{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:
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: Goodreads, https://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!
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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 giveawayTour Schedule:
Week One:
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9/4/2023 |
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9/4/2023 |
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9/5/2023 |
Interview |
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9/5/2023 |
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9/8/2023 |
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Week Two:
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9/11/2023 |
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9/12/2023 |
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9/12/2023 |
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9/13/2023 |
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9/13/2023 |
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9/14/2023 |
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9/14/2023 |
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9/15/2023 |
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9/15/2023 |
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