An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children
by Jamaica Kincaid
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Pub Date May 07 2024 | Archive Date Jun 07 2024
Description
A unique collaboration from two of America’s leading artists that explores the fascinating and hidden history of the plant world.
In this witty, deeply original book, the renowned novelist Jamaica Kincaid offers an ABC of the plants that define our world and reveals the often brutal history behind them.
Kara Walker, one of America’s greatest visual artists, illustrates each entry with provocative, brilliant, enthralling, many-layered watercolors.
There has never been a book like An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children—so inventive, surprising, and telling about what our gardens reveal.
Advance Praise
"In collaborating with the fiercely imaginative visual artist Kara Walker, Kincaid has transposed this mode of thinking into an amalgam of erudition, discourse, storytelling and picture book art. A simple child’s garden of ABCs their 'encyclopedia' is not. Kincaid’s adult base, too, will gravitate toward it . . . Cunning and often anthropomorphic, the alphabet book’s imagery interpolates child-driven versions of [Walker's] acidly sardonic shadow art with soft-edged, watercolor-drenched vignettes that play hide-and-seek with the letters they’re called on to represent . . . Kincaid and Walker are unafraid to spin the world differently and make it matter in new ways." —Celia McGee, The New York Times Book Review
Marketing Plan
Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John’s, Antigua. Her books include At the Bottom of the River, Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother, My Brother, Mr. Potter, and See Now Then. She lives in Vermont.
Kara Walker is best known for her candid investigation of race, gender, sexuality, and violence through silhouetted figures. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1997 and a United States Artists Fellowship in 2008. Her work can be found in museums throughout the world, including the Guggenheim, MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Tate Modern. She lives in New York.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780374608255 |
| PRICE | $27.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 96 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Darcy H, Bookseller
This was a beautiful and often gut wrenching read. Told in a matter-of-fact, authoritative voice, Jamaica Kincaid (love her writing!) runs through an alphabet of plants, fruits, grains, and gardening accoutrements, and their respective colonial histories.
It was interesting to realize and remember the fraught histories of products as simple as tobacco, or apples. I couldn't help but highlight phrases as I read, because some were too poignant to forget. Kara Walker's art supports and uplifts the entries, underscoring the emotional impact of the text. However, I would love to see the finished book in person, to get the full impact of the images.
Both an art piece and an indictment of colonialism, I think this should be a welcome addition to any bookstore's stock.
Colleen O, Reviewer
Stunning, and thought provoking!!! An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children, by Jamaica Kincaid is a beautifully written and illustrated book for children of all ages (adults can learn a lot from this book as well)! While young children learn about the alphabet, and plants. Older children will learn more about the colonisation of North America, and some of the consequences to native peoples, and those who were kidnapped and forced into slavery. This book should be in the classroom.
Corrin M, Reviewer
A thoughtful and thought-provoking reflection on plants (A-Z) and their colonial history. This was heartbreaking and beautiful. Jamaica Kincaid's writing is always powerful but paired with Kara Walker's beautiful illustrations, her writing came to life. This is a book that I imagine shines in its physical form.
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