{Excerpt/Review/Giveaway} KIN: Rooted in Hope by Carole Boston Weatherford & Jeffery Boston Weatherford


KIN: Rooted in Hope is such a gorgeously bound tome that brings history to life in a palatable way that will appeal even to readers who don't read a ton of memoirs. Family history is brought to life through poetry and art in a way that really resonates with a reader. Working at a school that uses Genre Labs to teach students about the tropes and mechanics of various genres, one of the fields that gets studied is Memoir. It is a tougher read for many students not used to reading non-fiction and I often hear many complaints when the students come down with their English classes to pick their books of choice for the lab. I am looking forward to being able to offer them KIN: Rooted in Hope, because the unique structure will be appealing and help get students more invested in reading even if they aren't the biggest of readers.

The book also pairs well with history units and features important family genealogy of an African American family that is deeply rooted in slavery and the foundation of the very country and state of Maryland. They scrape together as much of their family's history as they can, but the further back they go, the patchier the records are, shining a light on how very hard it was to remember the lives of so many who lived and suffered and shaped history. KIN: Rooted in Hope is an important new work in so many ways, and its unique format makes it stand out and forces readers to notice it and pay attention and become steeped into the voices of many families, not just the Weatherfords' own, and brings to life an aspect of the past too often brushed to the side and hidden. It shines a light on how their own family was the foundation of so much that is never taught or acknowledged, and raises their voices and memorializes them in the most profound, visual way that will make a lasting impression for many more generations to come.

 

About The Book:

Title: KIN: Rooted in Hope

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford & Jeffery Boston Weatherford

Pub. Date: September 19, 2023

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 208

Find it: Goodreadshttps://books2read.com/KINROOTEDINHOPE 

A powerful portrait of a Black family tree shaped by enslavement and freedom, rendered in searing poems by acclaimed author Carole Boston Weatherford and stunning art by her son Jeffery Boston Weatherford.

I call their names:
Abram Alice Amey Arianna Antiqua
I call their names:
Isaac Jake James Jenny Jim
Every last one, property of the Lloyds,
the state’s preeminent enslavers.
Every last one, with a mind of their own
and a story that ain’t yet been told.
Till now.

Carole and Jeffery Boston Weatherford’s ancestors are among the founders of Maryland. Their family history there extends more than three hundred years, but as with the genealogical searches of many African Americans with roots in slavery, their family tree can only be traced back five generations before going dark. And so from scraps of history, Carole and Jeffery have conjured the voices of their kin, creating an often painful but ultimately empowering story of who their people were in a breathtaking book that is at once deeply personal yet all too universal.

Carole’s poems capture voices ranging from her ancestors to Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman to the plantation house and land itself that connects them all, and Jeffery’s evocative illustrations help carry the story from the first mention of a forebear listed as property in a 1781 ledger to he and his mother’s homegoing trip to Africa in 2016. Shaped by loss, erasure, and ultimate reclamation, this is the story of not only Carole and Jeffery’s family, but of countless other Black families in America.

 

Read an Excerpt!


 

About Carole Boston Weatherford & Jeffery Boston Weatherford Mother-Son/Author-Illustrator
Duo
:

Hailed as “a master” and “the dean” of nonfiction for young people,” Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King  Award winner Carole Boston Weatherford is a New York Times best-seller and two-time NAACP Image Award  winner. Since her 1995 debut, she has authored 70-plus books including four Caldecott Honor winners: Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre; Freedom in Congo Square, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit  of the Civil Rights Movement, and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Her books have  won nine Coretta Scott King Awards or Honors. She writes the diverse books that she lacked as a child. 

A Baltimore native and the daughter of educators, Carole was virtually born with ink in her blood. At age six,  she dictated her first poem to her mother. Her father, a high school printing teacher, published a few of her  early poems on the press in his classroom. Meanwhile, her grandmothers passed down oral traditions and  stories. By middle school, Carole had transferred from an all-black public school to a majority-white, private  school where a teacher wrongfully accused her of plagiarism. That slight compelled her to chronicle a more  inclusive history, to amplify marginalized voices and to build monuments with words. 

Now, children’s books are a family affair for Carole. In KIN: Rooted in Hope, she and her son, award-winning  illustrator Jeffery Weatherford embark on a genealogical quest. Through multi-voiced poems and dramatic scratchboard illustrations, mother and son conjure the voices and visages of their forebears. Their ancestors lived through the American Revolution, fought in the Civil War, were enslaved alongside Frederick Douglass,  cofounded Reconstruction-era villages, and according to local lore, descended from African royalty.  

A professor at Fayetteville State University, an HBCU in North Carolina, Carole has been recognized with the  Nonfiction Award from the Children’s Book Guild, the North Carolina Literature Award, the Ragan-Rubin  Award from North Carolina English Teachers Association and a place in the North Carolina Literary Hall of  Fame. She is a life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. 

Jeffery earned his M.F.A. from Howard University where he was a Romare Bearden scholar and studied under  artists from the Black Arts Movement. A rapper and a fine artist, Jeffery has performed or exhibited in  Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Baltimore, North Carolina, West Africa and the Middle East. Jeffery’s first book was  You Can Fly the Tuskegee Airmen, and his first picture book was Call Me Miss Hamilton. Both appeared on best  book of the year lists. 

Website: http://cbweatherford.com Email: cbwpoet@gmail.com  

Publicist: The Literary/Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati (vlloydsgam@aol.com

Agent: Rubin Pfeffer Content

 

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Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of KIN, US Only.

Ends September 19th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

9/4/2023

#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog

Excerpt/IG Post

9/4/2023

The Momma Spot

Excerpt

9/5/2023

YA Books Central

Interview

9/5/2023

Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

Review/IG Post

9/6/2023

Book-Keeping

Excerpt/IG Post

9/6/2023

Cara North

Excerpt/IG Post

9/7/2023

@allyluvsbooksalatte

IG Review/TikTok Post

9/7/2023

Rajiv's Reviews

Review/IG Post

9/8/2023

Review Thick And Thin

Review/IG Post

9/8/2023

A Backwards Story

Excerpt/IG Post

Week Two:

9/11/2023

Two Chicks on Books

Excerpt/IG Post

9/11/2023

Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's

Review/IG Post

9/12/2023

A Blue Box Full of Books

IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post

9/12/2023

Gryffindorbookishnerd

IG Review

9/13/2023

evergirl200

IG Review

9/13/2023

@froggyreadteach

IG Review

9/14/2023

The Litt Librarian

Review/IG Post

9/14/2023

Paperwitchs

Review/IG Post

9/15/2023

@hodophile_z

IG Review

9/15/2023

Country Mamas With Kids

Review/IG Post


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