Review: Nelson, K. (2011). Heart and soul: The story of America and African Americans.

Nelson, K. (2011). Heart and soul: The story of America and African Americans. New York, NY: Balzer & Bray, an Imprint of HarperCollins.

Winner of both the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Illustrator Honor, Kadir Nelson’s Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans is the holistic picture of American history missing from published texts for centuries.  Beginning with Africans being brought to America as laborers with the Spanish in 1565, through colonization, slavery, the Civil War, abolition, additional wars, Jim Crow laws, and ending with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this story touches on all the major turning points in America’s journey while including rather than omitting the contributions of so many African American people.

Nelson’s oil paintings are rich and dramatic, astutely revealing the expressions and emotions of the text, which is conveyed through the voice of an unidentified narrator who speaks colloquially and something like a caring grandmother, periodically calling the reader “honey.”  African American men, women, children, soldiers, slaves, freemen, athletes, preachers and leaders are credited with equal respect for their immeasurable roles in creating the “grand quilt of these United States” referenced by the author in his dedication of the book. In an Epilogue, the narrator touches on the vast events having occurred since the Civil Rights Act--“more terrible wars,” assassinations, elections--“plenty of trouble in the world, but a lot of joy, too.”  She then goes on to tell her young listeners of black military officers, community leaders, and the first African American president. She speaks of progress that has been made, and progress that will still come, a promise that is “our nation’s heart and soul.”

This is a significant view of history that has been noted for years as lacking not only in education but in the public eye.  As a beautiful illustration of how all of our histories are stitched together, this volume--at 112 pages including the timeline, index and discussion questions, as well as forty-four paintings--is both a somewhat comprehensive overview, and yet personable and accessible to young readers and listeners.  It is an invaluable resource as a true picture of American history because, as the narrator explains from the beginning, “you have to know where you come from so you can move forward.”

For a brief look at the book and it’s creation as explained by the author, click here.