African American Lit

Marzollo, Jean. 1993. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARTIN LUTHER KING. Illustrated by J. Brian Pinkney. New York: Scholastic. ISBN: 0590440659.

The life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. are presented in simple words and beautiful pictures that even a preschooler can understand in this book. Children will learn about how there used to be laws to keep black and white people separate, and how Martin Luther King worked to change these things. The book includes a forward by author Jean Marzollo for parents and teachers, explaining, "the tragic fact of Martin Luther King's murder may be too difficult for preschoolers to deal with." She suggests the words "shot and killed" may be changed to say Martin Luther King "died".

Pinkney uses scratchboard illustrations with fine white lines and shading to depict black people and their struggles during the Civil Rights Movement. Pictures of Freedom Riders on buses, drinking fountains labeled "white" and "colored", and King delivering his famous "I Have A Dream" speech will help children understand the events of his life, and why we now honor him with a holiday on his birthday.

Connections:

Talk about the segregation laws mentioned in the book, that required separate restaurants, drinking fountains, and schools for whites and blacks.

Talk and read about Rosa Parks, Freedom Riders, and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.

Listen to the "I have a Dream Speech".

Discuss problem solving through peaceful methods.

Read MARTIN'S BIG WORDS and other books about Martin Luther King.



Woodson, Jacqueline. 2009. PEACE, LOCOMOTION. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN: 9780399246555

Sixth grader Lonnie, aka Locomotion, shares his heart wrenching story through the letters he writes to his younger sister, Lili, after the tragic death of their parents. The children are separated when different foster families take them in. Writing letters is the way Lonnie stays connected to Lili, and keeps the memory of his parents alive.

We learn that Lonnie and his sister are African American when he gets a new teacher who is "brown like Mama"; and again during a visit, Lili touched Lonnie's braids. Lonnie watches CNN for news about Lonnie's foster brother, Jenkins, who is away at war. "The newscaster lady kept talking about insurgents and a car bomb and missing soldiers." This establishes the story as taking place during the Iraq War.

Lonnie and his sister both have good and stable foster homes. Still, the pain Lonnie feels over the loss of his parents is palpable. He writes, "I don't want to hear anything about the month of December. I don't want to hear about Christmas or New Year's or Kwanzaa. Nothing. I hate December. If it wasn't for December, Mama and Daddy would be alive and you and me would still be living together."

School Library Journal gives PEACE, LOCOMOTION a starred review. "When war directly affects the family, the 12-year-old begins to hope and pray for peace and to grapple with its meaning."

Connections:

Read LOCOMOTION, the first book about Lonnie and his sister. It is written in poetry.

Try writing/telling a story in poetry or letter format.

Write poems/letters about happy/sad things.

Read other verse novels, such as OUT OF THE DUST.



Grimes, Nikki. 2006. WELCOME, PRECIOUS. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. New York: Orchard Books. ISBN: 0309102480

Child magazine's Best Children's Book Awards 2006, WELCOME, PRECIOUS is the story of an African American couple who are elated with their newborn baby. Grimes' lyrical text takes the baby from one loving family member to another. "Welcome to the warm circle of your daddy's arms/ the slippery kisses of your giddy grandmothers/ and the cool tickle of Mommy's nose rubbing against your belly button."

The cultural markers are only in the illustrations. Bryan's mixed media watercoler and collage pictures of the family are bold and bright, with deep, dark glowing skintones. Readers will be delighted with the joyful text and illustrations.

Connections:

Read and talk about all kinds of families and family members.

Make a display or bulletin board of baby pictures of children and/or family members.

Read and discuss all kinds of babies - humans and animals.

Draw pictures of ourselves and families doing favorite things.

Identify senses used in the story. Hear the robin sing and leaves swish. Feel the squish of sand between your toes. Smell the spiced cider on the wind, etc.

International Lit

Stolz, Joëlle. 2004. THE SHADOWS OF GHADAMES. New York : Delacorte Press. ISBN: 0385731043

Malika is an eleven year old Muslim girl who lives in the Libyan city of Ghadames. Her father is a merchant who travels. She longs to go with him and see distant places, but since she is a girl, there is no chance of that. Men and women lead separate lives in Ghadames. Men conduct business in the streets and palm groves. Women are confined to their homes and the rooftops. Malika is jealous of her brother Jasim’s freedom, and the fact that he goes to school and reads.

One night, while Malik’s father is away on business, there is a commotion in the street. The women of Malika’s family discover an injured man who was being chased out of town because of his religious views. They rescue the man, hide him in the pantry, nurse him back to health, and help him escape, even though doing this would have serious and dangerous consequences for them if they were caught. In return, before he leaves, the man teaches Malika to read, making her long even more to escape to a less restrictive and more exciting life.

The book is filled with references to Muslim customs and life in the desert. The setting and circumstances are so foreign to a Westerner, that the time period is difficult to determine, but the book’s end note places the story at the turn of the nineteenth century. Arabic names of persons, places and things – Abdelkarim, the rescued stranger; Tripoli, the destination of the father’s caravan; “malafa, the rectangle of embroidered wool tied under the chin with laces that girls wear on their heads until marriage” – all serve as cultural markers in the book. In addition, descriptions of clothing, houses, festivals and even skin color help to establish the exotic setting of the story. In the final analysis, children will enjoy and recognize the challenges of growing up that exist in every society. A starred review of Shadows of Ghadames in Booklist includes this statement: “The vivid backdrop is intoxicating, but the story's universal concerns will touch readers most: sibling jealously, confusion about adult customs, and a growing interest in a world beyond family.” I could not agree more.

Connections:
• Locate Libya on a globe or map.
• Create a glossary of cultural terms.
• Discuss the differences and similarities between the customs of Malika’s family and our own families.
• Discuss the current events that are taking place in Libya.


Fox, Mem. 2009. HELLO BABY. Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. New York : Beach Lane Books. ISBN: 1416985131
Hello Baby is a charming book for little ones filled with exotic animals. It begins with, "Hello, baby! Who are you? and continues with a guessing game including monkeys, hippos and geckos. "Jenkins works his usual magic with cut paper," lauds Publishers Weekly. The illustrations are brilliant in color and detail. Mem's rhyming text is simple, funny and sometimes eccentric -"Are you a warthog, hilarious and hairy?" Young children will enjoy this book, as will their grown-up readers.

Connections:
• Play a guessing game with the shapes at the end of the book. Name the animals. See if the child/children can remember what the book said about them.
• Learn about where the animals live, what they eat, how big they get, and other facts about each animal.
• Take a vote of which animal is the favorite.
• Draw pictures or make paper collages of animals.
• Read other animal books, like Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin.
• Visit the zoo.


Croza, Larel. 2010. Illustrated by Matt James. I KNOW HERE. Toronto ; Berkeley : Groundwood Books. ISBN 0888999232

In I Know Here, a little girl learns that she is moving from Saskatchewan to Toronto. She wonders what Toronto will be like. Her teacher suggests the class draw "a picture of something we have seen, something we want to remember, to take with us when we leave. The little girl thinks of all the things about the place where she lives - the forest, the trailers where she and her neighbors live, the dam her father works to build, the truck that delivers groceries, her one-room schoolhouse, the plane ride she once took, the forest fire she saw - and decides to draw them all. She will draw a picture of everything she knows and take it with her when she moves. "This is what I know. Here"

All of the images and illustrations tell the story of a rural life in the forest of northern Saskatchewan, where the families lived in small trailers, had groceries delivered, rarely watched television, and caught frogs in the "squishy spot by the beaver dam." Other cultural markers are descriptions of animals she has seen "an old moose standing still in the water, looking straight at me. Rabbits and deer running beside my dad's truck on the Pas Trail." The book received the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in 2010. A Horn Book review surmises, "Clothing and trailer design suggest that the dam is the E. B. Campbell Dam, completed in 1963."

The colorful and swirly illustrations are dreamlike. My favorite is the moose standing in the water. He really appears to be "looking at me", as the little girl remembers. In the beginning of the book, the little girl's life seemed primitive, hard and bleak. But the more she described her memories and how close she was to nature, I felt sad that she had to leave and move to the big city. Many children, and adults will be able to relate to this story.

Connections:
• Find Saskatchewan and Toronto on a map. Calculate the distance between the two places.
• Discuss the differences between living in Saskatchewan and living in Toronto.
• Discuss how it would feel to have to move away. Have children draw pictures of what they want to remember about the places where they live.