Who Will I Be Lord?

Nelson's (Almost to Freedom) paean to family is narrated by a girl who repeatedly asks the title question as she retraces the occupations and personalities of her family role models. Great-Grandpap was a music-loving mailman who gave up his banjo gigs to spend time with his family. Great-Grandma was a housewife who defied her prejudiced white parents by marrying a black man ("Mama says Great-Grandma knew more about love than most folks"). Grampa is a preacher who lives by the Golden Rule, and Uncle is a pool shark who is true to himself. "Mama is a mama" who "was born with a talent for lookin' after folks" and who helps her daughter answer her lingering question: "She says God gives us each some seeds to sow. The rest is up to us." Though perhaps a bit static, Qualls's (Dizzy) spare, muted artwork has an understated quality (buildings defined by thin pencil lines give the barest suggestion of setting) that conjures the distance, yet importance, of the past and the strong connections that bind the narrator to her family. Ages 4â8.

October 1, 2009
PreS-Gr 2-A contemplation of the future through the lens of a family's past. An African-American girl looking to the future has a broad range of relatives to emulatea banjo-playing mailman, a housewife who broke the color barrier, a pool shark, and a burger-flipping aspiring jazzman. Nelson's rhythmic and colloquial first-person narrative introduces the characters not only in terms of the jobs they hold, but also the kind of people they are; her Great-Grandpap believes, "Nothin's more important than family." For the jazzman, "what matters is the trying." Qualls's mixed-media illustrations combine muted and bright elements and feature full-spread renditions of each relative at home or work, followed by a page showing surreal floating heads of the girl and the featured role model as she repeats the title's query. Nelson shows respect for all the ways people live and work."Lisa Egly Lehmuller, St. Patrick's Catholic School, Charlotte, NC"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2010
A girl talks about how her relatives lived their lives, asking: "And what will I be, Lord? What will I be?" Through Nelson's words and Qualls's mixed-media illustrations, each person becomes distinct and memorable. The story touches on serious topics (racism, slavery), but its overall tone conveys the warmth of the family members' love and their devotion to God and one another.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2009
A little girl names her relatives one by one and talks about what they did and how they lived their lives. She begins with Great-Grandpap, an African American mailman who moonlighted as a musician until he met Great-Grandma, who was white; she became a housewife. The refrain after the little girl describes each person is "And what will I be, Lord? What will I be?" Through Nelson's words and Qualls's mixed-media illustrations, each person becomes distinct and memorable, from the girl's grandma (a teacher) to her uncle (a pool shark): "Mama says she likes him because he isn't two-faced like some. He is who he is." Qualls delineates each character so vividly that by the end readers will be enticed into remembering and naming each of the faces that surround the little girl's on the last page. The story touches on serious topics (racism, slavery), but its overall tone conveys the warmth of the family's love and their devotion to God and one another, themes that may lead children to examine their own families and their own purposes in life.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)