Soul School: The Resource Every Library Needs
The conversation Amber O’Neal Johnston and I had let me know that we can talk about books all day! She is incredibly passionate about reading and accessing accurate information for Black children. She explains that when she looks for Black children’s literature as a homeschooling parent, she is looking for representation and truth.
The title's meaning is two-fold: when we hear the word soul, we think of soul food, soul music, and even Soul Train! The word soul is defined as the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being, emotional or intellectual energy or intensity, especially as revealed in a work of art or artistic performance. “These are the books that touch our children’s souls.”
In part two of her book, Amber offers “second helpings,” like going back for seconds after a Sunday dinner that slapped, referring the reader to additional books similar to the recommendation to make it easier to find more books that appeal to the kid’s literary appetite.
Amber O’Neal Johnston has written a master resource full of Black authors and Black stories across genres that lead to more exploration and knowledge about the past, present, and, most importantly, self. This book feels like a love letter to and from Black children’s literature. She is our narrator and literary passage guide, taking tender care to walk the reader through her why for composing the book and how she selected 360 books to contribute to American and global culture.
The way she delves into the soul of reading and learning is imperative to homeschooling communities and all learning communities in general because we all benefit from the mirrors (self-representation) and windows (other cultures' representation) books should provide. However, Black children need to know the full depth and width of our history to increase our ability to leap further and prevent gaps in education and personal identity.
Soul School is not solely a homeschool resource. It is a book that must be in every public and private library. This book packs massive power in the authors and titles included as Amber explores and points out, “All readers need to see Black characters outside the realm of racism, slavery, Jim Crow, and police brutality, and Soul School explores various paths toward that goal” (p.41.)
Cover-to-cover and bit-by-bit, Soul School can be read to savor the “flavor” and revisited repeatedly for research and development. Amber O’neal Johnston has done precisely what Toni Morrison instructs people to do: “If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” Now, the rest is up to us to read, share, annotate, and pay the information forward.
We all will be better for it! Go and get yo Soul School.
Brittany is a book lover with a continuously expanding To Be Read (TBR) List. Her unofficial love language is good food! She lives in an Atlanta suburb with her husband, two daughters, and fur baby.