Presented by the American Library Association, the award honors a children's or young adult book illustrated by a black artist. The suggested age for The Middle Passage is 14 and up, according to the publisher. The book is a searing exploration of the experience of being taken from Africa and transported on slave ships. While it contains a foreword by the illustrator and an introduction by historian John Henrik Clarke, there are no words used in the body of the book, only black and white pictures. The result is riveting.
Feelings walks the viewer from village to holding pen to the actual ship.
You watch as brands are inflicted on human flesh, whips are wielded and chains are attached. Faces scream and babies are severed from their mothers. What sets the book apart is not simply the brutality but the way Feelings combines suffering and intricate beauty. The silhouette of the slave ship forms into a human body. By his art, Feelings reclaims the Middle Passage by bringing the horror into the light.