Rosa, by Nikki Giovanni and illustrated by Bryan Collier, is a book about Rosa Park’s famous refusal to give up her seat – an event which sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. Winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator medal as well as a Caldecott Honor book, Rosa is a book that will stand the test of time. In these pages, Giovanni weaves a powerful story about the strength it can take to stand up for what is right rather than give in to what is easy. This book is meant for upper elementary school due both to vocabulary and the controversial subject that it addresses; the Civil Rights Movement is a topic that is typically covered in third or fourth grade when students can begin to understand the complicated concepts that accompany this period. Many students today can have a tough time understanding what the Civil Rights Movement was really accomplishing, so a book such as this can aid a teacher in setting up a background for how it all came about.
Rosa starts by setting up the character of Rosa Parks. She is a hard-working black woman living in Montgomery, Alabama and working as a seamstress. Bryan Collier’s rich and descriptive pictures accompany the story in a way that brings it much more vividly to life. When the real story begins, with Rosa’s refusal to give up her seat in the midst of her fellow bus riders getting up and moving to the back, Collier uses his pictures to show the ugliness of the white men harassing Rosa while Rosa maintains her beauty and peace of mind.
Giovanni then goes into the events that were sparked by Rosa’s refusal to give up her seat. She mentions the murder of Emmett Till, the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, and Martin Luther King Jr. role as leader of the Civil Rights Movement. These concepts can be talked about with the class, the latter two more than the first, as the story is moving along. It ends with what the effects of Rosa’s choice were and how it impacted the world today. This picture book would be good as a supplement to the Civil Rights Movement because it explains one of its most monumental events in a way that allows students to better understand and sympathize. Students are more able to be drawn into a book such as this than reading about this same event in a text. I have seen this book used in a fourth-grade classroom as an introduction to the Civil Rights Movement; it sent a powerful message and opened the way for rich discussion about what was happening at that time. This, as I see it, is exactly the goal of reading a book such as this; I would definitely recommend this as a regular book in any upper elementary classroom.
I love this book! I am definitely planning on using it to teach Social Studies!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in 4th grade, Rosa Parks came to my class. Unfortunately, I really didn't appreciate at the time just how cool that was. I wish I had had the benefit of a book like this because while race relations were a HUGE part of my elementary school experience, the Civil Rights Movement was never talked about. I didn't understand how an old lady who wanted to sit down on a city bus was important, and I wish I had.
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