Bibliography
McKissak, Patricia C. 2001. Goin' Someplace Special. Ill. by Jerry Pinkney. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0689808858
Plot summary
This story takes place during the 1950s in an unspecified city in the South. Tricia Ann asks for permission to “Go Someplace Special" and her grandmother, Mama Frances, reluctantly agrees to let her go. Tricia Anne sets out on her solo trip and notices all the racism she has to endure on her way to “Someplace Special.” She has to sit in the back of the bus, she can’t sit on certain benches or eat at certain restaurants or even enter the lobby of a hotel. She gets discouraged and wants to go home but with the help of Blooming Mary she remembers what her grandmother has told her. She finally makes it to her special place where all are welcome, a place that Mama Frances calls "a doorway to freedom", the public library.
The author’s note at the end of the book tells the reader the story is based on events that happened in her own life when she was growing up in 1950s in Nashville Tennessee. Jim Crow laws were local and state laws which segregated whites from blacks in restaurants, drinking fountains, restrooms, benches and seats on the bus. McKissack experienced this racial segregation while growing up.She also got to experience integration when Nashville’s public library board voted to integrate the library.
Critical Analysis
The story and illustrations vividly portray the lives of African Americans during the 1950’s and the racial segregation they had to endure. McKissack wrote about the effects of legal discrimination as well as the hope and pride African Americans had despite the racism. Mama Frances tell Tricia Ann to “hold yo’ head up and act like you b’long to somebody.” Mrs. Grannell also tells her “Carry yo’self proud” after Tricia Ann questions the unfairness of Jim Crow laws. And the street vendor Jimmy Lee tells her “Don’t let those signs steal yo’ happiness.”
The illustrations by Jerry Pinkney are done in pencil and watercolor. Pinkney earned the Coretta Scott King award for illustrators in 2002 for this book. His illustrations authentically depict the setting and African American characters of the story. Tricia Ann, who is full of hope, wears a brightly colored dress and her character stands out amongst all the others in all the different places she goes. The time period is accurately reflected in the fashion, vehicles and buildings as well as the display of Jim Crow signs. The characters are drawn and painted showing a diversity of African American hairstyles, skin color and clothing of the time and setting.
Awards
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award 2002
Review Excerpts
MultiCultural Review v. 11 no. 1 (March 2002) p. 101
"Jerry Pinkney's rich, detailed watercolors complement well McKissack's poignant story, based on her own experiences. Used as a read aloud for primary students or as a device to spark a discussion for young adults, this moving story will lead readers to the doorway of freedom." Crump-Stenberg, Linda
The Horn Book v. 77 no. 6 (November/December 2001) p. 736-7
"McKissack and Pinkney strike just the right balance in a picture book for young readers and listeners: informative without being preachy; hopeful without being sentimental."-Robin Smith
Connections
Read other picture books by Patricia Mckissak and Jerry Pinkney
McKissak, Patricia. 1997. Mirandy and Brother Wind. Ill. Jerry Pinkney. Dragonfly Books. ISBN 0679883339
Read books about Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Research Jim Crow laws and write or discuss the injustices that African Americans had to endure during that time period.
Poetry
Bibliography
Myers, Walter Dean. 2009. Amiri & Odette: A Love Story.Ill by Javaka Steptoe. New York:Scholastic Press.ISBN 0590680412
Plot summary
This is a modern retelling of the Swan Lake ballet told in verse using African Americans as the main characters and housing projects as the setting. The story has four acts like the ballet.
The first act: Amiri lives in the Swan Lake projects. He is a good young man and his mama wants him to "get settled in a life that's straight,/ with a wife and family, before it's too late!" She decides to throw him a party so he can meet some respectable girls. Act 2: The day before the party, Amiri meets Odette on the basketball courts and immediately falls in love with her. But she is promised to another, Big Red, a local crack dealer. Act 3:It is the night of the party and Amiri anxiously awaits the arrival of Odette. Big Red sends a girl in a black swan mask to fool Amiri into thinking she is Odette. Amiri is fooled and pledges his love to her. Meanwhile Odette arrives late to the party and see Amiri with another girl and runs off crying. Act 4: Amiri chases after Odette and pledges his love to her. Odette forgives him and pledges her love to him. Big Red comes along to claim Odette and he and Amiri fight. A wounded Big Red leaves. Amiri and Odette embrace and are together at last.
Critical Analysis
This book fits several classifications. It is a picture book, it is poetry and the story is written for young adults. The topic is a love story between two teenagers, told through verse with phenomenal illustrations to help move the story.
"They Danced....
Amiri and Odette,
A dance for two, two dance as one,
Two bodies rising toward the sun
O sing, O sing, O sing
of brave Amiri and beautiful Odette,
of a time when love and evil met,
Then through the haze of simmer/summer days"
This urban retelling of the Swan Lake ballet through verse is short but powerful. The lyrical text moves through four acts telling the love story of Amiri and Odette. This version reflects the themes of family, true love and the consequences of drug abuse. The setting was changed to a tenament housing development, The Swan Lake Projects. The characters are African American, the prince is Amiri, the swan Odette and the evil socerer Rothbart is Big Red, a crack dealer. The curse Odette suffers from is drug addiction. Images of swans and references to dance are woven in the text and illustrations. The black swan that tricks the prince in the ballet is a girl sent by Big Red wearing a black swan mask to Amiri's party. Odette tells Big Red "That this day/a dying swan chose/ LOVE/as her only way!" It is a classic story of love conquering evil told to the urban beat of hip hop and rap.
The paintings by Javaka Steptoe are incredible. They are done in acrylic paint on slabs of asphalt along with pieces of candy wrappers, jewelry, newspaper and plastic bags and feathers. The asphalt gives it that gritty inner city feel of graffiti art and murals on sides of buildings and concrete.
Review Excerpts
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books v. 62 no. 5 (January 2009) p. 211-12
"Myers' knotty and alliterative language has some of [ballet's] lush and studied elegance. The poetry is variable, however. . . . Steptoe's illustrations are tense, moody, and nocturnal, with an intensity and pebbly underlying texture that suggests mural art. Between the darkness and some artistic choices, the art misses opportunities to illuminate the text (the Odette/ Odette's-double issue is particularly murky in both illustration and verse), but it's got a nice sense of nighttime life and atmospheric drama. Dramatic reading aloud may be the best way into this narrative, and it could certainly make for an intriguing introduction to the classical Swan Lake."- Stevenson, Deborah
School Library Journal v. 55 no. 1 (January 2009) p. 114
“Myers's verse is almost overwrought-as it should be to suit the story, and the intensity of teenage love. The melodrama combines with an energy and beat that-heightened by dynamic text design-makes this ideal for performance. Steptoe's collage-on-cinderblock illustrations have a roughness, darkness, and density that suit the tone. This selection will broaden any teen collection.”-Nina Lindsay
Connections
Read the story aloud to feel and hear the rhythm of the hip hop language used to tell the story.
Watch a video of the ballet “Swan Lake”
Read other books by Walter Dean Myers
Myers, Walter Dean . 2001. Monster. New York. Amistad. ISBN 0064407314
Myers, Walter Dean. 2007. Street Love. New York. Amistad. ISBN 9780064407328
Myers, Walter Dean. 2010. Lockdown. New York: HarperTeen/Amistad.
ISBN: 9780061214806
Novel
Bibliography
Johnson, Angela. 1998. Heaven. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780689822292
Plot summary
Marley lives with her Momma, Pops and brother Butchy in Heaven, Ohio. It is 1996 and she is fourteen years old. She regularly wires money by Western Union to her wandering Uncle and receives letters from him about his travels. Marley has a nice life with a good family until she finds out about her past and who the people in her family really are. Slowly she comes to terms with who they really are and what family really means to her.
Critical Analysis
The theme of families, extended family, loyalty and obligations are presented in this touching story about a young girl who finds out what family really means to her. In 1996 there were several churches burned in African American communities in the South that were reminiscent of church burnings from the 1960s. A church burning in Alabama serves as the catalyst for bringing the truth about Marley’s family to light. Marley discovers that her biological mother was killed in a car accident and that the uncle who has been writing letters to her since she was a baby is really her father. Marley struggles with feelings of deception and the loss of trust. Her family calmly waits for her to accept her past and present. Her friends Shoogy and Bobby are there for her as she works through her feelings about her family.
This is a tender story of a young African American girl but had it not been for the cover picture, it could easily be the story of a girl from any American culture. Other than the reference to church burnings and the historical racist reasons behind those burnings, there are not many references to the race or ethnicity of the characters. The cultural markers in the story are subtle, Bobby's brown legs covered in paint, a couple of reference to hip hop and rap music, the scars on Shoogys brown skin, a boy who called Shoogy "Black girl with violet eyes". This is a story about family and friendship, it is a story that could fit in any culture.
Awards
Coretta Scott King author award 1999
Review Excerpts
Booklist v. 95 no. 2 (September 15 1998) p. 219
"The paradise setup is too idyllic, and in the anguish of Marley's discovery and upheaval, everyone is absolutely perfectly supportive and understanding. And Marley's real dad comes home at last. What saves this from being generic Hallmark is Johnson's plain, lyrical writing about the people in Marley's life. Everyone has secrets. There are all kinds of loving families. . . . In fact, the most troubled family is the 'perfect' nuclear one of Marley's best friend, who needs as much support as Marley does. On the news, they hear about people burning churches, but Johnson makes us see the power of loving-kindness."- Rochman, Hazel
School Library Journal v. 44 no. 10 (October 1998) p. 136
"In spare, often poetic prose reminiscent of Patricia MacLachlan's work, Johnson relates Marley's insightful quest into what makes a family. . . . The various examples of 'family' Marley encounters make her question what's real, what's true, what makes sense, and if any of that really matters as much as the love she continues to feel for her parents in spite of their seeming betrayal. Johnson exhibits admirable stylistic control over Marley's struggle to understand a concept that is often impossible to understand or even to define."- Bindner, Linda
Connections
Heaven trilogy by Angela Johnson
Johnson, Angela. 2003. The First Part Last. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780689849237
Johnson, Angela. 1998. Heaven. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780689822292
Johnson, Angela. 2010. Sweet, Hereafter. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0689873867
Students can write and or discuss what family means and describe people who make up their own families.
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