MARCH 2023 - AudioFile
This musical picture book brings history and community to life. In the first part, author Carole Boston Weatherford's bright voice lets her words shine over unobtrusive inspirational music. Weatherford's steady rhythmic delivery of the repeated phrase "standing in the need of prayer" creates a tone of urgency that drives the stories of Black struggles and victories throughout American history. A resources section fills in more historical details. Against a hymnal piano background, an author's note explains the tradition of spirituals and Weatherford's personal connections to them. Finally, Weatherford lifts her voice in song, performing her book a second time over a spare percussive arrangement, with hand claps conjuring up the congregation. This powerful and insightful experience will spark curiosity in listeners. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 10/03/2022
Beginning with images of chattel slavery and ending with spreads showing Black luminaries, the creators offer an absorbing rendition of the legendary spiritual: a legacy in song and portraiture that depicts Black Americans’ achievements across an anti-Black history. In Boston Weatherford’s four-line verses, those “standing in the need of prayer” describes “families enslaved and sold apart,” then “millions on the move in the Great Migration,” members of the civil rights movement, and “record-breaking athletes,” leading to a contemporary image of children: “It’s me, O Lord.” Morrison’s imagery brings Black history to life, portraying hundreds of years of experiences to the rhythm of a song that moves beyond the religious and into the broadly reverential. Weatherford and Morrison successfully elevate a classic song, rendering it as relevant and profound across time. Ages 6–9. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
★ "A richly illustrated, informative picture book that will leave readers humming and spark a desire to learn more." —The Horn Book, starred review
★ "Gorgeous and enlightening, nourishing both mind and soul."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
★ "Truly elegant."—Booklist, starred review
★ “An evocative use of prayer as old-school protest with a history lesson that is as lilting as a ballad.” —School Library Journal, starred review
★ “Weatherford and Morrison successfully elevate a classic song, rendering it as relevant and profound across time.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A love letter to the Black community...The book is a lesson, a tribute and an inspiration that should work as both an excellent read-aloud and potential sing-along." —Shelf Awareness
School Library Journal
★ 10/01/2022
Gr 1–4—"It's me, it's me, O Lord,/ Standing in the need of prayer./ Not my father, not my mother,/ but it's me, O Lord,/ Standing in the need of prayer." A familiar spiritual is recast as a pledge to remember history and make a better future, and the lockstep of words and art feels as if Weatherford and Morrison were in harmony from the outset.A scene of a slave in shackles and another one for sale gives way to a portrait of Nat Turner and then to one that is an homage to the Emancipation Proclamation and the Great Migration. Portraits, like stepping stones through history, well-explained and documented in the back matter, reference people or moments mentioned in Weatherford's verses, from the Tuskegee Airmen, Duke Ellington and all of Black music, Ruby Bridges, Martin Luther King, Jr., Florence Griffith Joyner, Colin Kaepernick, and Black Lives Matter. The force of the words along with the glowing, sculptural lines of Morrison's paintings will draw onlookers into the journey through time and pain, to two modern children carrying protest signs and facing readers directly, ready and hopeful for what's next. VERDICT An evocative use of prayer as old-school protest with a history lesson that is as lilting as a ballad, this spiritual demands a group setting to be fully appreciated for the uplifting answers it provides.—Kimberly Olson Fakih
MARCH 2023 - AudioFile
This musical picture book brings history and community to life. In the first part, author Carole Boston Weatherford's bright voice lets her words shine over unobtrusive inspirational music. Weatherford's steady rhythmic delivery of the repeated phrase "standing in the need of prayer" creates a tone of urgency that drives the stories of Black struggles and victories throughout American history. A resources section fills in more historical details. Against a hymnal piano background, an author's note explains the tradition of spirituals and Weatherford's personal connections to them. Finally, Weatherford lifts her voice in song, performing her book a second time over a spare percussive arrangement, with hand claps conjuring up the congregation. This powerful and insightful experience will spark curiosity in listeners. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-08-17
Weatherford infuses the lyrics of a traditional spiritual with pivotal events in African American history.
In four-line stanzas, references to the unseen narrator (“It’s me, it’s me, O Lord”), the ancestors, and present-day children alternate with the line “Standing in the need of prayer.” From “families enslaved and sold apart,” “a band of rebels,” and “freedmen seeking kin at Emancipation” to Black students integrating all-White schools, athletes breaking records, and choirs singing of justice and freedom, African Americans from across the eras and generations are humbled before God as they face mighty obstacles with brave resistance and endurance. Readers don’t need to know the song to enjoy this book; the repeated lines have the power of an incantation, inducing a meditation on all that Black people have survived and how they have thrived. Morrison’s elegant, emotional, painterly illustrations highlight the beauty, dignity, and grace of the people throughout difficult and degrading circumstances. Rich earth tones, texture, and light invite the eye to linger on the varied, portrait-style compositions. Not just for faithful homes, this is a book that can spark conversations about Black history from a strengths-based lens, with culture and coping as the focus. Brief notes discuss the figures and topics referenced in the main text, and an author’s note explains the importance of spirituals to the culture and to Weatherford personally. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Gorgeous and enlightening, nourishing both mind and soul. (online resources) (Historical picture book. 4-10)
