Remember the Bridge

Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People
by Carole Boston Weatherford
Philomel Books, 2002

Genre: Poetry, African American History


Honors:

• Book Links 01/01/07
• Book Report starred 09/01/02
• Booklist 02/15/02
• Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 05/01/02
• Kirkus Reviews starred 12/01/01
• New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age 2004
• Publishers Weekly 12/24/01
• School Library Journal 01/01/02
• Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) 08/01/02
• Wilson's Children 10/01/10
• Wilson's Junior High School 01/09/10

Review: "Remember the Bridge" is not only the title of this book, it is an appeal, a mantra, a lesson being passed on through a series of poems that are also historical accounts of the lives of skillful African hunters, unknowing that they themselves are being hunted, soon to be captured and sent to a new world to be slaves. There are stories of African American heroes such as Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Bessie Smith, as well as the unnamed men and women who worked hard day and night for their masters, who dreamed of freedom, and who escaped. There are poems about quilters and laborers, soldiers, basket weavers, and storytellers, musicians and athletes. Carole Weatherford can hold her audience captive herself with the emotions, the feelings of strife and victory present in the stories her poems convey.

Opinion: There are some very vivid and passionate lyrics in Weatherford's poetry that really hooked me and pulled on my heart strings. The poem, "On the Auction Block," tells how a captured African woman who bears a child on board a slave ship is separated from her baby hours later when she, but not her child, is bought by a slave owner. It is a sad tale, mostly because I can easily imagine that she is real and that she was one of hundreds (if not thousands) of women who had this experience.

Ideas: I practiced reading these aloud to hear the words orally, and it has beautiful rhythm and flow. Would make a good addition to African American history narrative storytime.