#27-Rosa

Rosa

Written by Nikki Giovanni

Illustrated by Bryan Collier

Scholastic Inc, 2005

28 Pages

Multi-Cultural (African American)

     This is the story of Rosa Parks. This book explains how Rosa Parks started the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama by just refusing to give up her seat on the bus. This book explains in great detail how the community came together after Rosa's arrest to stand up for their rights. All it took was one ordinary woman to refuse to give in to the unfair rules to help fuel a very large non-violent movement. Her simple no, lead to a supreme court ruling that segregation on buses is wrong.

     Collier used collage and watercolor to create the very unique illustrations for this book. There is an illustrators note in the front of the book that explains that Collier choose to use a yellow, dark hue to most of the paintings because when he visited Alabama he noticed the heat. I thought this was interesting. Since I have lived in Alabama my whole life I liked the idea that he wanted to portray the heat that is so common in Alabama by using yellows. One picture that really captured my attention was the picture that is on the front cover and is also on the page about when the bus driver was trying to get Rosa to give up her seat. In the picture there is a yellowish circle surrounding Rosa's head, like light is emanating from her. In the illustrators note it explains that he choose to use this effect because he felt that “she is like a radiant chandelier, an elegant light that illuminates all our many pathways”. I really like how he did this because she really did help illuminate so many paths by just saying one word.

     This book is more suitable for older grades, 3^rd and up, because it contains more advanced words and some of the topics discussed in the book would not be suitable for younger children. This book would be a great book to use in a Civil Rights unit. It could also be used when talking about Black History. Another topic would be about important women in History. I think that too many times in history, the women get overlooked. So much emphasis is placed on the men in history but there are countless women that have made a huge impact on our lives today. This book could be used in several different areas when teaching social studies/history. I think it is a great book to share with students, especially children who live in Alabama.