blackbird companion someplace quotations

books:

Jazzy Miz Mozetta (Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Illustrator (Awards))

3 reviews
Brenda C. Roberts

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2004

Dance dance wherever you may be
Whenever I see yet another children's picture book celebrating the heyday of jazz, bebop, and swing I always wonder how interesting that book is to the intended child audience. I mean, sure "Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa", by Andrea Davis Pinkney is fun, but do child readers dig it? Or do they just see it as yet another history lesson disguised as a book? With this in mind, ...

Monster (Amistad)

682 reviews
Walter Dean Myers

Amistad, 1999

A book students like to read
I am a high school English teacher and I have struggled with finding books students would read. I found just such a book with Monster. I had several who took the book home the first night and finished it. My students begged for more reading time in class because they didn't get to read as much as they wanted to the night before.

The First Part Last (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner)

83 reviews
Angela Johnson

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2003

A Heartbreaking Story
I think the title of this review says it all. Angela Johnson's "The First Part Last" broke my heart. I deliberately read through this thin volume slowly as to make my time with the characters last. The result was me laying in bed in tears, almost borderline at doing the "ugly cry," about the plight of Bobby and his beautiful daughter Feather. Johnson does an excellent job of creating ...

Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books)

5 reviews
Mary Williams

Lee & Low Books, 2005

Terrific Book on a Tough Subject
I was very pleased to find this book. I have been the ESOL teacher of several Sudan refugees and this book clearly explains the trip the people have taken to escape. The kids can't always fully explain to me their experience but I can often see what affect their background has on their current lives in the United States. I liked that there was a picture book with easy to read yet indepth ...

My Rows and Piles of Coins (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books)

3 reviews
Tololwa M. Mollel

Clarion Books, 1999

Beautiful Pictures and Storyline
This book is so beautifully illustrated and written. The story line of saving money for a desired purchase (a red and blue bike), took me back to my own childhood. Readers can feel the child's disappointment over not having enough money. As a wonderful addition, the child wants to save for a bike in order to help his mother carry her heavy loads. This was a truly enjoyable read.

Beautiful Blackbird (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner)

6 reviews

Atheneum, 2003

A Book for Everyone
The Reader from Texas could not be more wrong. This is so far from being a "racist" book that the criticism doesn't even make sense. This is an incredibly beautiful story that, emphatically, CANNOT be reduced to a "skin color" story --- it's a metaphor for any and every sort of difference, and how sharing what we have makes us all more beautiful. This is a very simple yet moving story, and to ...

Jazz On A Saturday Night (Coretta Scott King Honor Book)

6 reviews
Leo & Diane Dillon

The Blue Sky Press, 2007

The Jazz Dream Team--a Top 20 Book of the Year!
The renowned team of Leo and Diane Dillon sparkle in this fond evocation of jazz greats, as entertaining as it is educational. They contrive a "dream team" of six jazz legends, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Max Roach, and one relative newcomer to the pantheon, bassist Stanley Clarke. We're there with the all-Black audience in a small theater ...

Bud, Not Buddy (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner)

463 reviews
Christopher Paul Curtis

Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1999

Yay for Bud!
Welcome to the world of the heyday of jazz. The year is 1936, and the world is open to a young orphan who has happened to find himself on the run. Curtis writes with zesty personality for Bud and paints a portrait of a very likeable young boy who simply wants what all of us want: a family. He's a great kid with plenty of sass who is ready to take on the world and do what he needs to do to find ...

Her Stories (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner)

15 reviews
Virginia Hamilton

Blue Sky Press, 1995

A wonderful collection for any girl OR boy
Here is another fantastic anthology from Virginia Hamilton, the award-winning author of "House of Dies Drear" and "The People Could Fly". This volume, also featuring the wonderful illustrations of Leo & Diane Dillon, is an eye-opener for those only familiar with European folktales. Hamilton's book is divided into five sections: (1) Her Animal Tales, (2) Her Fairy Tales, (3) Her Supernatural, (4) ...

The Road to Paris (Coretta Scott King Honor Books (Puffin))

6 reviews
Nikki Grimes

Puffin, 2008

The Road to Paris
Eight-year-old Paris Richmond barely remembers the white father who gave her blond hair; he left when she was four. The story goes that he hated owning up to a child with dark skin. Paris' ten-year-old brother, Malcolm, hadn't fared much better. His dad left when Malcolm was just a baby. But being father-less didn't mean that they ever accepted their mom's latest husband as any kind of ...

Goin' Someplace Special

9 reviews
Patricia C. McKissack

Atheneum/Anne Schwartz Books, 2001

Special all right
Growing up in Nashville, Tennessee in the 1950s was not easy for African-American children. Most public places--including hotels, restaurants, churches, movie theaters, parks--were open only to whites. On buses, only seats in the back rows were available to them, even if the front of the bus was empty. But as the author explains in her endnote, the board of Nashville's public library in the ...

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Companion: Quotations from the Speeches, Essays, and Books of Martin Luther King, ...

1 review
Martin Luther King

St. Martin's Press, 1998

THE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. COMPANION:QUOTATIONS FROM THE SPEECHES,ESSAYS,&BOOKS OF MARTIN LUTHER LUTHER KING,JR.
THIS WAS AN AWESOME MAN!! HE WAS TRULY A GOD SEND AND A BLESSING TO BLACK PEOPLE AS A WHOLE AND ALL WHO LISTENED, BELIEVED AND LEARNED FROM HIS MESSAGES AND SPEECHES!! A TRUE BLACK KING!! THIS BOOK IS A COLLECTORS ITEM AND A TRUE HEIRLOOM OF A BLACK LEGACY!!!!

My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr.

6 reviews
Coretta Scott King

Puffin, 1994

Martin luther King jr. Book response
This review is about the book My life with Martin Luther King Jr. By Coretta Scott King. This book touched me because my grandpa used to know Dr.King and this book tells me all the stuff my grandpa never told me. Like when Martin protested to all the whites, the Ku Klux Klan, or [KKK] told Dr.King to stop protesting or he would never see his family again, but Martin was not afraid,and with that ...

Almost to Freedom (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book)

5 reviews
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Carolrhoda Books, 2003

Sally's tale
"Almost to Freedom," by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, is illustrated by Colin Bootman. The story is set during the era of American slavery. The book's narrator is Sally, a black rag doll owned by Lindy, a slave girl on a Virginia plantation. Through Sally's eyes we see the odyssey of Lindy and her family. The story is told in vernacular English; for example, Sally declares, "Bein' Lindy's doll ...

Rap A Tap Tap (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books)

6 reviews

Blue Sky Press, 2002

A Tribute to the Greatest Tap Dancer of All Time.....
As Leo and Diane Dillon tell the reader in their illuminating Afterword: "Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878-1949) is know as the greatest tap dancer of all time. His fame has reached mythic proportions. He had charm and charisma and, it was said "He talked with his feet." His rhythms were so intricate and fast it was impossible for other dancers to repeat some of them..." The Dillon's ...

My Family Plays Music (Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Illustrator (Awards))

1 review
Judy Cox

Holiday House, 2003

Play magic fingers, play!
I have a horrible nasty habit that I've been fighting against for years and years. When I see that a book, whether for adult or child, has won an award of any sort, I immediately become the Queen of the Critique. Suddenly, no matter how wonderful or well written the book is, I'm continually underwhelmed. I read through the tale and think to myself, "Well, it was good. It just wasn't THAT ...

Talkin' About Bessie

4 reviews
Nikki Grimes, E.B. Lewis

Orchard, 2002

Excellent, thought-provoking biography
This book is an unusual, thought-provoking means of telling the story of Bessie Coleman's life. Written in free verse, Bessie's story is told by the people who attend her funeral, her family, friends, and acquaintances. Each voice is intriguing, weaving a complex tapestry of this noteworthy woman's life. Teachers and dramatists take note--what a great book to use for reader's theatre or as a ...

Carver: A Life in Poems

5 reviews
Marilyn Nelson

Front Street imprint of Boyds Mills Press, 2001

Entrepreneurial Alchemy?s Best and Greatest Advocate
As a person coming from a hard-core science and engineering background, I never thought that poetry had any `value'. I never once saw in poetry insight into the nature and state of affairs of human beings. So I was very surprised when I read Ms. Nelson's Carver, A Life in Poems. Ms. Nelson presents us with poetry so rich in texture, so layered in meaning that these few lines of prose convey ...

The Bat Boy And His Violin (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books)

7 reviews
Gavin Curtis

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1998

A wonderful story on many levels
This book has so many themes superimposed on one another, but they are all presented within the context of a wonderful story about a boy who just wanted to play his violin. Set among the context of the Negro League era, Reginald's father decides one summer to make him bat boy for his team. The team is down on its luck, and Reginald's heart isn't in this assignment, but everything comes together ...

Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters

2 reviews
Andrea Davis Pinkney

Gulliver Books, 2000

Continuing the Legacy
"Let It Shine: The Stories of Ten Black Women Freedom Fighters" is an amazing, entertaining, and educational journey back through time for both children and adults alike. The stories accurately depict the changing face of America for all people. The author, Andrea Davis Pinkney, uses a combination of oral stories and historical facts to re-create the lives of ten African American women "freedom ...

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