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A review by abigailbat
Brick by Brick by Charles R. Smith Jr.
3.0
In almost-rhyming verse, Charles R. Smith Jr. presents the slaves who built the White House. I think the rhythmic verse does a lot to evoke the feelings that Smith is probably going for. He emphasizes how much back-breaking work it was to build the White House, that the slaves didn't get paid but their masters did, and how working on the White House increased some slaves' skills so that they might one day earn money to buy their freedom.
Accompanying illustrations are washed out, almost hazy, which was a good fit, I think. It's like you're remembering something painful (which we are), so you keep it a little bit hazy to ease the hurt. These are no happy working slaves, either. The paintings, while not graphic, definitely show how hard the slaves were working.
The text begs to be read aloud and this would make a good classroom readaloud for units on slavery, but I don't think it has enough actual information to be a great standalone nonfiction text. An author's note gives some more information about why slaves were used to build the White House and what their conditions were like. Selected sources are cited.
Accompanying illustrations are washed out, almost hazy, which was a good fit, I think. It's like you're remembering something painful (which we are), so you keep it a little bit hazy to ease the hurt. These are no happy working slaves, either. The paintings, while not graphic, definitely show how hard the slaves were working.
The text begs to be read aloud and this would make a good classroom readaloud for units on slavery, but I don't think it has enough actual information to be a great standalone nonfiction text. An author's note gives some more information about why slaves were used to build the White House and what their conditions were like. Selected sources are cited.