Build a House
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Grammy Award winner Rhiannon Giddens celebrates Black history and culture in her unflinching, uplifting, and gorgeously illustrated picture book debut. I learned your words and wrote my song. I put my story down. As an acclaimed musician, singer, songwriter, and cofounder of the traditional African American string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Rhiannon Giddens has long used her art to mine America’s musical past and manifest its future, passionately recovering lost voices and reconstructing a nation’s musical heritage. Written as a song to commemorate the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth—which was originally performed with famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma—and paired here with bold illustrations by painter Monica Mikai, Build a House tells the moving story of a people who would not be moved and the music that sustained them. Steeped in sorrow and joy, resilience and resolve, turmoil and transcendence, this dramatic debut offers a proud view of history and a vital message for readers of all ages: honor your heritage, express your truth, and let your voice soar, even—or perhaps especially—when your heart is heaviest.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Originally released in 2020 to honor Juneteenth's 155th anniversary, the lines of this song, now a picture book debut by Giddens, invoke the storied heritage of African American music, discussing Black chattel slavery in America. Mikai's textured digital illustrations follow the text as a Black family of three is forced to build a house and work farmland for those who "brought me here." Subsequently told to "GO," the family is soon denied the chance to make a place for themselves when the home they build is burned down—an act of violence that precedes another home's construction. Throughout, images lend emotional gravity to reiterative verse ("I learned your words/ And wrote my song/ Wrote my song/ Wrote my song"), marking a contrast between the ample bounty the family is forced to create and the oppression that makes that bounty possible, in a story of freedom stolen and home long sought. An afterword and QR code to the recorded song conclude. Ages 7–10.
