How the Word Is Passed (Adapted for Young Readers): Remembering Slavery and How It Shaped America

by Clint Smith, Sonja Cherry-Paul Narrated by Clint Smith

Overview

Adapted from Clint Smith's #1 New York Times bestselling and universally acclaimed How the Word Is Passed, this must-read narrative takes readers to historical sites across America, exploring the legacy of slavery to help readers make sense of our nation's past and present, and be better stewards of their own future.

Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads young readers through an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks-those that are honest about the past and those that are not-offering an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.

How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country's most essential stories are hidden in plain view-whether in places we might drive by on our way to school, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods (like downtown Manhattan) on which the brutal history of the trade in enslaved people has been deeply imprinted.

Informed by scholarship and brought alive by the story of people living today, this adaptation of Clint Smith's #1 bestselling, award-winning work of nonfiction offers kids a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country, and shows how they can reckon with the past and present to become better stewards of their future.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

* “Smith provides sketches of the various people he meets with thoughtful detail and care, demonstrating the curiosity that drives him to understand and talk to just about anyone, even as he fights through his own sadness, fear, and anger. …Smith makes a knowledgeable, reflective, and eminently humane guide who young readers will appreciate.” —The Bulletin, starred review

* “This lyrical, moving, and engrossing investigation offers readers outstanding examples of ways to engage with and talk about the history that shapes our present-day lives, whether we’re aware of it or not. Readers will approach their own visits to historical sites with a more sophisticated understanding and awareness. An important and phenomenally executed book.” —Kirkus, starred review

* “Deeply engaging, this is a timely and important contribution to reshaping the American experience to include all participants.” —Booklist, starred review

Praise for How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
Winner of the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism
Winner of the Stowe Prize
Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Reader’s Digest 50 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time
GQ’s 50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century
New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021
TIME Magazine 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021
Named one of the best books of the year by:The Washington Post • The New York Times • The Economist • The Boston Globe • Esquire • TIME • BBC • GoodReads • SheReads • BookPage • Publishers Weekly • Kirkus • Library Journal • Smithsonian • Shelf Awareness • Teen Vogue • The Root • The Christian Science Monitor • Entropy • Fathom • Amazon • Audible • Libro.fm • Barnes & Noble • the New York Public Library • the Chicago Public Library, and more.
 

"Part of what makes this book so brilliant is its bothandedness. It is both a searching historical work and a journalistic account of how these historic sites operate today. Its both carefully researched and lyrical. I mean Smith is a poet and the sentences in this book just are piercingly alive. And it’s both extremely personal—it is the author’s story—and extraordinarily sweeping. It amplifies lots of other voices. Past and present. Reading it I kept thinking about that great Alice Walker line ‘All History is Current’.” ―John Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed

"The Atlantic writer drafts a history of slavery in this country unlike anything you’ve read before.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Sketches an impressive and deeply affecting human cartography of America’s historical conscience…an extraordinary contribution to the way we understand ourselves.” ―Julian Lucas, New York Times Book Review

“Both an honoring and an exposé of slavery’s legacy in America and how this nation is built upon the experiences, blood, sweat and tears of the formerly enslaved."—The Root

“What [Smith] does, quite successfully, is show that we whitewash our history at our own risk. That history is literally still here, taking up acres of space, memorializing the past, and teaching us how we got to be where we are, and the way we are. Bury it now and it will only come calling later." —USA Today

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2025-06-27
Cherry-Paul presents an adaptation for young readers of Smith’s 2021 original, a riveting exploration of the lasting impact of slavery in the United States.

The author, a New Orleans native, grew up surrounded by “the echo of enslavement” but without being fully aware of his “hometown’s relationship to the centuries of bondage” that had shaped it. After witnessing the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee from downtown New Orleans in 2017, he decided to investigate the history of slavery and “how it is remembered.” This work documents his visits to the Monticello Plantation, the Whitney Plantation, Angola Prison, Blandford Cemetery, Galveston Island, New York City, and Gorée Island, off the coast of Senegal. At Monticello, Smith spoke with visitors who were grappling with their newfound knowledge of Thomas Jefferson’s history of separating families and other abuses. At Angola, Smith uncovered racial disparities in incarceration and the slaverylike conditions the prisoners continue to endure. In New York City, Smith took a walking tour of the Underground Railroad and learned the jaw-dropping fact that New York City was home to the second largest slave market in the U.S. This lyrical, moving, and engrossing investigation offers readers outstanding examples of ways to engage with and talk about the history that shapes our present-day lives, whether we’re aware of it or not. Readers will approach their own visits to historical sites with a more sophisticated understanding and awareness.

An important and phenomenally executed book. (author’s note, about this project, glossary, bibliography, index)(Nonfiction. 10-14)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940194525515
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	09/30/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years