Soul Looks Back in Wonder

"The selections are uniformly uplifting, with affirming messages about the heritage, strength and dreams of African Americans."—Publishers Weekly

In this compelling collection of words and pictures, the voices of thirteen major poets, including Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Walter Dean Myers, rise in response to the dazzling vistas and emotionally vivid portraits of award-winning artist Tom Feelings. A unique and moving collaboration that celebrates the sustaining spirit of African creativity. Tom Feelings has received numerous awards for his art in books. In 1972, he was the first African American artist to win a Caldecott Honor Award for Moja Means One: A Swahili Counting Book and in 1975 he won a second Caldecott Honor Award for Jambo Means Hello: A Swahili Alphabet Book, both written by Muriel Feelings.

Mr. Feelings taught art at the University of South Carolina. It was during that time he published perhaps his best known work, The Middle Passage, which won the 1996 Coretta Scott King Award. Mr. Feelings was working on finishing his last picture book, I Saw Your Face, a collaboration with the poet Kwame Dawes, not long before his death in 2003.