information for books and websites is provided for those who want to research further. There are no illustrations.

The entries are varied, mostly a sentence or two about an event—often a birth—although some of the events are deemed more significant than others. The birth of author James Baldwin is the lead entry for August 2, but there is also a long paragraph about William Still using his home for the Underground Railroad.

The book is indexed and includes a twenty-two-page bibliography, but the latter is organized alphabetically by the name of the author. A subject grouping in the bibliography would have been more helpful.

It’s interesting to compare Carrillo’s book to Phil Konstantin’s This Day in North American Indian History: Important Dates in the History of North America’s Native Peoples for Every Calendar Day (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). The latter has far more entries and some impressive appendices, but the entries are shorter and lack the special qualities of Carrillo’s lead entries.

Another comparison worth noting is to Jay Warner’s On This Day in Black Music History (Hal Leonard Corp., 2006), which only covers the past sixty years of its topic and in a breezy style with photographs. Carrillo’s lead entries regarding African American music go back much further and are more substantive.

African American History Day by Day will enhance collections in large libraries, school libraries, and in libraries that specialize in the subject, but it is not essential.