Chapter Book 12 / Heart and Soul

Title	Heart and Soul
Author	Kadir nelson
Illustrator	Kadir Nelson
Awards	Coretta Scott King
Publisher	Harper Collins
ISBN	978-0-06-173076-4
Readability Score (GLE = Grade Level Equivalent)	Lexile	1050
	DRA	60
	GLE	6.0
	Guided Reading	X
Genre /      Sub-Genre	Chapter Book / Informational
Theme	Life for a slave
Primary Character	slaves
Classroom Use	I would use this book to teach about African American History.
Summary	·         This book is a story of America and African Americans. In the first chapter it starts out with the Declarations of Independence. It tells the story of slavery and how black people were treated during this time. At the end of the book there is an outline available that relates to African American History. It states in 1565, the African Americans first arrive in North America as slaves of Spanish Colonist. In 1865 the Ku Klux Klan is formed and in 2009, Barack Hussein Obama, the forty-fourth president of the United States, is sworn into office. He is the country’s first black president. Something that I liked about this book was that it also had a list in the back with words and definitions that the kids could use while reading the book. The author also has a not in regards to this book in the back. He states that History was not his favorite subject in school and yet he found himself primarily writhing about and illustrating historical subjects. He felt the most natural and concise way to tell the tale would be through the recollections of a narrator whose family history was very closely tied to the American story. He says that this book is not only the story of his family, but an intimate introduction to American history a that he hopes will remind the readers of the extraordinary story and inspire them to learn more about America.