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Kemosha of the Caribbean by Alex Wheatle

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Times Children’s Book of the Week 15 Jan 2022

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“Wheatle has a big heart, an easy style and natural empathy and doesn’t compromise on the grim details as he introduces us to a little taught period of history through a girl with many of the same dreams as today’s teenagers.” The Times

Kemosha and her brother have lived their whole lives in slavery. Sold away to work in lawless Port Royal, Kemosha takes her chance to escape brutal treatment. With fortune on her side, Kemosha befriends Ravenhide, a man with a mysterious past who teaches her the art of swordfighting, and introduces her to the beautiful runaway Isabella. Yet Kemosha’s greatest test yet is upon the deck of the Satisfaction: the notorious Captain Morgan’s ship. The Captain’s next adventure on the high seas could be the making of Kemosha – and her one chance to earn enough pieces of eight to buy the freedom of her brother…

Read this Books for Keeps interview with the author.

The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones & Renee Watson ill. Nikkolas Smith

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 10 Dec 2021
A TIME Magazine Best Children’s Book of the Year 2021

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“Smith’s evocative, vibrant art is full of emotion and motion. Colors and images speak volumes, while characters are portrayed with dignity, even in the worst circumstances.” KIRKUS
“Written in lovely and loving verse, with dynamic, expressive, and expansive illustrations that convey the emotional journey of a resilient people, this book provides a moving, informative answer to an essential question.” Horn Book
“Alternating between realistic and surreal images, Smith works in a saturated palette to create emotionally evocative scenes: dark, mostly monochrome tableaus convey tragedy or violence; brightly lit, multicolor palettes illustrate scenes of peace and joy. While detailing the specifics of an often-obscured history and its effects, this volume powerfully emphasizes that Black history is not merely a story of slavery and suffering but one of perseverance and hope.” Publishers Weekly

This lyrical picture book in verse chronicles the consequences of slavery and the history of Black resistance in the United States, thoughtfully rendered by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and Newbery honor-winning author Renee Watson.

A young student receives a family tree assignment in school, but she can only trace back three generations. Grandma gathers the whole family, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders.
But before that, they had a home, a land, a language. She learns how the people said to be born on the water survived.

And the people planted dreams and hope,
willed themselves to keep
living, living.

And the people learned new words
for love
for friend
for family

for joy
for grow
for home.

With powerful verse and striking illustrations by Nikkolas Smith, Born on the Water provides a pathway for readers of all ages to reflect on the origins of American identity.

A lyrical picture book in verse chronicling the consequences of slavery and the history of Black resistance in the United States, thoughtfully rendered by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and Newbery honor-winning author Renee Watson.

A young student receives a family tree assignment in school, but she can only trace back three generations. Grandma gathers the whole family, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders.
But before that, they had a home, a land, a language. She learns how the people said to be born on the water survived.

With striking illustrations by Nikkolas Smith, the picture book provides a pathway for readers of all ages to reflect on the origins of American identity.

A Sitting in St. James by Rita Williams-Garcia

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ACHUKA Book of the Day Mon 21 Jan 2021

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“Williams-Garcia’s meticulous research processes shout volumes about the importance of taking contemporary inspiration into the archives to unearth sorely needed truths as we continue to navigate questions of equity and justice for the descendants of enslaved people. A marathon masterpiece that shares a holistic portrait of U.S. history that must not be dismissed or forgotten.” KIRKUS
“In this sweeping, richly researched, and powerfully delivered tale of privilege and exploitation—often a difficult read—Williams-Garcia’s storytelling is magnificent; her voice honest and authentic.” Horn Book
“This provoking history unsparingly centers the brutalization of its Black characters, including manifold instances of beatings, sexual assault, and slurs. If the telling dramatizes harmful philosophies and queer pain, it also offers an unvarnished look at a slowly toppling power structure obsessed with artifice and tradition, hinting through a notably long-view lens that new generations may, slowly and not without suffering, move away from antiquated ideology.” Publishers Weekly

1860, Louisiana. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades, Madame Sylvie Guilbert has decided, in spite of her family’s objections, to sit for a portrait. While Madame plots her last hurrah, stories that span generations—from the big house to out in the fields—of routine horrors, secrets buried as deep as the family fortune, and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved.

This astonishing novel from award-winning author Rita Williams-Garcia about the interwoven lives of those bound to a plantation in antebellum America is an epic masterwork—empathetic, brutal, and entirely human.

Here the author is talking about an earlier, middle-grade novel about a harmonica player, Clayton Byrd Goes Underground:

And some interesting reflections on the beginnings of her writing life/career:

Follow the author on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ritawilliamsgarcia/

‘A Fine Dessert’: Judging a Book by the Smile of a Slave – The New York Times

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More on A Fine Dessert.
Particularly recommend the illustrator’s blog post and comments as linked to in the extract below:

Released this year by Schwartz & Wade, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, and intended for ages 4 to 8, the book has won rave reviews — School Library Journal called it “simply delectable” — and last week was named one of the 10 New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books, chosen annually by a panel of independent judges.

But “A Fine Dessert” has met growing criticism from those who say that an eight-page sequence set on a South Carolina plantation in 1810 puts too sugary a coating on slavery. The sequence shows an enslaved mother and her young daughter making dessert and serving it to their owner’s family, before hiding in a closet to “lick the bowl clean.” In some images, the daughter is smiling.

Last week, Ms. Jenkins posted an apology online, saying that she would donate her writing fee to the campaign We Need Diverse Books.

“I have come to understand that my book, while intended to be inclusive and truthful and hopeful, is racially insensitive,” she said in the statement,posted at the blog Reading While White. “I own that and am very sorry.”

In an author’s note in the book, Ms. Jenkins — a best-selling author who has written about the importance of parents’ seeking out more diverse books — said she wanted to acknowledge history in full.

“Even though there is by no means space to explore the topic of slavery fully,” she wrote, “I wanted to represent American life in 1810 without ignoring that part of our history.”

Ms. Blackall, whose more than 20 books have been praised for their inclusive imagery, echoed the sentiment in a blog post defending the book. Children, she said, have reacted particularly strongly to the scene of the mother and daughter hiding in the closet.

They “are horrified at how unfair it is,” she said. It conveys “a complete lack of freedom.”

via ‘A Fine Dessert’: Judging a Book by the Smile of a Slave – The New York Times.

Children’s author persuaded to apologise for ‘racial insensitivity’ in one of NYT’s best picture books of 2015

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from The Guardian report

In the months since the book has been published, objections to its depiction of the slave characters have emerged. In August, one librarian pointed to its “misleading depiction of slavery”.

“It’s clear that the creators had noble goals, and a criticism of their work is just that – a criticism of the book (not them),” wrote Elisa Gall, an elementary school librarian from Illinois. “But despite the best of intentions, the result is a narrative in which readers see slavery as unpleasant, but not horrendous.”

The criticism has since swelled, prompting Jenkins to issue an apology on the Reading While White blog, a site run by white librarians with the intention of confronting racism in children’s literature. The site had said that “no matter how thoughtful the intent was in depicting this mother and child, the end result is that it can be seen as perpetuating painful imagery of ‘happy’ slaves”.

In a note in the book, Jenkins says that she included slaves “even though there is by no means space to explore the topic of slavery fully” because “I wanted to represent American life in 1810 without ignoring that part of our history”. But she wrote on the Reading While White blog this weekend that she had read the discussions about her book “with care and attention”, and that “I have come to understand that my book, while intended to be inclusive and truthful and hopeful, is racially insensitive”.

“I own that and am very sorry,” wrote the author. “For lack of a better way to make reparations, I donated the fee I earned for writing the book to We Need Diverse Books.”

This despite the following very reasonable commentary on her own book:

“In the first scene, the mother and girl are picking blackberries. I imagined this as a rare moment where they were engaged in a task together, out of doors, away from the house and supervision, where the mother is talking to her child. It is a tender moment, but the mother is not smiling,” she wrote. “The girl has a gentle smile. She is, in this moment, not unhappy. I believe oppressed people throughout history have found solace and even joy in small moments.”

Serving at the dinner table, meanwhile, the scene is “set up to show the deep injustice of the situation”, and the mother and child are “sombre and downcast”, while children have responded “most viscerally” to the image in which the mother and daughter hide in the cupboard to lick the bowl.

“They are horrified at how unfair it is. There is nothing whimsical about hiding in the cupboard. It conveys a complete lack of freedom,” she writes. “I have shown isolated moments of their day which may appear pleasurable, but I don’t think I have made slavery out to seem pleasurable or fun.”

via Children’s author sorry for ‘racial insensitivity’ in picture book showing smiling slaves | Books | The Guardian.