The Undefeated

6/1/2020

2020 Caldecott Award, 2020 Coretta Scott King Award, 2020 Newbery Honor Book

Kwame Alexander

Alexander's contributions to literature range from poetry to fiction to children's books. In addition to his numerous literary awards, Alexander's work as an author and educator include The Write Thing, a K-12 writing curriculum, Bookish, an FB literary talk show, and Versify, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Kadir Nelson, Illustrator

Nelson's art graces not only numerous award winning children's picture books, but can be found on the cover of the New Yorker magazine, as well as on a series of US Postal Service commemorative stamps. He has worked with Spielberg on Amistad and Spirit, as well as with National Geographic, HBO, Disney, and Sony Music. Nelson's paintings are included in the permanent collections at the US House of Representative, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, among others.

Learning Connections

Slavery
Civil War
Civil Rights
Sports
Literature
Art
Music

"This is for the unlimited,
unstoppable ones.
The dreamers
and doers
who swim
across The Big Sea
of our imagination
and show us
the majestic shores
of the promised land"

Synopsis

This poem is an ode to never giving up. It is a reminder of the heroes in our history who faced slavery and racism with faith, passion and endurance.

Alexander began to write the poem in 2008 to encourage his daughter "to never, ever give up" by revisiting, praising and illustrating the lives and accomplishments of so many forgotten black heroes. Material is provided at the end of the book for each historical figure and event featured in the poem.

World Context

The world I see around me today is not the world I want for my grandchildren. One small way to change the world -- to make sure my Grandsons grow up to be people committed to a just world -- is to read to them from a broad range of voices. Choosing to read not only poems and stories from the traditional Western European canon, but purposefully seeking out diverse experiences and points of view expands how our children will know who we are as a nation.

Ages: 6 - 9; Grades: 1st - 4th; 39 pages. Poetry.

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