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An American Story
#1 New York Times Bestselling and award-winning author of The Undefeated , Kwame Alexander, pens a powerful picture book that tells the story of American slavery through the voice of a teacher struggling to help her students understand its harrowing history.
From the fireside tales in an African village, through the unspeakable passage across the Atlantic, to the backbreaking work in the fields of the South, this is a story of a people's struggle and strength, horror and hope. This is the story of American slavery, a story that needs to be told and understood by all of us. A testament to the resilience of the African American community, this book honors what has been and envisions what is to be.
With stunning mixed-media illustrations by newcomer Dare Coulter, this is a potent book for those who want to speak the truth. Perfect for family sharing, the classroom, and homeschooling.
From the fireside tales in an African village, through the unspeakable passage across the Atlantic, to the backbreaking work in the fields of the South, this is a story of a people's struggle and strength, horror and hope. This is the story of American slavery, a story that needs to be told and understood by all of us. A testament to the resilience of the African American community, this book honors what has been and envisions what is to be.
With stunning mixed-media illustrations by newcomer Dare Coulter, this is a potent book for those who want to speak the truth. Perfect for family sharing, the classroom, and homeschooling.
56 pages, Hardcover
First published January 3, 2023
About the author
Kwame Alexander
76 books2,989 followersKwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and New York Times Bestselling author of 21 books, including The Crossover, which received the 2015 John Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American literature for Children, the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, The NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and the Passaic Poetry Prize. Kwame writes for children of all ages. His other works include Surf's Up, a picture book; Booked, a middle grade novel; and He Said She Said, a YA novel.
Kwame believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his PAGE TO STAGE Writing and Publishing Program released by Scholastic. A regular speaker at colleges and conferences in the U.S., he also travels the world planting seeds of literary love (Singapore, Brazil, Italy, France, Shanghai, etc.). Recently, Alexander led a delegation of 20 writers and activists to Ghana, where they delivered books, built a library, and provided literacy professional development to 300 teachers, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an International literacy program he co-founded.
Kwame believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his PAGE TO STAGE Writing and Publishing Program released by Scholastic. A regular speaker at colleges and conferences in the U.S., he also travels the world planting seeds of literary love (Singapore, Brazil, Italy, France, Shanghai, etc.). Recently, Alexander led a delegation of 20 writers and activists to Ghana, where they delivered books, built a library, and provided literacy professional development to 300 teachers, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an International literacy program he co-founded.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 321 reviews
January 21, 2023
This amazing book. I shouldn’t be surprised because everything that Kwame Alexander does is pretty amazing. An American Story not only captures the horrors of American slavery but also the need for hope to move forward. While readers move through this book, they’ll come across the statement “how do you tell a story?” Quickly, it becomes clear that there is a teacher who is communicating the history of slavery to her students but is finding it challenging. I couldn’t help but to connect this to the current struggles with educators not only having the support to teach slavery, but also the random connection of slavery to CRT in a classroom setting. In the authors note, Kwame discusses that his inspiration for the story came from his own interactions with his daughters teacher who got tense when they discussed why they were teaching about the 13 colonies without including slavery. It’s not easy to teach about something so difficult and painful but it’s part of the American story. In a time when people are set on erasing parts of history to fit their own personal narratives, books like these become so important. Also, I absolutely loved the art in this one. It’s a mix of clay and ceramic figures, acrylic and spray paint, and charcoal. Each page captures the horror, agony, joy, and hope of the story. Probably one of my favorite pages is the one that Dare Coulter mentions is the Illustrators note. The page illustrates the Geechie/Gullah community which shows the preservation of a culture when so much was lost during the process of people being stolen from their land. Overall, I loved this book and I’m not surprised that I did. This is one to have on your library shelves or in your classroom.
January 17, 2023
How soon is too soon? How early is too early? Is it possible to teach the hard parts of American history (putting back in all the people who were left out of our history books when we were kids) to children of a young age? I’m not just saying this off the top of my head, because all across this nation right now this debate is raging, sometimes literally. Changing anything about education is going to meet with resistance, sure. That said, there seems to be a very specific thoughtless objection out there to the notion that children should learn from the get-go that, for much of our history, America hasn’t been all that great for large swaths of the population. The fear, I suspect, is rooted in an understanding that by showing the mistakes of the past, children will be less inclined to show mindless nationalism at a drop of a hat. There is also a fear, and this often baffles me, that by learning about historical facts like slavery, white children will “feel bad”. Both of these possibilities sort of baffle me, but the latter is particularly out there. They’ll feel bad. I mean . . . great! They should! These were bad things that happened! I don’t think I want anyone coming away from that feeling cheery. Kwame Alexander knows that. He discovered that his daughter’s fourth grade class was learning about life in the thirteen colonies without any mention of “the impact and trauma of slavery”. When confronted, the teacher was defensive and distressed because, Kwame surmised, she was never taught how to teach the subject. An American Story (the title is key) is his answer to that problem. Pairing with miraculous, marvelous artist Dare Coulter, Kwame tackles this subject matter head on, providing a template not just for teachers, but for any adult wishing to give the kids of today a better grasp on material that so many have worked so hard to avoid for all these years.
“How do you tell a story that starts in Africa and ends in horror?” It’s a fair question. Readers watch as people on African shores live their lives, tell their stories, and dream. Turn the page and all you see are hands, shackled. Lives uprooted. But then the narrative shifts and we see another shot of hands. These are the hands of kids in a classroom today. Occasionally, throughout the book, you hear their words. “But you can’t sell people,” they say. We watch hard things, like people jumping off the slave boats to their death in the sea. We see an enslaved boy picking cotton and, on the other page, a little white boy playing and reading a book at the same time. We see the people that were stolen finding joy where they can, but we also see then wading through waters and running at night to escape. We see children taken from their mamas. And then the book says, “I don’t think I can continue. It’s just too painful. I shouldn’t have read this to you. I’m so sorry, children.” It’s present day, and the students object. They know it’s hard but they also know it’s important. Because this American story is, “About yesterday’s nightmare and the courage to dream a new tomorrow.” And as the book says, you deal with this information, “by being brave enough to lift your voice, by holding history in one hand and clenching hope in the other.”
“An American Story” isn’t the first book of its kind to exist, necessarily. For example, just two years ago we saw the beautiful 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson (illustrated by Nikkolas Smith) cover much the same ground. Like this book, it took time to show the people that would later be enslaved first living their lives fully, long before they were in chains. Like this book it draws some connections to the children living today here in the States, but in terms of the storytelling, Kwame introduces a specific element into this book that I haven’t seen used very often before. As I mentioned before, periodically, as the difficult material comes to the fore, we cut to a contemporary classroom of kids, raising their hands, asking questions. These sections are particularly interesting because these kids do NOT look happy to be learning this information. But as you go through it, the teacher who is reading this information to the class is the one who wants to stop, not the kids. The kids call her on it. They say, “But don’t you tell us to always speak the truth, Ms. Simmons, even when it’s hard?” That’s a theme I’m seeing come up more and more in my books for kids. The easy thing and the right thing are not often the same thing.
I want to talk about a key element of this story that shows how far we’ve come since 2016. I’ve picked that date specifically because almost exactly seven years before this book was published, there was another book that discussed slavery in some way. A Birthday Cake for George Washington is one of the few American children’s books ever pulled from publication mere days after it hit shelves, due to a public outcry. The outcry was not from people objecting to slavery being featured in a picture book, in the same way that we’re seeing it today. Rather, the outcry was about the way in which the enslaved were depicted. The term “smiling slaves” came up many times, because if you read through the book you came away from it with the distinct impression that the enslaved didn’t really mind being forced to work for George Washington’s family. That they were happy about it. The book was released close on the heels of another book called A Fine Dessert which also featured what was dubbed the “smiling slaves” trope, and though one was a bit more egregious in its depictions than the other, it could be fair to say that context was missing from the latter. Now we fast forward to 2023 and Kwame Alexander, I think we can all agree, is aware of that bit of recent history. Fully and completely aware of what was said at that time. But for him, it’s important to show something more than despair. He writes, “How do you tell a story about strength and pride and refusing to be broken and refusing to stop smiling and loving…” And then, on the page, we see enslaved people in the night, gathering together, smiling in the moonlight. And I think the key here is Kwame’s intent. He’s filling this book with historical horrors while at the same time making it clear repeatedly that these were real people who went through all of this. And real people smile, and those smiles belong to themselves and themselves alone. There’s been a big push for more children’s books to show Black joy on the page, and not just trauma. Kwame is determined to include both in a single book, making it complicated and interesting and human. After all, in one of the shots of a man smiling, holding his children, you can easily see the cuts and scars on his arms where injury was inflicted upon him not too long ago.
The fact that I’ve gotten this far into this review and I haven’t said boo about the art is as egregious as it is a testament to the writing and subject matter. Now I need to give a little context to what I experienced as I read this book. Do any of you reading this suffer from a knee-jerk reaction to stuff you’re told you have to like? I swear, if someone or something gets too big or too much attention, and I haven’t read or seen it yet, I’m already biased against it. I just am! And I’ve liked Kwame’s books over the years just fine, but y’know,, he’s got a reality show and he just keeps on cranking out these award winning books. So here I am picking this book up and I see the cover and think immediately that there’s no way I’m going to like this more than the aforementioned Born on the Water. And indeed, the first two, three, four, five, six or so pages are convincing me otherwise. I don’t know Dare Coulter’s work, but the initial images in the book are built to start slow. She’s keeping the visual storytelling on a low boil in those first few pages, and I admit, it completely fooled me. Then I got to the page turn that reveals two girls playing in front of a fire while a storyteller stands behind them. I stare and I stare and I stare at these pages, trying to make sense of what I’m seeing because suddenly these painted pages have taken on weight and depth that they didn’t have before. What I’m seeing isn’t two-dimensional. This is modelwork and lighting and who knows what all. It is at this moment that I stopped being so silly about whether or not I should be so critical of this book that’s already acquired five stars from from review journals. There’s something going on here, and it’s something I’ve never before.
Flip to the back of the book and you’ll learn that Dare Coulter, a self-described painter, sculptor, and muralist, has created this book “with a combination of spray paint, acrylic paint, charcoal, graphite, ink, and digital painting on wood panel and watercolor paper,” while the sculptures, “are both ceramic and polymer clay with added materials.” Lest you think her work has come out of the blue, Coulter has done a number of picture books in the past. The bulk of them were published independently (though she did do one for the North Carolina Office of Archives and History), and none of them look like this book. The difference may lay, in large part, in these sculptures. On her website Dare writes, “In my opinion my sculptures are the most important thing that I create.” So to find a project where that love could be integrated with the text, that is one of the many keys to this book’s success. But it isn’t just that the sculpture work pops up periodically in the book. Oftentimes it’s seamlessly integrated alongside the illustrations. There’s an early shot of a young man lying on his back, where his body is modeled, but somewhere between the grasses he’s lying on and the fabric wrapped around his waist, it becomes illustration again. After a while, you realize that the past morphs between sculptures and illustrations seamlessly over and over again. The present, however, is portrayed as a shock of yellow paper with drawings of contemporary kids that look like they were sketched in charcoal. This gives the necessary contrast you need between the past and the present, and sets us up for that last two-page spread that bridges the two.
You know how else I can tell that this is not Ms. Coulter’s first book? The page turns. Kwame’s enough of an expert in the field that I’m sure when he wrote the book he knew exactly where each turn would hit. But what he could not have anticipated was how Dare Coulter would create emotional beats with those turns all on her own. For example, there’s a shot early on of a girl in a contemporary classroom looking particularly sad about what she’s hearing. If you turn the page you’re in the past again and sitting there, staring right at you, is a girl around the same age, holding someone’s crying baby at night. It’s not just the page turns, though. The way in which Ms. Coulter can pair the pages together requires an entirely different set of muscles. Two shots, different locations, from above of people attempting to escape are followed not long after by two shots of two boys of the same age, one from the past with a rope about his neck and a boy of today staring into space. Ms. Coulter is inviting you to make these comparisons. To flip back and forth throughout the book finding the things you missed the first time, or to just stare at what’s in front of you and take it in.
After a third or fourth read of this book, I realized that you could, potentially, make this book a class readaloud. What if a teacher read the parts about the history, and the contemporary pages of kids today was read by kids in a classroom? It could work. It could fail too. It would be a risk. In some parts of the country, reading this book in a classroom at all would be considered a risk for some teachers. Some people wouldn’t even attempt to give it an initial try, and those are the cases when you want people to do the right thing. As last year’s nonfiction picture book Choosing Brave said about Mamie Till-Mobley, sometimes in this life you have to decide whether or not to do the easy thing or the right thing. This book… it helps teachers, parents, educators, all of us, to do the right thing. To teach our kids An American Story that they won’t find in most of their textbooks. Because you know what happens when you teach children about the truth of history? You might make them sad, yeah. But they’ll learn and maybe, thanks to books like this one, they might even remember. All it takes, is the attempt.
“How do you tell a story that starts in Africa and ends in horror?” It’s a fair question. Readers watch as people on African shores live their lives, tell their stories, and dream. Turn the page and all you see are hands, shackled. Lives uprooted. But then the narrative shifts and we see another shot of hands. These are the hands of kids in a classroom today. Occasionally, throughout the book, you hear their words. “But you can’t sell people,” they say. We watch hard things, like people jumping off the slave boats to their death in the sea. We see an enslaved boy picking cotton and, on the other page, a little white boy playing and reading a book at the same time. We see the people that were stolen finding joy where they can, but we also see then wading through waters and running at night to escape. We see children taken from their mamas. And then the book says, “I don’t think I can continue. It’s just too painful. I shouldn’t have read this to you. I’m so sorry, children.” It’s present day, and the students object. They know it’s hard but they also know it’s important. Because this American story is, “About yesterday’s nightmare and the courage to dream a new tomorrow.” And as the book says, you deal with this information, “by being brave enough to lift your voice, by holding history in one hand and clenching hope in the other.”
“An American Story” isn’t the first book of its kind to exist, necessarily. For example, just two years ago we saw the beautiful 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson (illustrated by Nikkolas Smith) cover much the same ground. Like this book, it took time to show the people that would later be enslaved first living their lives fully, long before they were in chains. Like this book it draws some connections to the children living today here in the States, but in terms of the storytelling, Kwame introduces a specific element into this book that I haven’t seen used very often before. As I mentioned before, periodically, as the difficult material comes to the fore, we cut to a contemporary classroom of kids, raising their hands, asking questions. These sections are particularly interesting because these kids do NOT look happy to be learning this information. But as you go through it, the teacher who is reading this information to the class is the one who wants to stop, not the kids. The kids call her on it. They say, “But don’t you tell us to always speak the truth, Ms. Simmons, even when it’s hard?” That’s a theme I’m seeing come up more and more in my books for kids. The easy thing and the right thing are not often the same thing.
I want to talk about a key element of this story that shows how far we’ve come since 2016. I’ve picked that date specifically because almost exactly seven years before this book was published, there was another book that discussed slavery in some way. A Birthday Cake for George Washington is one of the few American children’s books ever pulled from publication mere days after it hit shelves, due to a public outcry. The outcry was not from people objecting to slavery being featured in a picture book, in the same way that we’re seeing it today. Rather, the outcry was about the way in which the enslaved were depicted. The term “smiling slaves” came up many times, because if you read through the book you came away from it with the distinct impression that the enslaved didn’t really mind being forced to work for George Washington’s family. That they were happy about it. The book was released close on the heels of another book called A Fine Dessert which also featured what was dubbed the “smiling slaves” trope, and though one was a bit more egregious in its depictions than the other, it could be fair to say that context was missing from the latter. Now we fast forward to 2023 and Kwame Alexander, I think we can all agree, is aware of that bit of recent history. Fully and completely aware of what was said at that time. But for him, it’s important to show something more than despair. He writes, “How do you tell a story about strength and pride and refusing to be broken and refusing to stop smiling and loving…” And then, on the page, we see enslaved people in the night, gathering together, smiling in the moonlight. And I think the key here is Kwame’s intent. He’s filling this book with historical horrors while at the same time making it clear repeatedly that these were real people who went through all of this. And real people smile, and those smiles belong to themselves and themselves alone. There’s been a big push for more children’s books to show Black joy on the page, and not just trauma. Kwame is determined to include both in a single book, making it complicated and interesting and human. After all, in one of the shots of a man smiling, holding his children, you can easily see the cuts and scars on his arms where injury was inflicted upon him not too long ago.
The fact that I’ve gotten this far into this review and I haven’t said boo about the art is as egregious as it is a testament to the writing and subject matter. Now I need to give a little context to what I experienced as I read this book. Do any of you reading this suffer from a knee-jerk reaction to stuff you’re told you have to like? I swear, if someone or something gets too big or too much attention, and I haven’t read or seen it yet, I’m already biased against it. I just am! And I’ve liked Kwame’s books over the years just fine, but y’know,, he’s got a reality show and he just keeps on cranking out these award winning books. So here I am picking this book up and I see the cover and think immediately that there’s no way I’m going to like this more than the aforementioned Born on the Water. And indeed, the first two, three, four, five, six or so pages are convincing me otherwise. I don’t know Dare Coulter’s work, but the initial images in the book are built to start slow. She’s keeping the visual storytelling on a low boil in those first few pages, and I admit, it completely fooled me. Then I got to the page turn that reveals two girls playing in front of a fire while a storyteller stands behind them. I stare and I stare and I stare at these pages, trying to make sense of what I’m seeing because suddenly these painted pages have taken on weight and depth that they didn’t have before. What I’m seeing isn’t two-dimensional. This is modelwork and lighting and who knows what all. It is at this moment that I stopped being so silly about whether or not I should be so critical of this book that’s already acquired five stars from from review journals. There’s something going on here, and it’s something I’ve never before.
Flip to the back of the book and you’ll learn that Dare Coulter, a self-described painter, sculptor, and muralist, has created this book “with a combination of spray paint, acrylic paint, charcoal, graphite, ink, and digital painting on wood panel and watercolor paper,” while the sculptures, “are both ceramic and polymer clay with added materials.” Lest you think her work has come out of the blue, Coulter has done a number of picture books in the past. The bulk of them were published independently (though she did do one for the North Carolina Office of Archives and History), and none of them look like this book. The difference may lay, in large part, in these sculptures. On her website Dare writes, “In my opinion my sculptures are the most important thing that I create.” So to find a project where that love could be integrated with the text, that is one of the many keys to this book’s success. But it isn’t just that the sculpture work pops up periodically in the book. Oftentimes it’s seamlessly integrated alongside the illustrations. There’s an early shot of a young man lying on his back, where his body is modeled, but somewhere between the grasses he’s lying on and the fabric wrapped around his waist, it becomes illustration again. After a while, you realize that the past morphs between sculptures and illustrations seamlessly over and over again. The present, however, is portrayed as a shock of yellow paper with drawings of contemporary kids that look like they were sketched in charcoal. This gives the necessary contrast you need between the past and the present, and sets us up for that last two-page spread that bridges the two.
You know how else I can tell that this is not Ms. Coulter’s first book? The page turns. Kwame’s enough of an expert in the field that I’m sure when he wrote the book he knew exactly where each turn would hit. But what he could not have anticipated was how Dare Coulter would create emotional beats with those turns all on her own. For example, there’s a shot early on of a girl in a contemporary classroom looking particularly sad about what she’s hearing. If you turn the page you’re in the past again and sitting there, staring right at you, is a girl around the same age, holding someone’s crying baby at night. It’s not just the page turns, though. The way in which Ms. Coulter can pair the pages together requires an entirely different set of muscles. Two shots, different locations, from above of people attempting to escape are followed not long after by two shots of two boys of the same age, one from the past with a rope about his neck and a boy of today staring into space. Ms. Coulter is inviting you to make these comparisons. To flip back and forth throughout the book finding the things you missed the first time, or to just stare at what’s in front of you and take it in.
After a third or fourth read of this book, I realized that you could, potentially, make this book a class readaloud. What if a teacher read the parts about the history, and the contemporary pages of kids today was read by kids in a classroom? It could work. It could fail too. It would be a risk. In some parts of the country, reading this book in a classroom at all would be considered a risk for some teachers. Some people wouldn’t even attempt to give it an initial try, and those are the cases when you want people to do the right thing. As last year’s nonfiction picture book Choosing Brave said about Mamie Till-Mobley, sometimes in this life you have to decide whether or not to do the easy thing or the right thing. This book… it helps teachers, parents, educators, all of us, to do the right thing. To teach our kids An American Story that they won’t find in most of their textbooks. Because you know what happens when you teach children about the truth of history? You might make them sad, yeah. But they’ll learn and maybe, thanks to books like this one, they might even remember. All it takes, is the attempt.
January 7, 2023
I read one of the best books of 2023 in 2022, as a galley at ALA. An American Story by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Dare Coulter, is an exceptional work of art. I can only imagine how breathtaking & brilliant this moving informational picture book is as the final book. It shows the power of a picture book to talk with readers, weaving Kwame’s precise & inquisitive poetry with Dare’s mixed-media art that compels readers to pause, ponder, & ask questions. I am eager to learn about their process to create it! Put it on your Caldecott 2023 list now.
Sparked by a conversation in Kwame’s daughter’s classroom, this book is a necessary addition to our curricula, classrooms, & collections & offers an invaluable way to have conversations about slavery. As Kwame shared during an SLJ interview, “I tried to write this book so it would carry the weight that's necessary to lift our kids out of ignorance when it comes to the history of our country. Teachers, librarians, parents: All you have do is read the story. Literally, just read the story. Stop every few pages, or stop when you get to the points in the book where the students ask questions of the teacher & let your students ask questions. This book is a teaching tool. I wanted it to be engaging and educational, informational & inspirational. Let the book do the heavy lifting, & just read it to your kids, read it with your students. And be open to the discussion, because the book is really about a teacher who doesn't know how to teach slavery. And that is an issue we all face—parents, teachers, librarians, all of us—at some time or another.”
As Kwame wrote in A Note from the Author, “I believe An American Story can help give us a way to speak the truth to children, so we can all stop being afraid, so we can start moving closer to our better selves.”
The final pages read:
“How do you tell a story this hard to hear, one that hurts and still loves?
"You do it by being brave enough
to lift your voice,
by holding
history
in one hand
and clenching
hope
in the other."
An absolutely vital and necessary purchase for all collections.
Sparked by a conversation in Kwame’s daughter’s classroom, this book is a necessary addition to our curricula, classrooms, & collections & offers an invaluable way to have conversations about slavery. As Kwame shared during an SLJ interview, “I tried to write this book so it would carry the weight that's necessary to lift our kids out of ignorance when it comes to the history of our country. Teachers, librarians, parents: All you have do is read the story. Literally, just read the story. Stop every few pages, or stop when you get to the points in the book where the students ask questions of the teacher & let your students ask questions. This book is a teaching tool. I wanted it to be engaging and educational, informational & inspirational. Let the book do the heavy lifting, & just read it to your kids, read it with your students. And be open to the discussion, because the book is really about a teacher who doesn't know how to teach slavery. And that is an issue we all face—parents, teachers, librarians, all of us—at some time or another.”
As Kwame wrote in A Note from the Author, “I believe An American Story can help give us a way to speak the truth to children, so we can all stop being afraid, so we can start moving closer to our better selves.”
The final pages read:
“How do you tell a story this hard to hear, one that hurts and still loves?
"You do it by being brave enough
to lift your voice,
by holding
history
in one hand
and clenching
hope
in the other."
An absolutely vital and necessary purchase for all collections.
March 4, 2023
Kwame Alexander acknowledges that there are atrocities too difficult to discuss. Smothering them is not the answer. With his lyric language he unfolds history, not shying away from the worst of it. Eventually ending with hope, strength and promise.
An essential book.
Also, I wondering when slavery stopped being taught in school? I don’t remember not knowing about it.
An essential book.
Also, I wondering when slavery stopped being taught in school? I don’t remember not knowing about it.
January 7, 2023
A must have picture book.
November 16, 2023
It's not to easy to talk about slavery and America's dark past, especially to children. Kwame Alexander addresses this issue head-on and pulls no punches in this truthful picture book about slavery that (thankfully) leaves readers with a sense of hope. Is there a 2024 Siebert or Caldecott Award in this book's future? In my opinion, this is a strong contender for some kind of 2024 Youth Media Awards recognition.
January 10, 2023
A book for EVERY classroom.
January 11, 2024
Made me cry.
October 18, 2023
Poignant but purposeful.
The illustrations were unique. ✨
The illustrations were unique. ✨
July 24, 2023
This book brought me to tears. I hate that we are living in a world that tries to water down our history, especially the history of marginalized brothers and sisters. You should definitely read the authors note about what inspired this story because it shows the limited resources teachers have in their classrooms. I think this should be required reading in schools because the message is important. It is very powerful!
January 6, 2023
A teacher attempts to convey to her students the horrors of American slavery along with the resilience of the African people. She repeats throughout the lesson, "How do you tell a story..." Kwame Alexander's describes how men and women in Africa were stolen from their lives to be sold in America by "sly men from cold places and laughing on tall ships..." Dare Coulter's illustrations show the anguish on the faces of the African people as they're shackled to the bottom of the slave boats. The text and illustrations show some men and women jumping off slave boats to their deaths to escape. There are dramatic portrayals of slaves working in the field under the hot sun. Two pages juxtapose a young slave picking cotton next to white children playing and reading. There is a mixed-media photograph of clay sculptures of a slave and his children embracing with the text telling of the people's strength and pride as well as an illuminating drawing of generations sharing stories beside the campfire. Also, portrayals of slaves escaping are shown. Amid the images of slavery, the students react emotionally. The lesson ends with a hopeful messaging of standing up and speaking out for black people.
#15
#15
February 15, 2024
This book is absolutely amazing, and a must read! It's just so beautifully-written, and the art (which is composed of ink and graphite illustrations, acrylics, and other paintings, but also clay sculptures, etc) is truly gorgeous as well.
There is no "too young" or "too soon" when it comes to talking about history, and this book just proves it.
There is no "too young" or "too soon" when it comes to talking about history, and this book just proves it.
December 24, 2022
Sitting alone in a quiet room, I started with the outside, removed the dust jacket, looked at the endpapers and then opened the book. Each page I read and reread, sometimes flipping back before moving forward. The complexity of this masterpiece with its layers of art styles and lines of poetry mirrors the complexity of teaching children about this American story. It is brilliant and belongs in every school around the world. Let us share our history, even when it is hard. Let us learn and connect with one another more fully, then let’s dream and hope and build a better world.
March 28, 2024
I located this book in the Wakelet and was able to get a hard copy of the book. I recommend this book for chindren ages 4 to 8.
This is a story about American slavery in a way that shows struggle but also strength. Kwame does an incredible job showcasing sad events in history that children will eventually hear about. How soon is too soon? This story demonstrates hope and survival in these people and it is truly inspiring.
The illustrations are truly mesmerizing. They have a lot of detail down to the core of lines on the people’s faces. There are a lot of expressions on their faces that nearly made me feel emotions of hope and perseverance. I think young readers can benefit from reading this book by gaining knowledge on the reality of the world and empathy. This book made me tear up a little because no one deserves to be treated like a slave. I did not think that a picture book would have this effect on me but Kwame did an exceptional job with his deep words such as “clenching to hope in the other [hand].” It is not comfortable talking about hard topics but we can’t be better if we try to push it all under the rug, so to speak.
A teacher can use this book to teach about American slavery. Students could write about what the story made them feel. Students can also write a letter to someone who has lived slavery or make signs/pictures about survival just like some of the children in the story. A teacher can make a lesson for their students on empathy as well. For instance, students can do an act of kindness for someone in the playground and talk about it/write about it in class.
I genuinely loved everything about this book.
This is a story about American slavery in a way that shows struggle but also strength. Kwame does an incredible job showcasing sad events in history that children will eventually hear about. How soon is too soon? This story demonstrates hope and survival in these people and it is truly inspiring.
The illustrations are truly mesmerizing. They have a lot of detail down to the core of lines on the people’s faces. There are a lot of expressions on their faces that nearly made me feel emotions of hope and perseverance. I think young readers can benefit from reading this book by gaining knowledge on the reality of the world and empathy. This book made me tear up a little because no one deserves to be treated like a slave. I did not think that a picture book would have this effect on me but Kwame did an exceptional job with his deep words such as “clenching to hope in the other [hand].” It is not comfortable talking about hard topics but we can’t be better if we try to push it all under the rug, so to speak.
A teacher can use this book to teach about American slavery. Students could write about what the story made them feel. Students can also write a letter to someone who has lived slavery or make signs/pictures about survival just like some of the children in the story. A teacher can make a lesson for their students on empathy as well. For instance, students can do an act of kindness for someone in the playground and talk about it/write about it in class.
I genuinely loved everything about this book.
December 29, 2022
The last illustration of the ancestral woman holding up the chin of a girl from today was very powerful. Loved that message!
October 15, 2023
A thoughtfully constructed poem about the challenges of talking about slavery in America. Kwame Alexander does not shy away from showing both the horror and the humanity of the people who are stolen from Africa; not afraid to talk about death and oppression and also not afraid to show moments of joy in the face of it all.
The story bounces back-and-forth between a teacher, narrating history, and the students talking about how difficult but necessary this lesson is. It is a book of the moment, and one that should be read by anyone who feels passionately about what we teach our children and how we grapple with our country’s history.
The illustrations are both beautiful and challenging. I am so glad that the illustrator added a note at the end and talked about their process, because it made me appreciate what they put into the book so much more. They used several styles: the contemporary scenes stand out with the use of charcoal on yellow paper. The tales of history are dark and richly colored, but some are paintings and some are dimensional clay figures. The stark visual contrast between the two elements of this poem, the past and the present, comes through clearly. But the multiple mediums for the history made it seem like there was another layer of meaning that I couldn’t figure out. And maybe I just wasn’t picking up what they were laying down, but it struck a note of dissonance for me, among an otherwise very carefully constructed work.
There was one particular spread that hit very well. The left side was a clay figure of an enslaved person, and the right side was a student of today, mirror images of each other, showing the way that our history echoes through generations into the future.
Beyond the author and illustrator‘s note however, I wish there were further resources. Overall it was beautifully done, and a very necessary book.
The story bounces back-and-forth between a teacher, narrating history, and the students talking about how difficult but necessary this lesson is. It is a book of the moment, and one that should be read by anyone who feels passionately about what we teach our children and how we grapple with our country’s history.
The illustrations are both beautiful and challenging. I am so glad that the illustrator added a note at the end and talked about their process, because it made me appreciate what they put into the book so much more. They used several styles: the contemporary scenes stand out with the use of charcoal on yellow paper. The tales of history are dark and richly colored, but some are paintings and some are dimensional clay figures. The stark visual contrast between the two elements of this poem, the past and the present, comes through clearly. But the multiple mediums for the history made it seem like there was another layer of meaning that I couldn’t figure out. And maybe I just wasn’t picking up what they were laying down, but it struck a note of dissonance for me, among an otherwise very carefully constructed work.
There was one particular spread that hit very well. The left side was a clay figure of an enslaved person, and the right side was a student of today, mirror images of each other, showing the way that our history echoes through generations into the future.
Beyond the author and illustrator‘s note however, I wish there were further resources. Overall it was beautifully done, and a very necessary book.
January 8, 2023
This is an important, necessary picture book, perfect for the classroom. Teachers and librarians should add THIS American Story to their shelves and read it aloud with their students. To be a true American, we need to acknowledge the America of the past and strive to be what we may become in the future — better humans.
The book names a teacher who is sharing history with her students, starting in Africa before slavery. Over time, Americans stole these humans and made them slaves. “For Free” is one repeating line, and other multiple-meaning words add to the feeling and the depth (and the horror) of the times. Kwame Alexander’s poetic language shows the dark past, but also reveals that African Americans refused to stop telling stories and loving each other, and fought for their freedom.
In the middle of the story, the teacher cannot go on. She doesn’t know how to teach the students THIS history. Her students say, “But, don’t you tell us to always speak the truth, Ms. Simmons, even when it’s hard?” Kwame Alexander wants us to know the truth and share it. We cannot escape the past or pretend like history didn’t happen. “You can’t change the past, but you can do better in the future.” Mr. Alexander allows us to hope and dream and act to change the world. The book has two specific purposes: to educate the reader and provide a way to share uncomfortable facts in order to move to a more hopeful, inclusive future.
Dare Coulter’s fabulous, rich colors provide life and meaning to Alexander’s words. (Pay attention to the colors that alternate the POV throughout the story.) She uses mixed-media techniques that invite readers in and command attention throughout the book, from the cover to the end pages. Her art captivates the reader and brings one closer to the historical account being told in a way that cannot be done with only the words. The pages are all gorgeous, riveting, sad, and hopeful. This book is truly a meaningful collaboration between Alexander and Coulter that should not be missed, and I’m going to follow the news about this book into next awards season, too.
An American Story is a text that needs to be read and shared widely. Adults, please read with your young ones. Recommended for ages 8 and up.
The book names a teacher who is sharing history with her students, starting in Africa before slavery. Over time, Americans stole these humans and made them slaves. “For Free” is one repeating line, and other multiple-meaning words add to the feeling and the depth (and the horror) of the times. Kwame Alexander’s poetic language shows the dark past, but also reveals that African Americans refused to stop telling stories and loving each other, and fought for their freedom.
In the middle of the story, the teacher cannot go on. She doesn’t know how to teach the students THIS history. Her students say, “But, don’t you tell us to always speak the truth, Ms. Simmons, even when it’s hard?” Kwame Alexander wants us to know the truth and share it. We cannot escape the past or pretend like history didn’t happen. “You can’t change the past, but you can do better in the future.” Mr. Alexander allows us to hope and dream and act to change the world. The book has two specific purposes: to educate the reader and provide a way to share uncomfortable facts in order to move to a more hopeful, inclusive future.
Dare Coulter’s fabulous, rich colors provide life and meaning to Alexander’s words. (Pay attention to the colors that alternate the POV throughout the story.) She uses mixed-media techniques that invite readers in and command attention throughout the book, from the cover to the end pages. Her art captivates the reader and brings one closer to the historical account being told in a way that cannot be done with only the words. The pages are all gorgeous, riveting, sad, and hopeful. This book is truly a meaningful collaboration between Alexander and Coulter that should not be missed, and I’m going to follow the news about this book into next awards season, too.
An American Story is a text that needs to be read and shared widely. Adults, please read with your young ones. Recommended for ages 8 and up.
April 9, 2023
As always, a work from Kwame Alexander wows, amazes, awes. His words are pure, gorgeous, luscious poetry—even when conveying the dark messages of slavery that they do here.
The author found an artist in Dare Coulter who made bold choices with his mixed media art. Some of the pieces connected with me, some did not. Some of the pieces I found were emotional punches, others I breezed by. But that is art, isn’t it? Pieces rarely, if ever, speak to every person. And even a favorite artist may not always connect with a fan.
I do wish that Kwame Alexander would have shared his author note at the beginning—or incorporated the yellow in-the-classroom pages at the very start. I did not grasp the story was being told in a classroom until I read the author’s note: “I wrote this story after a racially charged incident happened in my daughter’s fourth grade classroom. … It became apparent that so many schools don’t prepare their students to fully understand the truth about slavery. Because it’s scary. And hard.” After reading this, I went back and saw yellow pages earlier in the story. Then, I understood the purpose of those colored pages and the impetus behind the telling the history. Just one more spread was needed, at the beginning, showing children listening to a teacher reading a book in a classroom. Then, those pages at the end that were very obviously a classroom setting, would have made sense.
The author found an artist in Dare Coulter who made bold choices with his mixed media art. Some of the pieces connected with me, some did not. Some of the pieces I found were emotional punches, others I breezed by. But that is art, isn’t it? Pieces rarely, if ever, speak to every person. And even a favorite artist may not always connect with a fan.
I do wish that Kwame Alexander would have shared his author note at the beginning—or incorporated the yellow in-the-classroom pages at the very start. I did not grasp the story was being told in a classroom until I read the author’s note: “I wrote this story after a racially charged incident happened in my daughter’s fourth grade classroom. … It became apparent that so many schools don’t prepare their students to fully understand the truth about slavery. Because it’s scary. And hard.” After reading this, I went back and saw yellow pages earlier in the story. Then, I understood the purpose of those colored pages and the impetus behind the telling the history. Just one more spread was needed, at the beginning, showing children listening to a teacher reading a book in a classroom. Then, those pages at the end that were very obviously a classroom setting, would have made sense.
February 29, 2024
This is a tough book. It deals with tough subjects and stemmed from a parent teacher conference where Alexander realized the teacher did not have the background to deal with the fact she was teaching 4th graders beginning American history without including the history of Blacks. He seemed to realize he wanted something the teacher was unable to give and that it was complicated. Kudos to the Alexanders for rising above that disagreeable parent teacher conference without just assuming the teacher is wrong, case closed! However, he took that conference memory and turned it into a book that can and will (some places at least) be pulled out each year for Black History Month. This is not really a book to teach about slavery, although it does that. This is a book to teach how to teach about slavery. It is also an answer to people wanting to ban books because the book makes you feel bad. Good can come out of it if you have the courage to face up to the bad parts of humanity and make it better after that. I’m not the person to judge the artwork, except to say that it was striking and worked perfectly with the text, with the yellow pages being comments of the readers and listeners of this book! This is the 2024 King Illustrator Award winner. Recommended!
January 5, 2023
“How do you tell a story about copper dreams wrapped in iron chains?”
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This picture book tells a story from a teacher’s point of view as she struggles to teach her students about slavery and the lasting impact it’s had on our nation. From an African village to the unspeakable passage across the Atlantic to the fields of the South, every page is written and drawn with honesty, hope and horror. This is the short story of slavery in America told through beautiful verse and stunning illustrations.
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I’ve had my eye on this book ever since @kwamealexander announced it and I grabbed a copy the day it released only to be left speechless while reading it (which I did multiple times). The Author’s Note at the end shines a light on why Alexander decided to write this and why we need to continue to teach all of our nation’s history in schools—even and especially the ugly/horrific parts. @darecoulter created some of the most visually breathtaking images I’ve ever seen in a picture book (and I’ve read a lot). This is a must-buy, must-read, must-share book.
CW: slavery, enslaved people
🇺🇸
This picture book tells a story from a teacher’s point of view as she struggles to teach her students about slavery and the lasting impact it’s had on our nation. From an African village to the unspeakable passage across the Atlantic to the fields of the South, every page is written and drawn with honesty, hope and horror. This is the short story of slavery in America told through beautiful verse and stunning illustrations.
🇺🇸
I’ve had my eye on this book ever since @kwamealexander announced it and I grabbed a copy the day it released only to be left speechless while reading it (which I did multiple times). The Author’s Note at the end shines a light on why Alexander decided to write this and why we need to continue to teach all of our nation’s history in schools—even and especially the ugly/horrific parts. @darecoulter created some of the most visually breathtaking images I’ve ever seen in a picture book (and I’ve read a lot). This is a must-buy, must-read, must-share book.
CW: slavery, enslaved people
January 12, 2023
If I were rating the words alone, it would be closer to 4.5 stars. If I were rating the illustrations alone, it would be 3. Kwame Alexander's words are powerful as ever. I understand what the illustrator was trying to do with the different styles, but it wasn't my favorite. And I did not love the photos of the clay figures. Again, just didn't work for me. I also would have preferred this without the narrative structure of a teacher talking to a class. I don't think it needed it. He can ask the question, "How do you talk about slavery?" without having to set the overall conversation in a classroom. So I guess I have a lot of issues I'm mentioning, but I still give it 4 stars overall because it is moving, powerful, and necessary.
January 15, 2024
Read this book! It doesn't matter how old you are. I loved it. I cried. I did not shy away from teaching my students about slavery. I did not shy away from reading aloud literature, historical fiction, from the perspective of slaves. I did not shy away from stocking my classroom library with fiction and nonfiction (poetry, novels in verse, biographies) books relating to the African American experience. I am so sorry and so sad that so much much was wrecked, ruined, and stolen. Oh, and the art in this book is truly beautiful, wondrous, and meaningful. Thank you, Kwame and Dare! Also, I never once had a parent in 33 years of classroom teaching challenge me about teaching anything regarding Black History, Human Rights, or anything of that sort. My last 30 years were in Utah.
February 3, 2023
I cannot recommend this book enough to all the social-justice teacher warriors out there. I read this aloud to my diverse group 6th graders to lay the foundation for our celebration of Black History Month. Never have they sat so silent and still, in awe of the raw power of this book. The juxtaposition of the historical narrative and the classroom of students reflecting my own classroom back to themselves was such a compelling way of making the story more personal. Especially for me, their white middle-aged teacher, who has always struggled to be truthful and loving when discussing our country’s brutal past. And the art…wow…speechless. I was shaking as I closed the book and looked up at the hope for the future sitting before me.
A masterpiece Kwame and Dare. Thank you.
A masterpiece Kwame and Dare. Thank you.
April 11, 2023
A beautifully made book with powerful, important words. "How do you tell a story that starts in Africa and ends in horror?" Kwame Alexander's poetry and Dare Coulter's art answer that throughout the book. The author note and the illustrator note at the end tell of the rationale and process of making the book.
February 6, 2024
Read it. The illustrations are amazing and really drive home that this was real, that this happened to actual people, that people did this to other people. They hurt. And together with the text, they make the reader rethink history.
February 7, 2024
This seems like a good book for teachers or parents to read about approaching the horrific events of slavery. It's an important topic, but the words do not necessarily reflect something appropriate for children. The illustrations are great.
January 19, 2023
The art and writing in this book are absolutely breathtaking. This is an important book for all libraries and classrooms, but especially those who struggle to talk to students about race.
February 16, 2023
Devastating. Gut wrenching. Every page is a work of art, sometimes depicting happiness and survival, but mostly tinged with sorrow. I absolutely love the mixed media approach and I think this book really does touch on how hard it must be to teach about slavery. How difficult to teach about something so horrifying.
March 9, 2023
Hard to put into words. I have never seen artwork like this, let alone in a picture book.
April 24, 2023
Teaching young children the truth about slavery is a necessity. This book used Kwame’s perfect words and Dare’s incredibly moving artwork and sculptures in such an impactful way. I’m in awe of this magnificent but heartbreaking book
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