Five stars for art, no doubt. Kadir Nelson is really a genius illustrator, particularly his portraits, which are captivating and have this epic quality. How can an illustration just seem important in and of itself? I don't know, but these illustrations do. They're powerful.

Now on to the text: I love that Nelson took over 400 years of history and told the story in under 100 pages. To sit and read this book in one go feels like the entire history of this country is flashing before your eyes. The scope of it is awesome.

Of course, you can't really squeeze the whole "Story of America and African Americans" into 100 pages, can you? Not without leaving the reader feeling a little dizzy. And that's where I think the text runs into trouble. You have to skip over big stuff, and not really explain most things to satisfaction. It can be a little confusing and it has some bumpy transitions. Despite my complaints, the overall impact of the book is impressive. ( )

This book immediately sweeps the reader into the story giving the impression you are sitting at the feet of narrator who is about to tell you an extraordinary story. And it is. Author and illustrator Kadir Nelson takes the reader on a journey through history told from the African American viewpoint. Nothing is left out but even then there's a strong sense of identity and why we need to know who we are. Kadir Nelson in his author note describes how as an author and illustrator of history he felt the need to tell the whole story all at once. And then encourages his audience to go seek out their own family history and how it paralleled the American history version learned in school.

A sweeping epic, tracing the history of African Americans from the American Revolution to present day with immensely powerful and beauti - ful paintings that inspire deep thought and reflection.

Subtitled "The Story of America and African Americans," this illustrated book of a little over 100 pages is an informational overview of American history told from the viewpoint of a fictional African American grandmother, whose own grandfather was a slave.

In a note at the end, author/illustrator Kadir Nelson said, "I knew I could not convey the whole story in a hundred pages, so I felt the most natural and concise way to tell the tale would be through the recollections of a narrator whose family history was very closely tied to the American story." Nelson built real ancestors into the story, such as his Seminole great-great-grandmother.

The illustrations in this book are full-page or double-page paintings, and they are gorgeous. Nelson served as the model for many of the people in his illustrations.

Its length and amount of text, combined with its reading level (6th to 8th grade on various systems), make this book more suitable for upper elementary and middle school children. It's not a picture book; it's divided into short chapters. A timeline, bibliography, and index round out the book.

This book was honored with two 2012 Coretta Scott King Book Awards, the Author Award and an Illustrator Honor. Nelson won these same two awards in 2009 for We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. He won another Illustrator Honor in 2004, and was the Illustrator Award winner in 2007 and 2005.

© Amanda Pape - 2012

[This book was borrowed from and returned to my university library.] ( )