Kin
Rooted in Hope
-
- $8.99
Publisher Description
A Coretta Scott King Honor Book
A Boston Globe–Horn Book Poetry Award Winner
An “imaginative and moving” (The Horn Book, starred review) portrait of a Black family tree shaped by enslavement and freedom, rendered in searing poems by ALSC Children’s Literature Legacy Award winner 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Weatherfords—a mother-son duo—pay tribute to their enslaved ancestors' pain and resilience across generations in this moving collection of illustrated poems, inspired by Alex Haley's Roots. Hoping to learn more about her family history, the author attempts to trace her lineage to its beginnings. In 2016, while traveling to Gorée, an island off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, Weatherford and her son visit "slave castles"—trading posts where "captive Africans/ were held for weeks, months,/ until their numbers could fill/ a ship's belly." From there, the two embark on a journey that takes them to the Wye House Plantation in Easton, Md., where their ancestors were enslaved by the Lloyds, a white Quaker family. Throughout, poems showcase various perspectives, including those of the creators' forebears, the enslaving family, and a ship carrying captives. While this narrative range can sometimes cause confusion, it nevertheless makes for a layered text that highlights the perseverance of the Weatherfords' ancestors and the horrors that they endured. Sketch-like b&w line illustrations depict key moments within the narrative. By sharing their family's story, the Weatherfords craft a harrowing and motivational addition to enslaved peoples' history. Ages 10–up.
