"As the Civil War came to a close, many African American children had brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers who had been sold to other plantations, sometimes far away. A lot of families took to the road to find these relatives...I wanted to tell the story of one such family."
--A.LaFaye
This is currently my favorite children's book. It tells the story you never hear. The one that you should hear.
Also, the illustrations are pretty awesome.
I had the honor of personally getting to know Alexandria a bit this summer when she taught one of my classes. She's incredibly smart and has the most adorable little daughter, Adia. Alexandria quickly became one of my favorite professors.
She's a wonderful teacher, a wonderful person and a wonderful writer and every time I read this book I cry in that good, passion-eyed, full soul way. Go buy yourself a copy. You can also find it online with Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
Read it to a child. Read it to everyone. Share it a lot. I'd love to see this book get the full recognition it deserves.
That sounds like an excellent and important book for children! Did many of your lit professors encourage books that were more historically educational? She sounds like a great teacher.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your kind comments about my illustrations. The artwork was a dream to create but the research was the nightmare. All the pain of that era is beyond comprehension. This particular aspect of Reconstruction is rarely explored. Alexandria LaFaye's text brought the images alive for me. I thank God for the opportunity to share them with you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Keith! So great to get a comment from the illustrator himself! I love your work!
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