Product Description
Grammy Award winner Rhiannon Giddens celebrates Black history and culture in her unflinching, uplifting, and gorgeously illustrated picture book debut.
I learned your words and wrote my song. I put my story down.
As an acclaimed musician, singer, songwriter, and cofounder of the traditional African American string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Rhiannon Giddens has long used her art to mine America’s musical past and manifest its future, passionately recovering lost voices and reconstructing a nation’s musical heritage. Written as a song to commemorate the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth—which was originally performed with famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma—and paired here with bold illustrations by painter Monica Mikai, Build a House tells the moving story of a people who would not be moved and the music that sustained them. Steeped in sorrow and joy, resilience and resolve, turmoil and transcendence, this dramatic debut offers a proud view of history and a vital message for readers of all ages: honor your heritage, express your truth, and let your voice soar, even—or perhaps especially—when your heart is heaviest.
From School Library Journal
Gr 3 Up—In a few short stanzas, this story-song encapsulates and sets to haunting, minor-key music the African American experience of being taken as slaves and forced to work, then emancipated only to continue to face endless racism. Radiant artwork shows people working hard and trying to make a living as well as the anguish of being displaced and having to start over. At the end of the book, there is a QR code that provides a link to a performance of the song by Giddens on banjo and Yo-Yo Ma on cello that helps bring the musical part of the song alive. This is a difficult topic to discuss with younger children who are typically the audience for picture books, but the historical Black experience in America gains an excellent conversation starter here, in any study about racism or the American past. VERDICT A beautifully illustrated song about the African American experience, with realistic depictions of work and experiences; this is a great choice for libraries looking for new ways to tell stories about slavery, reparations, and the ongoing need for social justice.—Debbie Tanner
Review
This deeply moving portrait of the push and pull of history is made concrete through Mikai’s art. . . Giddens’ powerful, spare poetry, spanning centuries of American history, is breathtaking. Readers who discover her music through this book and the online recording (included as a QR code) will be forever glad they picked up this book. . . . A stunning, honest, yet age-appropriate depiction of historical injustice.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
In near-singable text, musician Giddens (co-founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops) brings to life a lyrical tale of Black trials, triumphs, determination, and home. . . . Mikai’s warm-toned digital illustrations, awash in blues, greens, and browns, portray the family’s closeness to the land and its steadfast commitment to land ownership.
—The Horn Book
Start this book at the back, where there's a QR code to scan. As you listen to the powerful, plaintive strains of Giddens' voice, accompanied by Yo-Yo Ma on the cello as they perform Build a House, turn the pages and follow the story in the illustrations. . . Build a House is brimming with energy, simultaneously placid and raging.
—Booklist
In a few short stanzas, this story-song encapsulates and sets to haunting, minor-key music the African American experience of being taken as slaves and forced to work, then emancipated only to continue to face endless racism. . . the historical Black experience in America gains an excellent conversation starter here.
—School Library Journal
Through the rhythm of words, the lyricism of images, and the power of song, Rhiannon Giddens makes storytelling come alive. Build a House is a story to tell and to remember.
—Yo-Yo Ma
About the Author
Rhiannon Gidden
