February is Black History Month -- the perfect time to read these new children's books about civil-rights activists as well as the winners of this year's Coretta Scott King Awards:

• They didn't need a menu. Their order was simple: "a doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side." But, as author Andrea Davis Pinkney details in "Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down" (Little, Brown, $16.99), no waitress at the Greensboro, N.C., Woolworth's would serve the four young black men who sat at the store's lunch counter on Feb. 1, 1960. Inspired by the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the four college students had decided to use nonviolent means to try to end the "whites only" rule at the lunch counter. Their sit-in inspired others and soon there were protests in numerous Southern cities -- not just against segregated lunch counters, but also against segregated libraries, buses, parks and pools.

Ms. Pinkney tells her compelling story in staccato sentences infused with a recipe motif:

"This was the law's recipe for segregation.

Its instructions were easy to follow:

Do not combine white people with black people.

Segregation was a bitter mix. ...

Those kids had a recipe, too.

A new brew called integration.

It was just as simple:

Combine black with white

To make sweet justice."

This device works well as it keeps the narrative of "Sit-In" flowing even as Ms. Pinkney takes readers through several years of civil-rights history, up to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The book concludes with a compact "civil-rights timeline" and a two-page wrap-up of activism inspired by the sit-ins.

Ms. Pinkney's story is perfectly matched by the watercolor-and-ink illustrations created by her husband, Brian Pinkney. The light palette used by Brian Pinkney highlights the hope of the protesters, while his sweeping two-page illustrations emphasize their energy in the face of seemingly impossible odds. (Ages 6-10.)

• Author Larry Dane Brimner came up with the idea for his book "Birmingham Sunday" (Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills Press, $17.95) after reading that librarians were searching for biographies of the four young black girls killed in the Sept. 15, 1963, Alabama church bombing. In most books about the bombing, the four were usually referred to simply as the "four little girls" or "the four who were killed."

In "Birmingham Sunday," Mr. Brimner helps readers see the four girls as four individuals whose lives were cut short by a violent blast of dynamite planted by men who virulently opposed equality for blacks. But Mr. Brimner's text, presented in an easy-to-follow, picture-book-type format, delves even deeper, revealing that two other African-American children also died that day in separate incidents in Birmingham.

Mr. Brimner also shows the impact of two strong-willed leaders -- white segregationist Eugene "Bull" Connor, the powerful Birmingham police commissioner, and the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, who believed that achieving social justice was part of his job as a minister to Birmingham's black population. Lots of black-and-white photographs add further urgency and interest to Mr. Brimner's story. Although the book is aimed at young readers ages 9-14, adults also might find it a useful introduction to civil-rights history.

Every January, the American Library Association announces the winners of the Coretta Scott King Awards, now celebrating their 40th anniversary. Here's a look at this year's winners:

• "Bad News for Outlaws" (Carolrhoda Books, $17.95, ages 7-10) won the King Author Award. Written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, this picture-book biography tells the remarkable life story of Bass Reeves, a former slave turned deputy U.S. marshal.

• Charles R. Smith Jr. won the King Illustrator Award for his stirring black-and-white photographs of African-Americans in "My People" (Atheneum, $17.99). The book's text is a poem by Langston Hughes. (Ages 5-10.)

• "Mare's War" (Knopf, $16.99), a novel by Tanita S. Davis, won a King Author Honor. The book tells the story of two teens who gain some valuable insights into African-American history during a car trip with their difficult, pioneering grandmother. (Ages 12 up.)

• A Hughes poem also provides the text for the King Illustrator Honor book, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, $16.99), which features E.B. Lewis' gorgeous watercolor illustrations. (Ages 8-12.)

• "The Rock and the River" (Aladdin, $15.99), a novel by Kekla Magoon, won the John Steptoe Award for New Talent. The book depicts the struggle of a 14-year-old boy who is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent ways and his older brother's Black Panther membership in 1968 Chicago. (Ages 12 up.)

"Bob Hoover's Book Club" is available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.