Weatherford, Carole Boston. Kin: Rooted in Hope. Illustrated by Jeffrey Boston Weatherford. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2023. 978-1-665-91362-1. 220 p. $18.99. Grades 8-12.

Weatherford has shared her collections of lyrical poems accompanied by the powerful illustrations of Jeffrey Boston Weatherford.  The poems follow her ancestors’ stories from the time that they were forced aboard the slave ships in Africa and up to the present day in America. The reader is immersed in these stories that Weatherford has woven beautifully into a powerful tribute to their family. Her poems are told through the voices of her family as well as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

THOUGHTS: Powerful, lyrical, such an important collection of the voices of the ancestors of the author. This is not an easy read, but a necessary one. This is a mother-son duo who put together this collection.

Historical Fiction