Follett Content Book Detail: Kin : Rooted in Hope by Weatherford, Carole Boston

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Kin : Rooted in Hope

Author: Weatherford, Carole Boston

Follett Number: 2049SC9
Audience: Middle School
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2023
Format: 202 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
ISBN-13: 978-1-66591-362-1
ISBN-10: 1-66591-362-2
LCCN: 2022-037395
Dewey: -Fic-
Classifications: Fiction

Subjects:
African Americans Fiction
Family Life Fiction
Historical Fiction
Maryland History Fiction
Novels in Verse
Slavery Fiction
Includes bibliographical references (pages 200-202). A multi-generational family history told in the voices of the author's ancestors, spanning enslavement alongside Frederick Douglass at Maryland's Wye House plantation, service in the U.S. Colored Troops, and the founding of all-Black Reconstruction-era communities.

From the publisher:
A Coretta Scott King Honor Book A Boston Globe-Horn Book Poetry Award Winner An "imaginative and moving" (The Horn Book, starred review) portrait of a Black family tree shaped by enslavement and freedom, rendered in searing poems by acclaimed author Carole Boston Weatherford and stunning art by her son Jeffery Boston Weatherford. I call their names: Abram Alice Amey Arianna Antiqua I call their names: Isaac Jake James Jenny Jim Every last one, property of the Lloyds, the state's preeminent enslavers. Every last one, with a mind of their own and a story that ain't yet been told. Till now. Carole and Jeffery Boston Weatherford's ancestors are among the founders of Maryland. Their family history there extends more than three hundred years, but as with the genealogical searches of many African Americans with roots in slavery, their family tree can only be traced back five generations before going dark. And so from scraps of history, Carole and Jeffery have conjured the voices of their kin, creating an often painful but ultimately empowering story of who their people were in a breathtaking book that is at once deeply personal yet all too universal. Carole's poems capture voices ranging from her ancestors to Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman to the plantation house and land itself that connects them all, and Jeffery's evocative illustrations help carry the story from the first mention of a forebear listed as property in a 1781 ledger to he and his mother's homegoing trip to Africa in 2016. Shaped by loss, erasure, and ultimate reclamation, this is the story of not only Carole and Jeffery's family, but of countless other Black families in America.

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  • Booklist (July 2023 (Vol. 119, No. 21)) (179 words; 1,138 chars)
  • Horn Book Magazine (September/October, 2023) (243 words; 1,579 chars)
  • Kirkus Reviews (September 1, 2023) (212 words; 1,437 chars)
  • Publishers Weekly (July 31, 2023) (198 words; 1,324 chars)
  • School Library Journal Xpress (September 15, 2023) (220 words; 1,415 chars)

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