Change Has Come: An Artist Celebrates Our American Spirit

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1416989552 ISBN 13: 9781416989554

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2009

The black and white images throughout are personal reflections, uniquely felt and rendered by award winning artist Kadir Nelson. They are accompanied by the uplifting words of Barack Obama and commemorate the movement and the moment that have changed our history. It's a celebration of the power of inspiration. It's a celebration of how far we have come and how determined we are to look ahead. It's a celebration of pride, hope and joy personally felt and publically shared.

Most of all it's a celebration of the 44th president - a new president and a new chapter in the American story.

About the Author:

Kadir Nelson is the widely acclaimed illustrator of many books for children, including Thunder Rose, written by Jerdine Nolen, which received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award; Ellington Was Not a Street, written by Ntozake Shange, which received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award; and Hewitt Anderson's Great Big Life, written by Jerdine Nolen, which won the 2005 Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. He is also the illustrator of Deloris Jordan and Roslyn M. Jordan’s Salt in His Shoes and Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee's Please, Baby, Please and Please, Puppy, Please. Kadir Nelson lives with his family in San Diego, California.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1 Up—Weaving Obama's words with his own extraordinary graphite drawings, Nelson has created a moving celebration of the election of our 44th president. The opening pages set the stage for the change that is inspiring America, with simple lines of voters drawn across the spreads of this small book: "It's the answer told by lines/that stretched around schools and churches/in numbers this nation has never seen." In "A Note from the Artist," Nelson explains his motivation for creating this beautiful book: "I hope the artwork will remind all who see it of the greatness of our country and its ability to grow and change for the better." The book's powerful, optimistic message will continue to remind Americans about who we are as a nation and what we can accomplish together: "This is your victory. Change has come to America." A worthy addition.—Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI
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