Kwame Alexander

Kofi Offin grows up in Ghana in 1860, with his parents and older brother. He goes to school where the teacher wants them to speak English instead of Twi, deals with a bullying cousin, and likes a girl named Ama. He loves to swim in the river Offin, which he is named after, but his parents always tell him to stay away from there at night.

This novel-in-verse from Kofi's point of view is excellent historical fiction. The slave trade, of course, is the Door of No Return but there's so much to show more Kofi's story prior to this, which is part of the brilliance of what Alexander is doing here. He's a normal 11-year-old boy dealing with challenges, and then the unthinkable happens. As you can expect when it delves into Kofi and the others captured as slaves, there is violence and references to rape that are so vague that younger children won't pick up on it. Surprisingly, it ended on a rather positive note, and left the reader with a lot to ponder. show less

How do you tell a painful part of history to children? This is the question artist Kwame Alexander faced after an incident at his daughter’s school, and this book is his poetic response. It’s worth quoting his author’s note from the end of the book in full:

"I wrote this story after a racially charged incident happened in my daughter’s fourth grade classroom. They were learning about life in the thirteen colonies without discussing the impact and trauma of slavery. During a show more parent-teacher conference to discuss the matter, my daughter’s teacher became defensive. We realized that her anxiety came from a fear of teaching slavery, which stemmed from the fact that she was never taught how to teach slavery in the classroom. It became apparent that so many schools don’t prepare their students to fully understand the truth about slavery. Because it’s scary. And hard. I believe An American Story can help give us a way to speak the truth to children, so we can all stop being afraid, so we can start moving closer to our better selves."

“How do you tell a story / that starts in Africa / and ends in horror?” he begins and concludes with “You do it by being brave enough to lift your voice, / by holding history in one hand / and clenching hope in the other.” In between these opening and closing verses are a narrative of grief, struggle, and hope powerfully illustrated in sculpture, drawing, and paint by Coulter starting with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and arriving in a 21st century classroom. It’s a stunning achievement. show less

This is an illustrated version of a beautiful poem by Kwame Alexander. The poem itself is a powerful interpretation of the Black experience in America. The illustrations are stunningly realistic, as is always the case with Kadir Nelson's exceptional art.

Back matter goes into much more detail about the history of the people seen in the illustrations and the meaning behind the poetic words, running the gamut from tragedies such as slavery and unarmed Black people murdered by the police to show more victories like sports achievements and famous artists. I learned quite a bit from this portion of the book, especially because my sports history knowledge is rather weak.

This a thoroughly engaging, educating, upsetting, engrossing, saddening, and uplifting piece of art. Every child and parent in America should be reading it together and discussing ways things have gotten better, ways things *need* to get better, and what they can do to help move progress along. show less

Beginning with the death of his mother, author and poet Kwame Alexander reflects on his life as he sees it through the women he loved - his mother, his two wives, and his two daughters.

This was a lovely collection of thoughts, poems, letters, and recipes all bundled up in a sort of confessional memoir written to Alexander's two daughters. I imagine the writing must have been very difficult and very cathartic as he worked through his thoughts about himself and these people - not just women, show more but his father as well - that impacted him. If the description of the format didn't make it clear, this is not your standard memoir and you will not necessarily come away with a clear idea of the Newbery-award-winning author's biography. But the ways in which his mother's death - which bookends the book, both the beginning in end - or his eldest daughter's estrangement have affected him and caused him to take stock are on full display here. It's an intriguing, powerful look into one man's emotional life. show less