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
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