Starred Review ALA Booklist (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

Starred Review All ages. Widely known as the African American national anthem, Johnson's song is combined here with dramatic linocut prints by the celebrated artist Elizabeth Catlett. The song was originally written for schoolchildren at an Abraham Lincoln birthday celebration in 1900. The pictures were originally created in the 1940s as part of Catlett's series on black women through history. Together they make not a literal matching of words and illustrations but a powerful image of ordinary people enduring through hard times. The book design is clear and handsome: on the right-hand page of each double-page spread a few lines of the song are framed by turquoise and black geometric borders; on the facing page is a print, usually in black-and-white. At the end of the book is the full sheet music. Catlett has lived in Mexico since the 1940s, and her art is reminiscent of Diego Rivera's murals, with strong, swirling lines, almost like sculpture at times. Most of the prints are portraits of women--some famous and militant, like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman; some unknown, their individual figures set against field and city. One unforgettable picture focuses on a weary woman riding the bus behind the Colored Only sign; her face makes us imagine her story. Another print shows two women facing each other but alone, segregated city blocks in the background. The art expresses what Jim Haskins says in the introduction about Johnson's song: it was honest about all the suffering black Americans had undergone but celebrated our triumph over that suffering. (Reviewed FEb. 15, 1993)

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

This welcome new edition of a 1993 picture-book version of the song known as the African American national anthem is illustrated with the Harlem Renaissance artist's strong, stark, and striking black-and-white linocuts. As the original Horn Book Magazine review wrote: "the portraits and the lyrics tell a powerful story of struggle and triumph and hope." The musical score and a (poetic) new foreword by Ashley Bryan are included.

Kirkus Reviews

In his highly iconic reinterpretation of the beloved "Negro National Anthem," Collier was inspired by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Below the words of the song on each double-paged spread, a loose visual storyline follows a young boy through his day. Readers see him rising; going to school; with his class, visiting the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., where a 1963 bombing killed four young girls; laying a wreath at Dr. Martin Luther King's statue, which faces the church; and singing the words of Johnson's momentous song. Two intentional unifying visual elements predominate: water (the slave ships of the Middle Passage, the symbolic drinking fountain of the Civil Rights era, a reflecting pool) and the often upraised, lustrous faces of black school children, sometimes profiled in the clouds. A bright blue predominates in intensely hued skies and school uniforms, while Collier's highly recognizable style incorporates watercolor and collage to meaningful effect. (illustrator's note, words with music) (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-8)

School Library Journal

K-Gr 4-A visual interpretation of Johnson's song, which has become widely recognized as the official African-American national hymn. Collier's earth-toned collage illustrations created with fabric and paint are expansive, sweeping completely over the spreads. Images are subtle yet evocative of different periods in African-American history, beginning with profile outlines of numerous faces in the clouds above a ship traveling on an ocean, implying an ocean voyage. Subsequent images convey the spirit of civil rights, education, and faith. The overall feel and look of this book is one of progress and triumph amid struggle. The lyrics of the three verses of the song are included at the end of the book, along with the music, which was composed by Johnson's brother, Rosamond. While thought-provoking and competently done, Jan Spivey Gilchrist's interpretation (Scholastic, 1995) demonstrates emotion more vividly than Collier's work.-Mary N. Oluonye, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.