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Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson, Balzar + Bray, 2011, 108 pp, ISBN: 0061730742
"Most folks my age and complexion don't speak much about the past. Sometimes it's just too hard to talk about... [but] you gotta take the good with the bad I guess. You have to know where you come from you so can move forward. Most of us are getting up in age and feel it's time to make some things known before they are gone for good. So it's important you pay attention, honey, because I'm only going to tell you this story but once." - Heart and Soul
Review:
First off, the cover is pure gorgeous. I would like to frame it and hang it on my wall. And this weighty book is bursting with similarly stunning paintings - all by author and illustrator Kadir Nelson. What incredible talent.
With a sub-title like "The Story of America and African Americans," you know that this is book is going to be full. Full of history, full of emotion, and full of questions and connections and feelings that come up, long after one has finished reading.
It is told through the voice of an "everywoman" character, whose family history can be traced back to Africa and connects throughout history with both Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr. Her strong, comforting voice comes through crystal clear. Tracing the path of her family from slave ships, through cotton fields, across multiple wars, into Reconstruction and the Great Migration, and ending around the dissolution of Jim Crow, there isn't much that this story doesn't touch on. President Barack Obama made his appearance in the Epilogue.
An incredibly deserving recipient of both the Coretta Scott King author award, and Coretta Scott King illustrator honor for Heart and Soul, Kadir Nelson is a force to be reckoned with. He has made decades of history engaging and accessible for both school children and adults - no easy feat.
First off, the cover is pure gorgeous. I would like to frame it and hang it on my wall. And this weighty book is bursting with similarly stunning paintings - all by author and illustrator Kadir Nelson. What incredible talent.
With a sub-title like "The Story of America and African Americans," you know that this is book is going to be full. Full of history, full of emotion, and full of questions and connections and feelings that come up, long after one has finished reading.
It is told through the voice of an "everywoman" character, whose family history can be traced back to Africa and connects throughout history with both Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr. Her strong, comforting voice comes through crystal clear. Tracing the path of her family from slave ships, through cotton fields, across multiple wars, into Reconstruction and the Great Migration, and ending around the dissolution of Jim Crow, there isn't much that this story doesn't touch on. President Barack Obama made his appearance in the Epilogue.
An incredibly deserving recipient of both the Coretta Scott King author award, and Coretta Scott King illustrator honor for Heart and Soul, Kadir Nelson is a force to be reckoned with. He has made decades of history engaging and accessible for both school children and adults - no easy feat.
6 Comments on Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans, last added: 2/16/2012
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I just bought this one for my library. Guess I am going to go read it tomorrow!
I love the line about how you have to know where you came from in order to know where you're going. Great piece of advice!
Hi, Katie! One of my students just read Nelson's We Are the Ship and loved it. Heart & Soul sounds equally mesmerizing. Love the pic of your little one; enjoy every minute. My oldest 'little one' graduates HS this year!
It is, isn't it? This book is just full of great lines!
Awesome! I hope you have some students who will really get into it.
I want to read We Are the Ship now! Congratulations to your own little one :) Is that your daughter?