An American Story, art by Dare Coulter, poem by Kwame Alexander, published by Little, Brown and Company, ISBN: 9780316473125.
Since winning the a 2015 Coretta Scott King Author Honor and the 2015 Newbery Award for his incredibly moving verse novel The Crossover, the great Kwame Alexander has made an amazing impact. Book after book, from the novels Booked and Rebound to the terrific poetry collection Out of Wonder, just to name a few, Alexander’s sterling contributions contain unforgettable poetic passages that sometimes literally fly and soar across the page. The Undefeated, his concise, haunting poem touching on many layered aspects of the Black experience in the United States, became an interest modern picture book classic, earning many well-deserved awards for Alexander and legendary illustrator Kadir Nelson.
An American Story works as a powerful companion to The Undefeated. At the height of his powers, Alexander presents an unflinching poem about the horrors enslaved people experienced. And he touches on why we all need to hear about them, not hide from this history. He follows the recurring line “How do you tell that story?” with grueling details about injustice and harsh mistreatment. Throughout he cuts to modern-day kids and a teacher interacting about what they have just read, and this approach has tremendous impact. Alexander makes the case that educators cannot sweep atrocities under the rug. Kids need to learn about what happened.
As with The Undefeated, Alexander has an immensely talented artist to bring his words to life. Artist Dare Coulter uses various artistic methods here. Line drawings for the contemporary scenes, for example. The artist’s note says that Coulter used spray paints and acrylic paints, charcoal, ink, and digital painting methods. And then on top of all of these paintings, Coulter makes sculptures out of ceramic and polymer clay, and they take the work to the next level of beyond excellence.
An American Story is the first bona fide great picture book of 2023.
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