Module 12

Redo due to corrections

Summary

This week in module 12 biographies, I chose to read Rosa by Nikki Giovanni and illustrated by Bryan Collier. This book is the story of Rosa Parks, who, on December 1, 1955, refused to give up her seat at the front of the bus. Ms. Parks defied the norm and brought to a head segregated seating on public transportation during the Civil Rights Movement. This story talks about how she was arrested because she would not give up her seat and the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott which lasted almost a year, until November 13, 1956. That day in November 1956 the United States Supreme Court ruled against segregation on buses just as they had ruled against school segregation. The message was loud and clear – all persons were to be treated with dignity and there was no room in the United States for second class citizenship.

Impression

This story has great illustrations and the story flows very cleanly. It is very accurate with its historical information, and has feeling to it. Rosa inspired me in how to treat others and she influenced the civil rights campaign that will never be forgotten. I liked the way the author and illustrator told the story as their styles complement each other. This book also earned a Caldecott Medal for illustrations and the Coretta Scott King Award for literature.

Review fromAmazon.com

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-5–Rosa Parks's personal story moves quickly into a summary of the Civil Rights movement in this striking picture book. Parks is introduced in idealized terms. She cares for her ill mother and is married to one of the best barbers in the county. Sewing in an alterations department, Rosa Parks was the best seamstress. Her needle and thread flew through her hands like the gold spinning from Rumpelstiltskin's loom. Soon the story moves to her famous refusal to give up her seat on the bus, but readers lose sight of her as she waits to be arrested. Giovanni turns to explaining the response of the Women's Political Caucus, which led to the bus boycott in Montgomery. A few events of the movement are interjected–the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the aftermath and reactions to the murder of Emmett Till, the role of Martin Luther King, Jr., as spokesperson. Collier's watercolor and collage scenes are deeply hued and luminous, incorporating abstract and surreal elements along with the realistic figures. Set on colored pages, these illustrations include an effective double foldout page with the crowd of successful walkers facing a courthouse representing the 1956 Supreme Court verdict against segregation on the buses. Many readers will wonder how it all went for Parks after her arrest, and there are no added notes. Purposeful in its telling, this is a handsome and thought-provoking introduction to these watershed acts of civil disobedience.–Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
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Lesson

I would use this book for a read aloud for research on prominent African American persons during African American History Month. The students would then choose their own person of note and we would use computers, books, encyclopedias and other research media to find information on their person of interest.