"Rosa"

Title: "Rosa"
Author: Nikki Giovanni
Illustrator: Bryan Collier
Publisher: Scholastic Inc, 2005
Grade: 3-5
Genre: Biographical Non-Fiction, Caldecott Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Award Winner

In "Rosa", Rosa Parks is an African-American woman who is a seamstress. Rosa's boss lets her off early one day from work. Rosa is prepared to go home and make her husband his favorite dish, meatloaf. When Rosa gets on the bus she has to pay at the front and then walk off the bus and enter back onto the bus through the back door. She then goes and takes a seat in the Neutral Section. After a couple stops, the bus is beginning to fill up so the bus driver comes back and tells the black people to move! Rosa says no and is arrested. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. then encourages everyone to walk for their civil rights. Eventually black people were given the same rights as whites.

I enjoyed this book. I had always thought that Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus but now from reading this book, I see she sat in the neutral section- or the middle. I also liked how Nikki Giovanni gave the background information about Rosa and what she did for a living. I also liked that Giovanni used the word "Colored." This makes African-Americans out as if they are weird becuase they are actually a color like blue, purple, etc. and not just black. I view "Colored" as a degrating word. I also enjoyed the illustrations. I liked how the Illustrator gave an illustrator's note and told how he visited Montgomery and Selma and found that it was hot. He also goes on to explain that this heat is why he used yellow, sometimes a dark hue. He also explains how in his pictures, it looks as if Rosa is being illuminated by the light. He explains that this is because to him, she is like a chandelier, illuminating everyones pathway.

I would use this book to teach my students about Civil Rights. I would probably incorporate this during February which is Black History Month. I could also have my students to look up more information about Rosa Parks. For older grades, I would even give them different topics, such as background on Rosa Parks, the bus incident, etc., and then have them to present this information to their classmates.