BRAIDED ROOTS The Interweaving of History, Family, and a Father's Love

Pasha Westbrook, a Chickasaw and Choctaw Freedmen descendant, narrates her picture book with the emotional depth it deserves. Haunting original music is intertwined with her lyrical, imagistic delivery. Westbrook conveys the tenderness between a father and a daughter as he lovingly braids her long hair with fingers "gnarled like the roots of a tree" and compares it to a history that links both of them to ancestors "back, back, back ... to the ones who walked before on the beaten-down path" from Mississippi to Oklahoma. Westbrook's use of dialect gives the portrait of the father authenticity, amplifying his belief that his daughter "might just change the world." The sensory richness of Westbrook's words and narration add to this audiobook's power. S.W. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2025]