Rosa

Bibliography

Giovanni, N. & Collier, B. (2006). Rosa. Ill. by Bryan Collier. New York: Scholastic. ISBN: 0439898838

Plot Summary
On the first of December, Rosa Parks takes the bus home early from work. The bus is full, but she manages to find a seat in the neutral section of the bus. The section where blacks and whites are allowed to sit. But what happens when she is ordered to move and says no? Learn about the powerful effect one simple word had over a movement.


Critical Analysis
Author Nikki Giovanni takes the reader back in time to experience that fateful day when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on public transportation. Illustrator Bryan Collier contributed beautiful watercolor and collage inspired images to enhance the information in this book. At the beginning of the book, Collier notes his visit to Selma and Montgomery for research. After his visit, he decided to use shades of yellow in the book to represent the humidity in Alabama.


The images in this book are hauntingly beautiful. Everyone is a different shape and shade. Rosa Parks emits a sort of glow so she is easy to find. The clouds in the sky are heavy from the beginning to the end of the novel, with a little bit more blue peaking out at the end. Whenever there is a newspaper nearby, the headline with Emmett Till’s name is not easy to miss. Collier also takes the time to give the reader an adequate background to the story. When Rosa is about to get onto the bus, for example, the capital building peaks out behind the people waiting in line.


Giovanni humanizes Rosa Parks by describing her life before that fateful event. Rosa was the best seamstress at the department store where she worked. When she is able to leave work early, she can’t help but smile in anticipation of surprising her husband with his favorite meal.


The background on Rosa Parks is a little lengthy, and leaves the reader wondering what the point is. Some of the wording in the book feels a little off. “As was the evil custom, she then got off the bus and went to the back door to enter the bus from the rear.” This sentence was jarring to read and didn’t seem to flow with the text before this line. Later, the bus driver is bellowing in Rosa’s ear. This is believable as she had been daydreaming on the previous page, but on the next page he yells and threatens her. It could have been written this way to express the randomness of being shook out of a daydream into the real world.


Giovanni later goes on to describe the court case of Brown versus Board of Education, Women's Political Council, Emmett Till, Martin Luther King Jr., and the marches people went on for equality. The book ends almost a year after Rosa Parks was arrested. There is no real mention of Rosa Parks or drawings of her and her plight after she is asked by an African American boy on the bus if she is going to move. This leaves the reader with a lot of information about the civil rights movement and the outcome of that fateful day in December, but not about Rosa Parks. The book begins as a biography about Rosa Parks but then ends with a brief history of the civil rights movement. This knocks the story off the tracks, so to speak


Review Excerpt(s)

2006 Caldecott Honor Book
Winner of the 2006 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award.

From PUBLISHER”S WEEKLY: “A fresh take on a remarkable historic event and on Mrs. Parks's extraordinary integrity and resolve.”

From KIRKUS REVIEWS: “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.”


Connections

Students could do a research project on important events or people in the history of the civil rights movement. This book could be used to introduce one of the most well known people and events. Students could also choose from Ruby Bridges, Brown vs. Board of Education, Little Rock Nine, Emmett Till, Martin Luther King Jr., the Selma to Montgomery march, the Women’s Political Council, the NAACP, sit-in protests, Jim Crow laws, etc.

*other books for biographies on important civil rights figures or events
Bridges, R. (1999). Through my eyes. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN: 0590189239
Rappaport, D. & Collier, B. (2001). Martin's big words : the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN: 0786807148
Tonatiuh, D. (2014). Separate is never equal : Sylvia Mendez & her family's fight for desegregation. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 1419710540
Levinson, C. & Newton, V. (2017). The youngest marcher : the story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a young civil rights activist. New York London Toronto: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division. ISBN: 1481400703