Two children's books examine the meaning of home

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2023

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today's episode features two children's books that touch on the topic of home in one way or another. First, musician Rhiannon Giddens speaks with NPR's Ailsa Chang about turning the song she wrote during the 2020 racial protests, "Build A House," into a children's book that dives into the complexities of slavery and civil rights in the U.S. Monica Mikai illustrated the book. Then, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Grace Lin and Kate Messner about Once Upon a Book, which follows a little girl's journey as she loses herself in literature.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Linda Holmes. It's fun to talk about children's books when
0:07.1	you're an adult, especially if you don't have kids and you don't spend a lot of your time
0:11.0	reminding yourself how great they can be. And in a hugely complicated world, how crucial they
0:16.5	can be too. A little later, we'll bring you a book about books themselves, but first up, one that
0:22.5	grew out of music. This would make a great kids book is something I feel like people say a lot.
0:29.2	They say it when they see something beautiful, something meaningful, maybe something simple.
0:34.1	But the musician Rianne and Giddens based her new book, Build a House on a song she wrote that's not simple at all.
0:40.2	The song is about Black Americans who, as she puts it, were brought here to build the country but haven't been allowed equality since then.
0:47.8	She tells NPR's Elsa Chang about the complicated process of telling an often disturbing historical truth through words and images in a way that kids can hear and understand.
0:59.4	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
1:04.1	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.
1:10.7	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:18.0	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:24.1	Back in the summer of 2020, when racial justice protests were unfurling all across the country,
1:30.1	George Floyd! Grammy-winning artist Riannon Giddens was watching her homeland from afar.
1:41.1	She was in Ireland, where she's now based with her family, and feeling, as she put it,
1:45.8	furious, despairing, impotent. She wondered, would the U.S. ever truly change? And so, she wrote down
1:54.9	some words and set those lines to music. And then she collaborated with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The song was called Build a House.
2:04.2	You brought me here to build your house, build your house, build your house. You brought me here, build
2:13.2	your house, and throw your garden find. And now these lyrics have been paired with vibrant illustrations to form a new children's book, also called Build a House.
2:24.9	It tells the story of a family's resilience in the face of oppression and hatred as they try to build their own house.
2:32.7	Rianne and Giddens joins us now. Welcome.
	...

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