Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans is an American illustrated picture book for young adult readers, originally published by HarperCollins in 2011. Kadir Nelson, both the author and illustrator, writes from the perspective of an unnamed narrator and reviews significant events in African-American history. The book received a 2012 Coretta Scott King Author Award. [1]
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Nelson begins the story with an emotional introduction that talks about the many triumphs and hardships African Americans have overcome in America. Nelson then writes individual mini chapters about significant events such as slavery, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, Jim Crow laws, emancipation, the Civil Rights Movement, and the vote for women. Each section discusses significant members of the African American community and their contributions.
The book received positive critical reviews. Common Sense Media wrote that the book's "epic narrative" was "compelling, complex, and deeply personal." [2] The New York Times wrote that the book "cries out for a teacher or parent to expand and deepen the experience." [3]
The book won a 2012 Coretta Scott King Author Award. [4]
Tom Feelings was an artist, cartoonist, children's book illustrator, author, teacher, and activist. He focused on the African-American experience in his work. His most famous book is The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo (1995).
Christopher Paul Curtis is an American children's book author. His first novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, was published in 1995 and brought him immediate national recognition, receiving the Coretta Scott King Honor Book Award and the Newbery Honor Book Award in addition to numerous other awards. In 2000, he became the first person to win both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award—prizes received for his second novel Bud, Not Buddy—and the first African-American man to win the Newbery Medal. His novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 was made into a television film in 2013.
Virginia Esther Hamilton was an American children's books author. She wrote 41 books, including M. C. Higgins, the Great (1974), for which she won the U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Newbery Medal in 1975. Her works were celebrated for exploring the African-American experience, what she called "Liberation Literature."
The Coretta Scott King Award is an annual award presented by the Coretta Scott King Book Award Round Table, part of the American Library Association (ALA). Named for Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., this award recognizes outstanding books for young adults and children by African Americans that reflect the African American experience. Awards are given both to authors and to illustrators for universal human values.
Patricia C. McKissack was a prolific African American children's writer. She was the author of over 100 books, including Dear America books A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl;Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North; and Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl. She also wrote a novel for The Royal Diaries series: Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba. Notable standalone works include Flossie & the Fox (1986), The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural (1992), and Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? (1992). What is Given from the Heart was published posthumously in 2019.
Kadir Nelson is a Los Angeles–based painter, illustrator, and author who is best known for his paintings often featured on the covers of The New Yorker magazine, and album covers for Michael Jackson and Drake. His work is focused on African-American culture and history. The New York Times describes his work as: "sumptuous, deeply affecting work. Nelson’s paintings are drenched in ambience, and often overt symbolism. He has twice been a Caldecott honor recipient and won the 2020 Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in The Undefeated.
Sharon Mills Draper is an American children's writer, professional educator, and the 1997 National Teacher of the Year. She is a two-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for books about the young and adolescent African-American experience. She is known for her Hazelwood and Jericho series, Copper Sun,Double Dutch, Out of My Mind and Romiette and Julio.
Nikki Grimes is an American author of books written for children and young adults, as well as a poet and journalist.
Andrea Davis Pinkney is an author of numerous books for children and young adults, including picture books, novels, works of historical fiction and nonfiction; she writes about African-American culture. In addition to her work as an author, Pinkney has had a career as a children's book publisher and editor, including as founder of the Jump at the Sun imprint at Hyperion Books for Children, the Disney Book Group. She is vice president and editor-at-large for Scholastic Trade Books.
Marilyn Nelson is an American poet, translator, biographer, and children's book author. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut, and the former Poet Laureate of Connecticut. She is a winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, and the Frost Medal. From 1978 to 1994, she published under the name Marilyn Nelson Waniek. She is the author or translator of more than twenty books and five chapbooks of poetry for adults and children. While most of her work deals with historical subjects, in 2014 she published a memoir, named one of NPR's Best Books of 2014, entitled How I Discovered Poetry.
Ashley Frederick Bryan was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Most of his subjects are from the African-American experience. He was a U.S. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006 and he won the Children's Literature Legacy Award for his contribution to American children's literature in 2009. His picture book Freedom Over Me was short-listed for the 2016 Kirkus Prize and received a Newbery Honor.
Eloise Greenfield was an American children's book and biography author and poet famous for her descriptive, rhythmic style and positive portrayal of the African-American experience.
Andrew Aydin is an American comics writer, known as the Digital Director & Policy Advisor to Georgia congressman John Lewis, and co-author, with Lewis, of March, Lewis' #1 New York Times bestselling autobiographical graphic novel trilogy.
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom is a 2006 children's picture book by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, originally published by Hyperion Books for Children. It has received both a Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award.
The Great Migration: Journey to the North is a 2011 children's poetry book. Written by Eloise Greenfield and illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist, the poems depict the experiences and feelings of African-American families that participated in the Great Migration in the United States in the 20th century. It was first published by Amistad.
Claire Hartfield is an American writer of history-inspired novels, best known for her Coretta Scott King Award-winning non-fiction novel A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919.
Richard Gregory Christie is an American author and illustrator of picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, and album covers best known for his Coretta Scott King Award-winning books No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller, Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U. S. Marshal, and Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Only Passing Through, and the NAACP Image Award-winning Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change.
Joyce Viola Hansen is an American writer and retired schoolteacher. She has earned recognition for her books for children and youth, particularly her historical fiction and non-fiction works about African-American history.
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl is a 1997 historical fiction children's book by American author Joyce Hansen, published by Scholastic. The book is part of the Dear America series for young readers. It was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book in 1998.
Mildred Pitts Walter is an American children's book writer, known for her works featuring African-American protagonists. Walter has written over 20 books for young readers, including fiction and nonfiction. Several of her books have won or been named to the honor list of the Coretta Scott King Awards. A native of Louisiana who later moved to Denver, Walter was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. She published her autobiography, Something Inside So Strong: Life in Pursuit of Choice, Courage, and Change, in 2019.
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