Rosa: (Caldecott Honor Book)

by Nikki Giovanni, Bryan Collier (Illustrator)

Overview

Fifty years after her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus, Mrs. Rosa Parks is still one of the most important figures in the American civil rights movement. This tribute to Mrs. Parks is a celebration of her courageous action and the events that followed.

Award-winning poet, writer, and activist Nikki Giovanni's evocative text combines with Bryan Collier's striking cut-paper images to retell the story of this historic event from a wholly unique and original perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312376024
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	12/26/2007
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	177,655
Product dimensions:	8.55(w) x 10.95(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	800L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Nikki Giovanni is the author of Lincoln and Douglass,Spin a Soft Black Song, The Sun Is So Quiet, and the Caldecott Honor Book Rosa. Her autobiography Gemini was a finalist for the National Book Award, and several of her books have received NAACP Image Awards. She was the first recipient of the Rosa L. Parks Woman of Courage Award, and has been awarded the Langston Hughes Medal for poetry.

Bryan Collier is the author and illustrator of Uptown, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award and the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award. He is also the illustrator of the Caldecott Honor Books Martin’s Big Words (Doreen Rappaport) and Rosa.

Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions
• In his illustrator's note, Bryan Collier says that he painted with a yellow hue in ROSA, to reflect the heat of Montgomery, AL and the "uneasy quiet before the storm" (page 2). Do you notice this throughout the book? Where do you see it, or feel it, the most? Are there other symbols in the art? What do you think they mean?
• On the end papers of the book, a bus rider is reading a newspaper article on Emmet Till. On page 4 Raymond Parks is reading a paper with an article that mentions King – perhaps this is Dr.
Martin Luther King. Where else do you see reference to the men and women who were part of the struggle for Civil Rights in this country? How do these people relate to each other?
• In discussion of this book the author, Nikki Giovanni, has said that the bus driver, James Blake,
was a man of time, while Rosa Parks was a woman outside of her time. What does this mean?
• Rosa Parks did not plan to stage a protest on the bus that day. "She had not sought this moment, but she was ready for it." (page 18) How do you think that Rosa Parks became ready for that moment?
• The struggle for civil and human rights continues in this country and around the world today.
What examples can you think of? What are the issues involved? Are there any recent examples of

a person, like Rosa Parks, whose "no becomes a YES for change"? (page 34)

Editorial Reviews

Paired very effectively with Giovanni's passionate, direct words, Collier's large watercolor-and-collage illustrations depict Parks as an inspiring force that radiates golden light.” —Booklist, Starred Review

“Purposeful in its telling, this is a handsome and thought-provoking introduction to these watershed acts of civil disobedience.” —School Library Journal

“Giovanni and Collier offer a moving interpretation of Rosa Park's momentous refusal to give up her bus seat. The author brings her heroine very much to life...a fresh take on a remarkable historic event.” —Publishers Weekly

“An essential volume for classrooms and libraries.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Giovanni (The Sun Is So Quiet) and Collier (Uptown) offer a moving interpretation of Rosa Parks's momentous refusal to give up her bus seat. The author brings her heroine very much to life as she convincingly imagines Parks's thoughts and words while she rode the bus on December 1, 1955 ("She was not frightened. She was not going to give in to that which was wrong"), pointing out that Mrs. Parks was in the neutral section of the bus and (as some fellow riders observe) "She had a right to be there." The author and poet lyrically rephrases what the heroine herself has frequently said, "She had not sought this moment, but she was ready for it." After Mrs. Parks's arrest, the narrative's focus shifts to the 25 members of the Women's Political Council, who met secretly to stage the bus boycott. Inventively juxtaposing textures, patterns, geometric shapes and angles, Collier's watercolor and collage art presents a fitting graphic accompaniment to the poetic text. After viewing an image of Martin Luther King, Jr., encouraging a crowd to walk rather than ride the buses, readers open a dramatic double-page foldout of the Montgomery masses walking for nearly a year before the Supreme Court finally ruled that segregation on buses was illegal. A fresh take on a remarkable historic event and on Mrs. Parks's extraordinary integrity and resolve. Ages 5-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 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 Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Rosa Parks sat. "She had not sought this moment, but she was ready for it." When she refused to move out of the neutral section of her bus to make way for white passengers, she sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. She was tired of putting white people first. Giovanni's lyrical text and Collier's watercolor-and-collage illustrations combine for a powerful portrayal of a pivotal moment in the civil-rights movement. The art complements and extends the text, with visual references to Emmett Till, the Edmund Pettus Bridge and Martin Luther King, Jr. The yellowish hue of the illustrations represents the Alabama heat, the light emanating from Rosa Parks's face a shining beacon to all who would stand up for what's right. A dramatic foldout mural will make this important work even more memorable. An essential volume for classrooms and libraries. (Picture book. 5+)

Kirkus Reviews

This handsomely illustrated account of Rosa Parks’s refusal to give up her seat chronicles Parks’s journey from unassuming bus rider to Civil Rights leader. In Giovanni’s account, Rosa has had a “good day,” and her choice to stay seated is prompted by courage rather than exhaustion. Giovanni’s calm, strong narration lends dignity (and occasionally quiet outrage) to Parks’s story. The production is further enhanced by occasional background sounds—the squeal of bus brakes, the ching of coins dropping—as well as piano music and quiet vocals. As listeners hear Parks’s story unfold into the larger story of the Civil Rights Movement while viewing Bryan Collier’s luminous collage-like illustrations, they will absorb a sense of how ordinary citizens can become extraordinary leaders. J.C.G. 2008 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

JUN/JUL 08 - AudioFile