Rosa

by Nikki Giovanni (Author) Bryan Collier (Illustrator)

Rosa
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

She had not sought this moment but she was ready for it. When the policeman bent down to ask "Auntie, are you going to move?" all the strength of all the people through all those many years joined in her. She said, "No."

An inspiring account of an event that shaped American history

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 picture- book 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.

Rosa is a 2006 Caldecott Honor Book and the winner of the 2006 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award.

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School Library Journal

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 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

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 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission

Review quotes

"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

Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni is an award-winning poet, activist, author of many books for children and adults, and a University Distinguished Professor of poetry at Virginia Tech. She lives in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Erin Robinson is a fine artist from Parsons School of Design, who splits her time between New York and D.C.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780805071061
Lexile Measure
800
Guided Reading Level
T
Publisher
Henry Holt & Company
Publication date
October 01, 2005
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF007050 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Cultural Heritage
JNF007020 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Historical
JNF025210 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | United States/20th Century
Library of Congress categories
History
African Americans
Civil rights workers
20th century
Civil rights
African American women
Parks, Rosa
Alabama
Montgomery
Segregation in transportation
Montgomery (Ala.)
Race relations
Delaware Diamonds Award
Nominee 2006 - 2007
Caldecott Medal
Honor Book 2006 - 2006
Coretta Scott King Award
Winner 2006 - 2006
Black-Eyed Susan Award
Nominee 2006 - 2007
Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize
Winner 2006 - 2006
Parents Choice Award (Fall) (1998-2007)
Winner 2005 - 2005
Keystone to Reading Book Award
Nominee 2007 - 2007
South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award
Nominee 2007 - 2008
Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens
Recommended 2006 - 2006

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