Rosa - Nikki Giovanni

Vivid pics illustrate Parks' courageous rebellion.

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Common Sense rates it
4
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Book details
  • Author:Nikki Giovanni
  • # of pages: 40
  • Publisher:Henry Holt & Company, Inc.
  • Original Publication Date: 01/25/2006
  • Genre: Non-Fiction - History
  • Hardcover: $16.95
  • Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 4-8
  • Read Aloud: 4
  • Read Alone: 7
  • Awards:Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King Honor

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that this book deals with the historical realities of discrimination, focusing on Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott, but also mentioning the Emmet Till lynching. Much is left unexplained, and an adult will be needed to fill in the holes.

Families can talk about the small ways in which kids can stand up for what is right in their own lives. What could you do if you saw someone being treated unfairly? How can you use words and calm action to bring change? Older kids could discuss the background to the story -- segregation, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement.

Message

Social Behavior:

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Violence

The Emmet Till lynching is mentioned.

Sex

Language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Matt

Traveling home from work on a segregated city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, African-American Rosa Parks is ordered by the driver to give up her seat to a white passenger. Sitting in the neutral section between the white and black sections of the bus, Mrs. Parks refuses to get up. The driver calls the police, and Mrs. Parks is arrested.

When word spreads about her act of defiance, other community leaders get together to organize a boycott of the buses until the segregation is ended. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for almost a year blacks in Montgomery refuse to ride the buses, until finally they achieve their goal.

Is it any good?

4

It's easy to see why this won both the Coretta Scott King Award and a Caldecott Honor -- the pictures are spectacular. Bold yet detailed, they show Mrs. Parks as she was -- not an old lady too tired to get up, but a strong young woman tired of oppression.

Realistic people are set against slightly abstract backgrounds, with skewed perspectives and the textures of collage. The pictures radiate heat, light, and power.

The text is less successful. At times it is didactic and verges on hagiography. Though the book is aimed at 4 to 8 year olds, some of the text will go over their heads, and too many things are unexplained. What is the NAACP? What happened to Mrs. Parks after she was arrested? She virtually disappears from the book half way through and, for that matter, her actual arrest is never mentioned.

Various news events, such as the lynching of Emmet Till and freeing of his killers, are mentioned but not explained. An author's note explaining the events mentioned would have been welcome. Though these events can be used as openings for parents to discuss them in more detail with their kids, the book on its own may be confusing.

Still, with followup by an adult, this is a gorgeously illustrated introduction to a watershed event.

Other choices

Other Books by Nikki Giovanni
Ego Tripping
Just For You
The Sun is So Quiet

Also Illustrated by Bryan Collier
Uptown
Visiting Langston
What's the Hurry, Fox?

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