Rosa

Rosa

Written by Nikki Giovanni

Illustrated by Bryan Collier

Scholastic Inc., 2005

30 Pages

Nonfiction (Biography)

            This book is a beautifully written and illustrated story of Rosa Parks. A day that changed the nation began as a normal day for Rosa Parks, Mrs. Parks as she is referred to in the book.  Mrs. Parks was a hard-working and well respected seamstress in Montgomery. On that special Thursday, they were ahead of schedule, and her supervisor allowed her to go home early. She had to take the bus to get home. She put her fare at the front and then went around the bus to the back to enter from the rear. The colored aisle was full so Mrs. Parks sat in the neutral section. She was in a wonderful daydream of what she would make her husband for dinner when she was interrupted by the driver standing over her demanding her to give up her seat to a white man. Rosa politely stayed seated in her seat and asked the driver why he picks on people of color. The driver yelled but she remained seated. She was tired of being treated as unequal, tired of moving over on the sidewalk, eating at separate lunch counters and learning in separate schools.  A group of twenty-five women met at Alabama College that night to make signs to post and pass out all around Montgomery. The signs said, “NO RIDERS TODAY; SUPPORT MRS. PARKS- STAY OFF THE BUSES; WALK ON MONDAY.” The people did walk for a whole year. At the end of the year, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was illegal. “With integrity and dignity, the quiet strength of Rosa Parks turned her no into a YES for change.”           

            The illustrations in this book are created by using watercolor and collage and are unbelievably vivid. They look like you are looking at a picture of Rosa Parks and the other characters in the story. The end papers in the book are illustrations from the book that welcome you into the story.  The text placement in this book are mainly most formal has a few pages that are written using informal text placement. The illustrations are mainly covered on a one and a half page spread but the book does feature one double page spread. The double page spread leads into a four page spread of the marches and at the end, the victory. Collier uses color to his advantage in this book, yellows and other dark hues are used to show the heat of Alabama.  I absolutely love everything about the illustrations in the book, they are unique and I love that about this book. 

            This book could be used for so many different lessons and subjects. It could of course be used in History when discussing the civil rights movement with older elementary students. It could be used to strengthen students’ vocabulary by pulling out words from the book such as seamstress, barber, fiddled, neutral, pleasantries, bellowed, furtively, lynched, and intoned, then have a read aloud using this book. A character education lesson could also be incorporated by talking with the students about standing up for what they believe in like Rosa Parks did. This book has received two awards, the Caldecott Award as well as the Coretta Scott King Award.