Coretta Scott King Honor Book

2005

Notable Children's Books —ALA

2005

Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children

2005

Coretta Scott King Honor Book

2005

Notable Children's Books —ALA

2005

Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children

2005

The Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence

2005

Editor's Choice —Kirkus Reviews

2004

Voice of Youth Advocates

"Nelson's requiem was written soon after the World Trade Center Towers were destroyed. She dedicated it to all those who died that day and also to anyone who had ever endured complete and total suffering, commemorating the life of Fortune and the history that surrounds him and his skeleton. The book is divided into different sections to highlight the parts of a traditional requiem. She intersperses facts about Fortune's life on the opposite pages. Students and patrons might find the lyrical writing interesting and the story fascinating."

New York Times Book Review

"Nelson's eulogy for a slave who lived in New England, Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem, jolts us out of any feeling we might have that another person's misfortune is none of our business."

Kirkus Reviews

"The central question—where does humanity reside?—receives thoughtful, fervent consideration: it's a glorious reclamation of a man whose identity had been assailed from the moment of his birth to beyond his death."

Voice of Youth Advocates

"Nelson's requiem was written soon after the World Trade Center Towers were destroyed. She dedicated it to all those who died that day and also to anyone who had ever endured complete and total suffering, commemorating the life of Fortune and the history that surrounds him and his skeleton. The book is divided into different sections to highlight the parts of a traditional requiem. She intersperses facts about Fortune's life on the opposite pages. Students and patrons might find the lyrical writing interesting and the story fascinating."

New York Times Book Review

"Nelson's eulogy for a slave who lived in New England, Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem, jolts us out of any feeling we might have that another person's misfortune is none of our business."

Kirkus Reviews

"The central question—where does humanity reside?—receives thoughtful, fervent consideration: it's a glorious reclamation of a man whose identity had been assailed from the moment of his birth to beyond his death."

School Library Journal

"This volume sets history and poetry side by side and, combined with the author's personal note on inspirations, creates a unique amalgam … the facts inform the verse and open up a full appreciation of its rich imagery and rhythmic, lyrical language. The book brings the past to life and could make for a terrific choral reading."

Booklist

"Stirring poems … framed by a wealth of facts."

Horn Book

"Marilyn Nelson's liturgical re-membrance pieces together the macabre story of an enslaved man in eighteenth-century Connecticut … [and] ensures that Fortune's specter and that of the "peculiar institution" that fettered him will continue to haunt us."

Multicultural Review

"Connecticut's Poet Laureate Marilyn Nelson continues to dazzle us with her extraordinary gifts. She is a writer capable of bringing any subject to life … This wonderful and unusual book is illustrated with pictures of the Porter family and historic documents, it also has Fortune's face. Finally he has a face. Thanks to Nelson he also has his freedom and we have a glimpse into his soul. And a beautiful Requiem to honor him. "

Hudson Review

"The unobtrusive dialect and horrifying irony here make this one of Nelson's best lyrics. Her strangely powerful little book, more suggestive of outrage than voluble about it, belongs with an earlier collection of hers, The Homeplace, as one of the more compelling uses of history in contemporary poetry."