Kin

Written by Carole Boston Weatherford · Illustrated by Jeffery Boston Weatherford

Uncover a family's hidden past shaped by enslavement and freedom through evocative poetry and art.

4.2/5 Goodreads · 694 ratings

193 pages· 16,144 words· Est. 2.5 hour read

$18.99Save 5%

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Bookroo's summary

Explore a Black family's journey from enslavement to freedom through powerful poems and illustrations. Carole and Jeffery Weatherford delve into their ancestors' untold stories, tracing their roots back to Maryland's founders. As they piece together their lineage, they reveal voices from the past, including Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, and connect them to a modern-day pilgrimage to Africa. This poignant narrative of loss, erasure, and reclamation resonates with countless Black families in America, offering a deeply personal yet universal tale of identity and heritage.

From the publisher

A Coretta Scott King Honor Book A Boston Globe-Horn Book Poetry Award Winner An “imaginative and moving” (The Horn Book, starred review) portrait of a Black family tree shaped by enslavement and freedom, rendered in searing poems by ALSC Children’s Literature Legacy Award winner Carole Boston Weatherford and stunning art by her son Jeffery Boston Weatherford. I call their names: Abram Alice Amey Arianna Antiqua I call their names: Isaac Jake James Jenny Jim Every last one, property of the Lloyds, the state’s preeminent enslavers. Every last one, with a mind of their own and a story that ain’t yet been told. Till now. Carole and Jeffery Boston Weatherford’s ancestors are among the founders of Maryland. Their family history there extends more than three hundred years, but as with the genealogical searches of many African Americans with roots in slavery, their family tree can only be traced back five generations before going dark. And so from scraps of history, Carole and Jeffery have conjured the voices of their kin, creating an often painful but ultimately empowering story of who their people were in a breathtaking book that is at once deeply personal yet all too universal. Carole’s poems capture voices ranging from her ancestors to Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman to the plantation house and land itself that connects them all, and Jeffery’s evocative illustrations help carry the story from the first mention of a forebear listed as property in a 1781 ledger to he and his mother’s homegoing trip to Africa in 2016. Shaped by loss, erasure, and ultimate reclamation, this is the story of not only Carole and Jeffery’s family, but of countless other Black families in America.