* “Laced with powerful imagery, alliteration, and onomatopoeia…, [Kwame’s] verse begs to be sung…. Palmer’s distinctive illustrations offer the perfect accompaniment. A work whose lyrical and artistic genius only becomes more apparent upon rereads."—Kirkus, starred review

*  “Palmer cranks up the visual energy with increasingly populous and sometimes kaleidoscopic images…. A “loud and proud” celebration of the roots and branches of a unique musical heritage.”—School Library Journal

Praise for An American Story

An Indie Next List Pick
An NPR Best Book of the Year
A 2023 KIRKUS BEST CHILDREN'S BOOK
A 2023 PW BEST PICTURE BOOK

*"Beautifully crafted and brutally honest, this offers a thoughtful introduction to a necessary topic."
– Booklist, starred review

*"With powerful art from a bold new talent, this is a probing and sensitive take on a devastating chapter of U.S. history."
– Kirkus, starred review

*"Alexander and Coulter have created a powerful counternarrative in their efforts to answer the question, “How do you tell a story about slavery?”
– Horn Book, starred review

*"A layered, compassionate telling that considers how to relay difficult truths, and as the art converges into a visual of past and present together, stirring concluding lines suggest a route forward."
– Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ 11/01/2024

Gr 2–5—In a free verse panegyric to African American music, Alexander begins with talking drums and praise songs of "the motherland." He then unfolds a rich, historical panorama of singers and song titles, instruments, landmark recordings, and musical styles, from field hollers and "Congo Square ring shouts" to Kendrick Lamar's 2022 album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers—all identified and given additional appreciation and context in an expansive section of end notes. Listen, he urges, to "the hymns/ that carried us away from home/ across a blue unknown," to the "Amazing Grace/ of the Jubilee Singers," to jazz and bebop and scat, to "the reggae/ and the rumba/ to the country/ and the folk/ to the highlife/ and the house." Palmer cranks up the visual energy with increasingly populous and sometimes kaleidoscopic images of people with various shades of brown skin: of dancers raising hands and fists, of singers belting lyrics into microphones, and of musicians on horns and guitars, drums and keyboards combining in, as the author puts it, "a symphony/ of refuge and redemption/ the sweet sound of a people/ surviving and thriving." VERDICT A "loud and proud" celebration of the roots and branches of a unique musical heritage.—John Edward Peters