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The 1619 Project: Born on the Water
The 1619 Project’s lyrical picture book in verse chronicles the consequences of slavery and the history of Black resistance in the United States, thoughtfully rendered by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and Newbery honor-winning author Renée Watson.
A young student receives a family tree assignment in school, but she can only trace back three generations. Grandma gathers the whole family, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders.
But before that, they had a home, a land, a language. She learns how the people said to be born on the water survived.
A young student receives a family tree assignment in school, but she can only trace back three generations. Grandma gathers the whole family, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders.
But before that, they had a home, a land, a language. She learns how the people said to be born on the water survived.
48 pages, Hardcover
First published November 16, 2021
104 people are currently reading
10394 people want to read
About the author
Nikole Hannah-Jones
17 books981 followersNikole Hannah-Jones is an American investigative journalist known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. In April 2015, she became a staff writer for The New York Times.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 791 reviews
August 6, 2021
FFirst, I will be buying a copy of this book for my daughter. Second, I can't see this book not getting nominations for some serious awards like the Caldecott or the Coretta Scott King Award. I received this book for review, but all thoughts are my own.
Honestly, I had no idea that this book was forthcoming until I was scrolling through Eidelweiss and saw the cover then I saw "The 1619 Project" and I knew that it was a title that I was going to want to read. It begins with the main character feeling ashamed that she is unable to complete a school project about family ancestry. Unsurprisingly, like quite a few Black people she only knows her family history to a certain point (like her I only know up to about my great great grandmother). It's then that her grandmother tells her the true origins of her history. What follows next is a poetic and heartbreakingly beautiful exposition about the way in which our ancestors were stripped of everything they knew to be brought to an unfamiliar land. This book reminded me of a pretty popular quote, "People say that slaves were taken from Africa. This is not true. People were taken from Africa and were made into slaves." Our ancestors were robbed of their culture, traditions, their very way of life. Who we are now as Black Americans is the result of our ancestry being born on the water. Different tribes from various parts of the continent of Africa were forced together to form a new life, a way to survive the constant trauma inflicted on them. They chose to keep going and to somehow have hope that one day things would change. I don't know how they did it, but like the main character, I'm living that dream for them and it's something that I don't take likely and it's something that I'll never forget. Each poem in this book is sacred to me because it tells the story of where I come from even if I don't know the specifics. With artwork that is out of this world, rich paintings that evoke such deep emotions, this is easily one of my favorite books of 2021. Although it isn't out yet, I highly recommend that you keep this one on your radar.
Honestly, I had no idea that this book was forthcoming until I was scrolling through Eidelweiss and saw the cover then I saw "The 1619 Project" and I knew that it was a title that I was going to want to read. It begins with the main character feeling ashamed that she is unable to complete a school project about family ancestry. Unsurprisingly, like quite a few Black people she only knows her family history to a certain point (like her I only know up to about my great great grandmother). It's then that her grandmother tells her the true origins of her history. What follows next is a poetic and heartbreakingly beautiful exposition about the way in which our ancestors were stripped of everything they knew to be brought to an unfamiliar land. This book reminded me of a pretty popular quote, "People say that slaves were taken from Africa. This is not true. People were taken from Africa and were made into slaves." Our ancestors were robbed of their culture, traditions, their very way of life. Who we are now as Black Americans is the result of our ancestry being born on the water. Different tribes from various parts of the continent of Africa were forced together to form a new life, a way to survive the constant trauma inflicted on them. They chose to keep going and to somehow have hope that one day things would change. I don't know how they did it, but like the main character, I'm living that dream for them and it's something that I don't take likely and it's something that I'll never forget. Each poem in this book is sacred to me because it tells the story of where I come from even if I don't know the specifics. With artwork that is out of this world, rich paintings that evoke such deep emotions, this is easily one of my favorite books of 2021. Although it isn't out yet, I highly recommend that you keep this one on your radar.
August 27, 2021
For as long as authors of books for children have determined that they should be open and honest with their young readers, they have struggled with how much trauma is appropriate. You hear this debate a lot as it pertains to the Holocaust. Should we put it in books? How often? How young should readers be to hear about it? How young is too young? There are strong opinions but no clear-cut answers. The same could be said about slavery in America. But for too long, the Black American history taught in schools has hooked its beginnings on the existence of slavery. Meanwhile the books kids were given to read with Black characters tended to rely on trauma and misery. It’s only been recently that the concept of #blackjoy, and handing kids books that star Black characters but aren’t all slavery or Civil Rights titles, has entered the mainstream vocabulary. And I want to be clear that yes, there is slavery in The 1619 Project: Born On the Water, but like this year’s surprisingly good Timelines From Black History: Leaders, Legends, Legacies, this book begins long before that slavery took place. “Their story does not begin with whips and chains” says the book. And poetry, at least this poetry, doesn't lie.
Author Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson says in their Author’s Note that the intention here was to, “show that Black Americans have their own proud origin story, one that does not begin in slavery, in struggle, and in strife but that bridges the gap between Africa and the United States of America. We begin this book with the rich cultures of West Africa and then weave the tale of how after the Middle Passage, Black Americans created a new people here on this land.” And so our story starts with a Black girl in school being given an assignment to trace her roots and “Draw a flag that represents your ancestral land.” The girl is stumped. While the white kids around her are bragging on how many generations they have, she feels ashamed that she can only count back three. When she mentions this to her grandmother, Grandma gathers the whole family and begins to tell a story. She doesn’t begin in slavery, though. She begins before 1619 and the ship White Lion that brought slaves before even The Mayflower. She relates times in the Kingdom of Ndongo where the people, “knew the power of a seed, how to plant it, water it, how to make something out of nothing.” And yes, slavery took their ancestors. But the way she tells it you realize that this is a much bigger, more complicated story than the ones they teach the kids in school. Best of all, it leaves kids, just like the main character, holding up their heads with pride.
Like other librarians I was more familiar with Renée Watson and her work than I was with Nikole Hannah-Jones. That is, until I realized that this was the same Nikole Hannah-Jones that declined a tenure offer at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, accepting a Knight Chair Appointment at Howard University. What's more, she’s the creator of the 1619 Project itself. Collaborator Renée Watson, on the other hand, has vast experience writing children’s and YA materials in a variety of different forms and formats. Whether it’s the picture book biography of Florence Mills ( Harlem’s Little Blackbird), early chapter book series (the Ryan Hart, stories), fictionalized biographies ( Betty Before X), realistic contemporary middle grades ( Some Places More Than Others), multiple anthologies or YA novels, she has this vast range. She’d never really done historical poetry before, but after reading this book you can see how well she adapts to new styles.
So why poetry? Why use that particular form to tell this story? I’m always intrigued by an author’s choice to turn a book into verse. There are times that this choice feels off-handed and superficially stylistic. This is most often the case when you half suspect the designer of the book reset the typeface and rearranged the book so that it looks like verse, just so that they could fill space. Not so here. Since this is Grandma’s story in Grandma’s voice, you need a clear delineation between the present and the past. Poetry provides that important break, but has other functions as well. For example, look at how repetition in the book is key. Notice how Watson uses that repetition on lines like, “They spoke Kimbundu, had their own words”. There are others too. “We are in a strange land … But we are here and we will make this home.” It’s a chant. Thanks to poetry, the child reader finds a comfort in the repeated lines, both before and after the traumatizing events. More to the point, the repetition in the second half of the book harkens back to the repetition in the first half, making it clear that the people who have been stolen are carrying with them things from home that cannot be carried anywhere but inside.
The book also goes right for the jugular. Talking about the moment when the people were stolen the text reads that, “They did not get to pack bags stuffed with cherished things, with the doll grandmamma had woven from tall grass…” Watch how artist Nikkolas Smith renders the village, empty and destroyed, one doll woven from grass tied to a tree alone. “Ours is no immigration story.” This story does not begin with slavery because if you start with slavery then you have no sense of what has been lost. Roots knew this. Kids books have a tendency to forget.
Now I would love to hear the story of how artist Nikkolas Smith was added to this project. Out of curiosity I took a look at his website and what I saw there was this jaw-dropping range of styles to rival Renée Watson herself . The man is just as comfortable rendering an image with Pixar-level smoothness as he is the broad, thick brush strokes of paint you’d find in any Impressionist painting. Yet when it comes to books for kids, it feels as though he’s been reigning himself in. This isn’t uncommon amongst fine artists making the transition to picture books. Too often they dumb down their style or iron out whatever it is that makes them unique. This in spite of the fact that if they embrace the bookmaking process with the same vigor they do their art, they could end up with a multi-award winner like Gordon C. James’s work on Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut. Fortunately, somewhere between his first few books and Born on the Water a switch was flipped. These paints are unrestrained, the brush strokes thick, plentiful, and beautiful. In his Note at the back of the book he credits Central West Africa for the details in architecture, hair, instruments, clothing, and more he chose to include. He uses “African scarification pattern motifs, where Life, Death, and Rebirth are present.” But on top of all that, on top of the sheer beauty of the paint itself, he knows how to render laughter. Sometimes I think laughter that looks like laughter must be the most difficult thing an artist can create. Not so for Mr. Smith. He can do misery and cruelty and pain as well as anyone else, but he does full-throated joy just as well. Not everyone is so talented.
A person could take a much deeper dive into the art than I have here. The endpapers alone are worth a ten-minute discussion, after all. There’s a lot more to say about the text too. We could discuss how this whole endeavor could easily have tipped sideways. How countless books with good intentions have sunk under the weight of their material, rendering their subject matter flat and, in spite of the content, uninteresting to kids. This book, I believe kids will like. Effort has been put into the text, and the framing sequence (a class assignment that more than one kid will recognize from their own life) is a brilliant way to couch this. This book is clever and gutting and gorgeous. And here’s the highest compliment of all: I truly believe that a kid, on their own, would read this multiple times. It’s a marvelous testament to not just the power of reclaiming your own story, but the story of your ancestors as well. A rarity deserving of discovery.
Author Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson says in their Author’s Note that the intention here was to, “show that Black Americans have their own proud origin story, one that does not begin in slavery, in struggle, and in strife but that bridges the gap between Africa and the United States of America. We begin this book with the rich cultures of West Africa and then weave the tale of how after the Middle Passage, Black Americans created a new people here on this land.” And so our story starts with a Black girl in school being given an assignment to trace her roots and “Draw a flag that represents your ancestral land.” The girl is stumped. While the white kids around her are bragging on how many generations they have, she feels ashamed that she can only count back three. When she mentions this to her grandmother, Grandma gathers the whole family and begins to tell a story. She doesn’t begin in slavery, though. She begins before 1619 and the ship White Lion that brought slaves before even The Mayflower. She relates times in the Kingdom of Ndongo where the people, “knew the power of a seed, how to plant it, water it, how to make something out of nothing.” And yes, slavery took their ancestors. But the way she tells it you realize that this is a much bigger, more complicated story than the ones they teach the kids in school. Best of all, it leaves kids, just like the main character, holding up their heads with pride.
Like other librarians I was more familiar with Renée Watson and her work than I was with Nikole Hannah-Jones. That is, until I realized that this was the same Nikole Hannah-Jones that declined a tenure offer at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, accepting a Knight Chair Appointment at Howard University. What's more, she’s the creator of the 1619 Project itself. Collaborator Renée Watson, on the other hand, has vast experience writing children’s and YA materials in a variety of different forms and formats. Whether it’s the picture book biography of Florence Mills ( Harlem’s Little Blackbird), early chapter book series (the Ryan Hart, stories), fictionalized biographies ( Betty Before X), realistic contemporary middle grades ( Some Places More Than Others), multiple anthologies or YA novels, she has this vast range. She’d never really done historical poetry before, but after reading this book you can see how well she adapts to new styles.
So why poetry? Why use that particular form to tell this story? I’m always intrigued by an author’s choice to turn a book into verse. There are times that this choice feels off-handed and superficially stylistic. This is most often the case when you half suspect the designer of the book reset the typeface and rearranged the book so that it looks like verse, just so that they could fill space. Not so here. Since this is Grandma’s story in Grandma’s voice, you need a clear delineation between the present and the past. Poetry provides that important break, but has other functions as well. For example, look at how repetition in the book is key. Notice how Watson uses that repetition on lines like, “They spoke Kimbundu, had their own words”. There are others too. “We are in a strange land … But we are here and we will make this home.” It’s a chant. Thanks to poetry, the child reader finds a comfort in the repeated lines, both before and after the traumatizing events. More to the point, the repetition in the second half of the book harkens back to the repetition in the first half, making it clear that the people who have been stolen are carrying with them things from home that cannot be carried anywhere but inside.
The book also goes right for the jugular. Talking about the moment when the people were stolen the text reads that, “They did not get to pack bags stuffed with cherished things, with the doll grandmamma had woven from tall grass…” Watch how artist Nikkolas Smith renders the village, empty and destroyed, one doll woven from grass tied to a tree alone. “Ours is no immigration story.” This story does not begin with slavery because if you start with slavery then you have no sense of what has been lost. Roots knew this. Kids books have a tendency to forget.
Now I would love to hear the story of how artist Nikkolas Smith was added to this project. Out of curiosity I took a look at his website and what I saw there was this jaw-dropping range of styles to rival Renée Watson herself . The man is just as comfortable rendering an image with Pixar-level smoothness as he is the broad, thick brush strokes of paint you’d find in any Impressionist painting. Yet when it comes to books for kids, it feels as though he’s been reigning himself in. This isn’t uncommon amongst fine artists making the transition to picture books. Too often they dumb down their style or iron out whatever it is that makes them unique. This in spite of the fact that if they embrace the bookmaking process with the same vigor they do their art, they could end up with a multi-award winner like Gordon C. James’s work on Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut. Fortunately, somewhere between his first few books and Born on the Water a switch was flipped. These paints are unrestrained, the brush strokes thick, plentiful, and beautiful. In his Note at the back of the book he credits Central West Africa for the details in architecture, hair, instruments, clothing, and more he chose to include. He uses “African scarification pattern motifs, where Life, Death, and Rebirth are present.” But on top of all that, on top of the sheer beauty of the paint itself, he knows how to render laughter. Sometimes I think laughter that looks like laughter must be the most difficult thing an artist can create. Not so for Mr. Smith. He can do misery and cruelty and pain as well as anyone else, but he does full-throated joy just as well. Not everyone is so talented.
A person could take a much deeper dive into the art than I have here. The endpapers alone are worth a ten-minute discussion, after all. There’s a lot more to say about the text too. We could discuss how this whole endeavor could easily have tipped sideways. How countless books with good intentions have sunk under the weight of their material, rendering their subject matter flat and, in spite of the content, uninteresting to kids. This book, I believe kids will like. Effort has been put into the text, and the framing sequence (a class assignment that more than one kid will recognize from their own life) is a brilliant way to couch this. This book is clever and gutting and gorgeous. And here’s the highest compliment of all: I truly believe that a kid, on their own, would read this multiple times. It’s a marvelous testament to not just the power of reclaiming your own story, but the story of your ancestors as well. A rarity deserving of discovery.
November 21, 2021
Amazing illustrations, powerful poems. A book that teaches Black children that they come from strong and resilient people who were free before they were enslaved and who helped build America. A powerful book!!!
November 21, 2021
“Born on the Water” is a gorgeously illustrated work, that accomplishes the task of retelling and most importantly correcting the American history we are often taught. It’s poetic, heartbreakingly beautiful. And goes to show the resistance and survival of our people who “had a home, a place, a land before they were sold.”
My only critique would be the ending:
“And because the people survived
and because the people fought,
America has equality in the law.
And because the people survived
and because the people fought,
American began to live up to its promise of democracy.”
I think that this children’s book could have left this as a question…something for it’s readers both children and adults to ponder. Will America ever live up to it’s promise? Will the law ever be truly equal?
My only critique would be the ending:
“And because the people survived
and because the people fought,
America has equality in the law.
And because the people survived
and because the people fought,
American began to live up to its promise of democracy.”
I think that this children’s book could have left this as a question…something for it’s readers both children and adults to ponder. Will America ever live up to it’s promise? Will the law ever be truly equal?
December 1, 2021
This book is absolutely gorgeous, truly a masterpiece. Nicole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson have written a book for single every human, regardless of age or ethnicity. I believe that we need to work harder to open our hearts and reconsider others’ origin stories. It’s so easy to accept whitewashed, simplified, often inaccurate textbook versions of our history. We owe it to our children to do new research rather than repeat platitudes.
“They had a home, a place, a land,
a beginning.
This story is our story.
Before they were
Enslaved, they were free.”
“We are in a strange land, they said.
But we are here and we will make this home.
We have our songs, our recipes, our know-how
We have our joy. We will love, laugh, and sing
and hug our children as tight as you can hold a child.
We will survive because we have each other.”
Added to the beauty of words like the above are meaningful illustrations by the talented Nikkolas Smith. You need to own this book. Really.
“They had a home, a place, a land,
a beginning.
This story is our story.
Before they were
Enslaved, they were free.”
“We are in a strange land, they said.
But we are here and we will make this home.
We have our songs, our recipes, our know-how
We have our joy. We will love, laugh, and sing
and hug our children as tight as you can hold a child.
We will survive because we have each other.”
Added to the beauty of words like the above are meaningful illustrations by the talented Nikkolas Smith. You need to own this book. Really.
March 1, 2022
Beautiful art and an amazing, poetic, and moving answer to the question, "Who are you?" asked of a little Black girl.
(Another project! I'm reading all the picture books and graphic novels from NPR's Books We Love 2021: Kids’ Books list.)
(Another project! I'm reading all the picture books and graphic novels from NPR's Books We Love 2021: Kids’ Books list.)
January 6, 2022
I finished this book wondering yet again why there are those who oppose the teaching of this part of America’s history. How can we deny our African-American citizens the history of how they came here and who they were before they were put on slave ships? We can’t change the ugly past, but we can do better than this. We can be better than this. But first we have to know the truth. There’s no reason to fear the truth if we are big enough to find a better way forward.
February 7, 2022
This is one version of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story for kids, both centering slavery in the historical narrative but also discussing what came before and after. It starts with a young person assigned a genealogy project, which most kids will be able to relate to. I listened to the audio and it's told in verse with some repeating/emphasized phrases. I plan to read the adult version this year. It also goes nicely with Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, which was one of my best audiobook experiences last year.
January 13, 2022
**** 4.5 ****
I love reading children's books, especially the ones that tackle racism and diversity, use great language, and have illustrations. Born on the Water did all of that and more.
It's a story about a little girl who wants to know where her ancestors came from and her grandmother ends up telling her a story about the first slaves that arrived in Virginia.
I think every parent should get this book and read it to their children. To understand the beginning of the United States that is America. To credit its right builders. Although it's extremely tragic, this conversation should be introduced and discussed with children.
Definitely recommend it. The illustrations are absolutely stunning.
I love reading children's books, especially the ones that tackle racism and diversity, use great language, and have illustrations. Born on the Water did all of that and more.
It's a story about a little girl who wants to know where her ancestors came from and her grandmother ends up telling her a story about the first slaves that arrived in Virginia.
I think every parent should get this book and read it to their children. To understand the beginning of the United States that is America. To credit its right builders. Although it's extremely tragic, this conversation should be introduced and discussed with children.
Definitely recommend it. The illustrations are absolutely stunning.
January 24, 2022
Essential reading
July 21, 2023
Their Hands Had a Knowing ✨
April 26, 2022
My 7 year old daughter selected this book from her school library today.
First of all, I LOVE that she's choosing books about characters who look different from her. 🙌
Second of all, it was so good, and such an important read, especially for little kids who may not have had the slavery conversation yet. My daughter is 7 and I think this was the perfect conversation starter. Very grateful for her school librarian for selecting this book for their school library. ❤️
First of all, I LOVE that she's choosing books about characters who look different from her. 🙌
Second of all, it was so good, and such an important read, especially for little kids who may not have had the slavery conversation yet. My daughter is 7 and I think this was the perfect conversation starter. Very grateful for her school librarian for selecting this book for their school library. ❤️
April 1, 2022
Inspiring history! Author Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and creator of the landmark 1619 Project. This is the perfect book for children. The truth.
The artwork by Nikkolas Smith added an instant name for me to follow on social media. The art on each page speaks exactly to the text that it portrays. Even the smallest kids will love following along with this story.
This IS the 1619 story of the start of slavery in America.
"They were brokenhearted, beaten, and bruised,
but they became healers,
pastors and activists,
doctors and counselors
No one could steal the people's joy.
They wrote songs,
created hip-hop,
rhythm and blues.
They became inventors and athletes,
Nurses and cooks,
pilots and architects
farmers and housekeepers,
singers and artists,
dancers and poets,
mathematicians and scientists."
These final few pages will give you goosebumps of pride.
Mandatory reading!
The artwork by Nikkolas Smith added an instant name for me to follow on social media. The art on each page speaks exactly to the text that it portrays. Even the smallest kids will love following along with this story.
This IS the 1619 story of the start of slavery in America.
"They were brokenhearted, beaten, and bruised,
but they became healers,
pastors and activists,
doctors and counselors
No one could steal the people's joy.
They wrote songs,
created hip-hop,
rhythm and blues.
They became inventors and athletes,
Nurses and cooks,
pilots and architects
farmers and housekeepers,
singers and artists,
dancers and poets,
mathematicians and scientists."
These final few pages will give you goosebumps of pride.
Mandatory reading!
December 31, 2021
Necessary reading for all white humans. Powerful and needed book.
December 17, 2021
Amazing in its execution. Manages to tell the brutal enslavement story through verse and vivid paintings, but does so in a way that children of the water can retain pride and excitement about the resilience and ability of the people born on the water. I love everything about the book, including the title. I’ve often argued for a term that would more accurately reflect a people thrown together from different family clans to form a new people in a new land. So, people born on the water speaks to that. And perhaps a proper appellation is still forthcoming. This book helps children and adults answer the question of how this all started, and especially for Black children, allows them to shout, I, too sing America. For America would not be what it is, without the people and their descendants who were born on the water.
May 14, 2023
The 1619 project is based on a theory without a shred of factual evidence. Historians representing different political parties, races, and creeds have repeatedly denounced it. So why doesn’t anyone listen to them? Why is one woman’s theory taken as fact? Why would anyone want their children to believe this as fact unless there is proof? Furthering the divide between Americans is dangerous, and it will be the downfall of this country.
The history of racism and slavery in the US is undeniable and appalling, but the founding fathers simply did not create this country to perpetuate slavery; but with the idea of escaping the tyranny of the English.
The history of racism and slavery in the US is undeniable and appalling, but the founding fathers simply did not create this country to perpetuate slavery; but with the idea of escaping the tyranny of the English.
December 1, 2021
The educators' guide by Dr. Sonja Cherry Paul is just about as important as the book. Study it before you ever share the book with students. https://storage.googleapis.com/classr...
And make sure you are prepared to give plenty of time to this book. It is not a quick one-and-done read aloud.
And make sure you are prepared to give plenty of time to this book. It is not a quick one-and-done read aloud.
December 2, 2021
This book is intense, but the subject matter it covers is the most intense. There is no way to sugarcoat enslaving people, and this story is open and honest about that, as well as about the pride and resilience the people and their descendants maintained. Recommended for adults as well as young people.
July 5, 2022
"Ours is no immigration story." And what an important story of triumph and pride it tells.
Please, please, please -- I beg of you to go read this book. It will change you in all the ways you need to change.
Please, please, please -- I beg of you to go read this book. It will change you in all the ways you need to change.
November 17, 2021
Powerful words combined with absolutely gorgeous art.
December 8, 2021
Absolutely stunning.
Tears formed many times while reading this, but the Legacy page is when they almost broke.
The art, especially the hair, really moved me. My people are so beautiful!
Tears formed many times while reading this, but the Legacy page is when they almost broke.
The art, especially the hair, really moved me. My people are so beautiful!
Read
July 11, 2022Born on the Water tells the origin story of Black Americans in poems, beginning in West Africa before slave-traders kidnapped villagers to sell in America. Framed by a contemporary young Black elementary school girl faced with an assignment to report on her family history who is ashamed because she only knows three generations, the book is the girl’s grandmother's response as she relates their family’s history in poems. The first half of the book focuses on the joyous life in West Africa, and the second half conveys the hardships of the Middle Passage and life in the “New World.” While the violence and heartbreak of slavery is part of the grandmother’s story, pride and resilience are the dominant emotions emphasized by the grandmother. As explained in the “Authors’ and Illustrator’s Notes,” Nikkolas Smith’s paintings echo the energy of each individual poem through color choice, brush stroke variations, and gradations of expressiveness. Born on the Water is an indispensable picture book for classroom, library, and home bookshelves.
July 22, 2022
I finished this book with tears running my face.
"They say our people were born on the water, but our people had a home, a place, a land before they were sold."
"Their story is our story. Before they were enslaved, they were free."
"And that is why people say,
We were born on the water.
We come from the people who refused to die."
Wow. The haunting words, the gorgeous illustrations, all the scenes I saw clearly in my mind as I read the words and gazed at the pictures. This was a serious gut punch to both my heart and my soul.
"They say our people were born on the water, but our people had a home, a place, a land before they were sold."
"Their story is our story. Before they were enslaved, they were free."
"And that is why people say,
We were born on the water.
We come from the people who refused to die."
Wow. The haunting words, the gorgeous illustrations, all the scenes I saw clearly in my mind as I read the words and gazed at the pictures. This was a serious gut punch to both my heart and my soul.
January 13, 2022
Profound
January 27, 2022
While very well written, the thing that really grabbed me was the amazing illustrations! They were beautiful, vibrant, and moving. Beautiful.
January 12, 2022
Devastating. Beautiful. Necessary. Every 3rd grade classroom in the US should teach this book.
September 4, 2021
This phenomenal picture book came together with two writers and an illustrator. One writer was the creator of the 1619 project itself and the other is a well-known YA and middle grade author. The illustrator uses paint to create a vivid story of how the first people of Africa were kidnapped and brought to Virginia to become slaves.
With more words than a traditional picture book, it has a mood, tells a story within a story, and showcases the past for the understanding of the future. It's richly colorful with the scheme chosen in the paint style and the words pay homage to the story that is the dangerous part of American history that needs to be told.
With more words than a traditional picture book, it has a mood, tells a story within a story, and showcases the past for the understanding of the future. It's richly colorful with the scheme chosen in the paint style and the words pay homage to the story that is the dangerous part of American history that needs to be told.
March 18, 2022
"We were born on the water. We come from the people who refused to die."
Everything about this book is amazing! If I had the money I'd buy it for everyone. I am in my fourth decade of life and THIS book made me feel pride in who I am as a black person and a descendant of slaves. In my school years we were taught that we were only captured, oppressed and inferior humans. This book tells the truth in such a crisp and clear way. WE ARE NOT IMMIGRANTS! I felt that statement. We didn't come here on our own volition. We were stolen to be brutalized and used/abused/degrarded to amass great wealth for white people.
Everything about this book is amazing! If I had the money I'd buy it for everyone. I am in my fourth decade of life and THIS book made me feel pride in who I am as a black person and a descendant of slaves. In my school years we were taught that we were only captured, oppressed and inferior humans. This book tells the truth in such a crisp and clear way. WE ARE NOT IMMIGRANTS! I felt that statement. We didn't come here on our own volition. We were stolen to be brutalized and used/abused/degrarded to amass great wealth for white people.
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December 2, 2021Necessary. The illustrations are beautiful.
December 28, 2021
Well written about slavery in this country. Talks about slavery in terms of how it happened. And helps children understand how owning other people and treating them as an object is wrong.
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