AGE LEVEL
3 and 4 year-olds
GENRE
Picture book
REVIEW
Ringgold based this Caldecott honoree and King Award winner on her childhood memories of growing up in Harlem. As the book begins, we are immediately transported into narrator eight-year-old Cassie Louise Lightfoot's imagination as she declares, "I will always remember when the stars fell down around me and lifted me up above the George Washington Bridge." In a completely absorbing folk style, Ringgold paints in peaches, corals, and pale green-blues against deeper blue nighttime skies. It is revealed that the Bridge is important to Cassie's family history and relates to her touching wish for a better life for her father and mother. The social climate of the time the picture book takes place, which appears to be the late 1930s, is included in the text, as Cassie states, "Well, Daddy is going to own that building, 'cause I'm gonna fly over it and give it to him. Then it won't matter that he's not in their old union, or whether he's colored or a half-breed Indian, like they say." This book is a tour-de-force -- words, images, and themes create a powerful story together -- and is very highly recommended for three and four year olds, athough the imaginations of younger children will also take flight based purely on the illustrations. An image of Ringgold's stunning Tar Beach story quilt and an informative article about her follows the story text.
LIBRARY PROGRAMMING IDEAS
Due to the book's focus on flight, the following is a possible action rhyme to pair with it at preschool storytime:
BIRDS
If I were a bird, I'd sing a song,
(tuck hands in armpits to represent wings)
And fly about the whole day long.
(stretch arms out at sides and rock body as if flying)
And when the night came,
(give yourself a hug and make shivering motion)
Go to rest, up in my cozy little nest.
(flap arms and them cup hands to form nest)
No comments:
Post a Comment