Book Description
for America, My Love, America, My Heart by Daria Peoples-Riley
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
“America, the Brave. America, the Bold. / America to Have. America to Hold.” A picture book in which the opening lines suggest the celebratory and devotional goes on to asks unflinching, essential questions in a second-person narrative addressing America in the voice of individual Black and brown children. “Do you love the way I speak? In English? Yes? Spanish? No? … Do you love me when I raise my hand? My head? My voice? / When I whisper? When I SHOUT? … Do you love my black? Do you love my brown? … America, I am you. America, you are me.” Muted illustrations in shades of blue and gray with touches of red show diverse Black and brown-skinned children in a work that some readers and listeners will find affirming, others challenging. It invites deep consideration of how the ways readers experience “America” both individually and collectively may differ depending on who they are, as well as reflection on whether America loves, or even accepts, all of its people freely and without prejudice. (Age 8 and older)
CCBC Choices 2022. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2022. Used with permission.