Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Undefeated
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
61 posts | 41 read | 14 to read
The Newbery Award-winning author of THE CROSSOVER pens an ode to black American triumph and tribulation, with art from a two-time Caldecott Honoree. Originally performed for ESPN's The Undefeated, this poem is a love letter to black life in the United States. It highlights the unspeakable trauma of slavery, the faith and fire of the civil rights movement, and the grit, passion, and perseverance of some of the world's greatest heroes. The text is also peppered with references to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and others, offering deeper insights into the accomplishments of the past, while bringing stark attention to the endurance and spirit of those surviving and thriving in the present. Robust back matter at the end provides valuable historical context and additional detail for those wishing to learn more.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
blurb
maggiedesantis
Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

This book is a love letter to Black life in the United Staes. It highlights the unspeakable trauma of slavery, the faith and fire of the civil rights movement, and the grit, passion, and perseverance of some of the world's greatest heroes.
Awards won: Caldecott Medal
Purpose of Award: Most distinguished American Picture Book for Children
Author: Kwame Alexander
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Date of publication:
Genre: Non-fiction history book

1 like1 stack add
review
kierstenkaplan
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
Pickpick

This book won the Caldecott, Newberry, and Woodson awards. It was published in 2019. This book was so inspiring and the images were so raw and emotional. This would be a great book to read to children and teach them our country‘s history.

quote
kierstenkaplan
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

“This is for the unafraid. The audacious ones who carried the red, white, and weary blues on the battlefield to save an imperfect Union.”

blurb
kierstenkaplan
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image

quote
KamrynWaites
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

“This is for the unspeakable”

blurb
KamrynWaites
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

Unspeakable, undiscovered, unbelievable, unbending,undefeated.

review
KamrynWaites
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
Pickpick

This book won numerous awards such as Caldecott, newbery, Woodson, and coretta scott king award. This is a powerful book about black history and the people who fought for their freedom. It relays its message through repetition of words and phrases to speak for the unspeakable and the lives lost. It talks about the culture and achievers as well as the fighters.

quote
Apolandvery
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

“ This is for the underdogs and the uncertain, the unspoken but no longer untitled.”

blurb
Apolandvery
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image

review
Apolandvery
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
Pickpick

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson, is a Caldecott medal winner, Newberry honor book, and won a Woodson award. (2019). This book is a tribute to Black Americans. This book gave me chills, it is beautifully written and the illustrations truly speak for themselves.

quote
Emitalski
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image

blurb
Emitalski
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

This book is wonderful and really moving. 10/10

review
Emitalski
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
Pickpick

The undefeated by Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Kadir Nelson was published in 2019 and has won the Caldecott and Newberry medal. This book illustrates black figures who have helped the nation on all levels. I really love this book because it highlights those who are known and yet to known.

quote
Cgulan
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

….who shine their light for the world to see and don‘t stop til the break of dawn.

blurb
Cgulan
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

This is the perfect book to bring up if learning about Martin Luther king jr, or even Memorial Day. I absolutely loved reading this book and believe students should have this book read to them.

review
Cgulan
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
Pickpick

The Woodson award book, The undefeated was an absolute amazing read. I believe everyone should have to read this book to understand how many people have conquered this world through the difficulties. It‘s an eye opener and I believe would help some people understand Black Lives Matter a little more.

quote
delaneylabelle23
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

“The righteous marching ones who sand we shall not be moved because black lives matter”

blurb
delaneylabelle23
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

I loved this book. I think that every classroom should have this book. I think this would be a great book to education students with black lives matter. I even think you can read this book to older students to get the message across. This book was one of my favorites so far

review
delaneylabelle23
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
Pickpick

I love love love this book so much. It was so powerful and so much meaning.
Awards Woodson award
The Caldecott award
New berry Honor Book

quote
emmadomo
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

This is for the unforgettable. The swift and sweet ones who hurdled history and opened a world of possible.

blurb
emmadomo
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

Black history, heroes, perseverance

review
emmadomo
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
Pickpick

The Undefeated, Caldecott recipient, is a nonfiction black history book that discusses the lost heroes. With the strength and courage it takes to be part of black America then and now.

quote
victoriaberns
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

favorite quote: “because black lives matter.”

blurb
victoriaberns
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

This book would be great to use when teaching about Black Lives Matter and Black empowerment. I love how it shows real life people and events that have happened in America.

1 stack add
review
victoriaberns
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
Pickpick

Caldecott Medal, Newberry Honor, & Woodson Award, published in 2019. The illustrations in this book are very realistic looking. I like the way that this book told the story about Black America and teaches children to continue to fight and be brave. I also liked how both the story and illustrations referred to real life people so readers can relate to the book at a deeper level.

quote
katifurrey
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

“This is for you. And you. And you. This is for us.”

blurb
katifurrey
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

A thought that was in my head while reading was how much a change was made with the BLM Movements and that everyone has a voice and should use it when they believe in something as powerful as this

review
katifurrey
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
Pickpick

This book won the Newbery Honor, Caldecott, and the Woodson Award. It is such an amazing tribute to what African Americans have gone through and are still going through to this very day. A great book to teach children about the struggles that people have gone through in their past.

blurb
rileydenney
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander

This book is so powerful in the way it describes black history with very minimal words.

quote
rileydenney
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image

“Those who survived America by any means necessary. And the one‘s who didn‘t.”

review
rileydenney
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

This book is a very powerful love letter to black America. It addresses the history of African Americans without using many words. The illustrations speak for itself. The book also incorporates many famous African Americans that children would recognize. I very much enjoyed this book. It was published in 2019 and won numerous awards, including the Caldecott, the Newberry and the Woodson award.

review
Cjloftus
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and illustrated Karin Nelson has won the Caldecott medal, Coretta Scott King award, Newbery Honor and the Woodson Award. It is a beautiful poem book about the struggles and strength of the black America that was published in 2019. This book uses its meaningful words and illustrations to portray the strength of black America. It provides a history of figures and events mentioned in the book to provide context.

quote
Cjloftus
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image

“This is for the undefeated. This is for you. And you. And you. This is for us.”

1 stack add
review
shortsarahrose
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

A beautiful tribute to the struggles and achievements of African Americans past, present, and future.

review
StephanyNunez
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

The Undefeated is a (P) book by Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. This book has Caldecott Medal, Newbery, and Coretta Scott award. The poem is a letter of encouragement to African Americans in our present and future to be brave, persevere, dream, and be undefeated. This book is excellent for a read-aloud (RA) because is inspiring and is a tribute to Black American in our history, present, and future. #UCFLAE3414SP21

StephanyNunez The UDL principle for this story and resource is 2.3 (Support decoding of text, mathematical notation, and symbols). The source underneath introduces the new teacher to strategies to teach poetry. https://www.edutopia.orgblogpoetry-teaching-tips-new-teachers-lisa-dabbs ESOL strategy 24 (Incorporate the culture and the language of second language learners in your curriculum) #UCFLAE3414SP21 3y
Adodd1 Teaching our students about all cultures and providing them access to these type of resources is so great! The ESOL strategy you chose I feel goes great with the lesson 3y
KeanaE I have also read this book. What a powerful message that “The Undefeated” conveys 3y
DrSpalding Your teaching tips resource is excellent. This is clearly a wonderful book to read aloud during a social studies unit. I own this book and while it may seem poetic, I would think the better genre is biography/nonfiction. 3y
7 likes1 stack add4 comments
blurb
KeanaE
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image

The Undefeated is an award winning Caldecott, Newbery, and Coretta Scott King P picture book that helps illustrate the history, journey, and the injustice that African Americans endure and are currently enduring. We can see the tragedy as well as the power of perseverance within this book. This book is best enjoyed as a RA.

KeanaE A great activity to pair with this book is http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/black-poet.... This activity allows students to celebrate African American poetry and allows students to create their own.

EL strategy # 11 place language in meaningful context

UDL 6.2-support planning and strategy development
3y
2 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
Butterfinger
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

An incredible, powerful book. Kwame Alexander is perfect. Won the Coretta Scott King Award, the Caldecott Award, and the Newbery Honor. Chaya and I both loved it and spent time on each page just looking at the illustrations and reading the line of poetry. Have you read this one @megnews ?

#BBRC @LibrarianRyan @Sarahreadstoomuch -Letter U-
August #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

Sarahreadstoomuch I love Kwame and Kadir! They each do incredible things... but together? Amazing. (edited) 4y
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 4y
LibrarianRyan 🤓👍💗 4y
41 likes3 comments
review
megnews
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I wanted to snap a screenshot of every page and post it here. That‘s how much I want you to read this book. Five stars doesn‘t seem like enough.

#BBRC #A2Z

Butterfinger I adore Kwame Alexander. 4y
Sarahreadstoomuch I ♥️ Kwame and very nearly made a complete fool of myself fangirling and carrying on about his books at a conference-not realizing he was standing behind me! Luckily he was in another conversation... 4y
LibrarianRyan Love this book. 4y
40 likes2 stack adds4 comments
review
cwarnier
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

#campreadalot
My favorite part of this whole book was reading more about each historical event.

blurb
MallenNC
Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image

This Kidlit community Rally for Black Lives so great! So many authors, poets, and educators participated, and more than 6.5 thousand people watched (that was just on FB, the Zoom version was filled too). Organized by The Brown Bookshelf.

SamAnne What a powerful thing! 4y
32 likes1 comment
review
ness
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

Holy stunning. I read this twice in a row. Kwame Alexander‘s poetry and Kadir Nelson‘s art are both breathtaking. I cannot wait to read this to students and convince (force) teachers to use this in their lessons because wow. #LibrariansOfLitsy

blurb
ness
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image

Very excited to dig into this picture book! #LibrariansOfLitsy

11 likes1 stack add
review
Madison_swart
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

This Golden Kite Award winning P book is all about powerful and prominent African Americans who are important to American history. This would work well as a CR to enjoy with your class. https://youtu.be/PzkTBplxz_E is a video of Kwame reading this story aloud. EL strategy integrate speaking, listening, reading and writing activities could be implemented in this book. UDL principle 2.4 promote understanding across languages. #UCFLAE3414sp20

amandar This is a great book to highlight important African-American historical figures! Great to add diversity in a classroom library and open students‘ minds! 4y
RaivionneC This book is amazing ! I just saw it not too long ago at a book store! Definitely a great book to have in your classroom library for Historical figures especially for February! 4y
DrSpalding I recently recorded a YouTube video for this fabulous book. This would be an excellent book to incorporate into your social studies instruction specifically during units regarding black history! 4y
2 likes3 comments
review
Keishla.O
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

This NF, Coretta Scott King award winner, is such an amazing book that is perfect for a RA! This book gives praise to many of the different African American success stories in the form of a poem. This book starts off giving thanks to those who paved the way for our 2020 African American leaders and for those who have yet to be discovered. This book personifies the statement “Black lives matter.“ This is a great window/mirror for so many students!

Keishla.O
UDL 3.1 (Activate or supply background knowledge) & ESOL strategy 4 (Link lesson topic to students‘ prior knowledge) can be implemented during this lesson by asking students about famous African American athletes or scholars that they know of.
The resource below provides more information about Kwame Alexander and his other books.
https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?aid=18785
#ucflae3414sp20
4y
Madison_swart This is such a great book and it‘s perfect to read around black history month to show many different African American people have made such a difference in the world! 4y
DrSpalding This is nonfiction however it highlights individuals that are historically significant. What genre do you think it is now? Excellent universal design and English learner alignment. 4y
2 likes3 comments
blurb
Graciouswarriorprincess
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image

My #library haul today.

44 likes1 stack add
review
victoriamaria
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
This post contains spoilers
show me
post image
Pickpick

.

victoriamaria Umm.. hi, can you say goose bumps? This poem- book won the Caldecott Medal. It speaks motivation to African- Americans in the United States. It highlights the civil rights movements, trauma of slavery, and the perseverance of great heroes. This book is a great way to optimize motivation (UDL 9.1). For ELL learners, there are some big words mentioned in the book (audacious, underdogs..), it‘d be better to teach these words using (1/2) 4y
victoriamaria vocabulary cards before reading (ESOL Comp- Strat 5). #ucflae3414sp20 (edited) 4y
deiacovab Wow I‘ve been seeing this book everywhere and it looks fantastic. Your photo looks great and I like the idea of introducing vocabulary words before reading 4y
DrSpalding There is your beautiful book with gold medal seal! Your writing voice comes through in this post. This would be an excellent one to use in your social studies instruction. Much better job enhancing/elaborating on English learner and universal design here. 4y
3 likes4 comments
review
Tamra
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

This is an amazingly well illustrated poem. Adore these shining faces and Alexander‘s message! 💜

I appreciated the short biographies at the end of the book. It helps kids absorb material when they can connect stories to images.

75 likes1 stack add
review
Lindy
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image
Pickpick

Kadir Nelson‘s striking paintings accompany a poem that Kwame Alexander wrote to remind everyone that Black Lives Matter & about aspects of American history that have been left out of textbooks. Brief biographies at the back help identify historical figures in the illustrations. Further research will reward readers who seek the sources for the snippets of poetry & literary references in the text. An award-winning #AllAges #OwnVoices #picturebook.

Butterfinger Beautiful!! 4y
46 likes2 stack adds1 comment
quote
Lindy
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image

This is for the undefeated. This is for you. And you. And you. This is for us.

LoverOfLearning Beautiful illustration! 4y
SW-T 😊😊😊 4y
Lindy @LoverOfLearning @SW-T 🤎👍🏾 4y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Beautiful ❤️ 4y
Butterfinger Such pretty art. 4y
42 likes2 stack adds5 comments
blurb
smilingshelves
The Undefeated | Kwame Alexander
post image

Wow. I can see why this book won the Caldecott medal and a Newbery Honor. The illustrations are just incredible. And the text is so powerful. I'll be rereading this one several times before it goes back to the library because I know I'll get more out of it every time.

@BucklingBookshelves #buddyread

BucklingBookshelves @smilingshelves Agree! A truly excellent & powerful book. The art & text came together beautifully for the well-deserved double awards. Did you listen to the free download? Kwame Alexander‘s narration is fantastic. I loved all the supplemental material at the back to fill in some gaps of historical figures I wasn‘t as familiar with. Have you read Kadir Nelson‘s He‘s Got the Whole World in His Hands? That‘s a favorite at our house — amazing artist! (edited) 4y
smilingshelves @BucklingBookshelves I haven't listened to it or read the end notes yet, but I definitely plan to! I haven't heard of that book, but I'll check it out! I did wonder while reading this one how much the author and illustrator worked together. I know there's a spectrum of interaction they can have from none to completely. Like with those 3 pages that has the same text (I don't have the book in front of me, and I don't remember exactly what it was). 4y
smilingshelves @BucklingBookshelves Did Kwame tell the illustrator what he was thinking for each time, or was that totally the illustrator's interpretation? 4y
See All 6 Comments
BucklingBookshelves @smilingshelves I feel like there must have been some collaboration in this case, but I can‘t be certain! I‘d love to see if I can find an interview or article about it. The link and code for the audio are on the dedication page at the back :) (edited) 4y
BucklingBookshelves @smilingshelves that page with no illustration was remarkably effective, by the way — a lack of a picture is also worth a thousand words sometimes. 4y
smilingshelves @BucklingBookshelves I know! Every time I turned the page, I got the chills all over again. Every single page! 4y
25 likes6 comments