Module Twelve: Rosa by Nikki Giovanni
Bibliography
Giovanni, N. (2005). Rosa. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co.Summary
Rosa Parks is an ordinary woman with extraordinary strength who refuses to give up her bus seat in an acceptance of second-class citizenship. December 1, 1955, starts out better than most: her ailing mother is up for breakfast and her husband, a barber, is getting extra work at the air force base. When Mrs. Parks is let off from work early, she smiles in dreamy anticipation of the special meat loaf she's planning to make for dinner. When the bus driver breaks her reverie, demanding that she sacrifice her seat for a white patron, Mrs. Parks suddenly realizes she's had enough. Her refusal to move and subsequent arrest inspires the now-famous act of non-violent protest in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa shows how just one person can change history forever.
My Impressions
Giovanni's words are beautifully poetic and Collier's dramatic illustrations complement these perfectly. Unlike most biographies, it focuses on only one aspect of Parks' life, rather than discussing her life as a whole. For this reason, Rosa might not be appropriate for children who are writing a report about Parks because it alludes to many events instead of giving specific facts. On the other hand, it provides a personal glimpse into the life of a truly significant historical figure -- a rarity they won't find in most history books.Reviews
School Library Journal
"An eloquent narrative and powerfully expressionistic art paint Rosa Parks with a heroic sheen. Cast as a capable, strong-minded woman who sat down that fateful day ready and able to face the consequences, Parks actually glows in the illustrations--fittingly, as her experience lit the way for those who organized the subsequent bus boycott and, like the marchers depicted on a culminating double foldout, were moved to so many further acts of courage."
Publisher's Weekly
"Giovanni (The Sun Is So Quiet) and Collier (Uptown) offer a moving interpretation of Rosa Parks's momentous refusal to give up her bus seat.
The author brings her heroine very much to life as she convincingly
imagines Parks's thoughts and words while she rode the bus on December
1, 1955 ("She was not frightened.
She was not going to give in to that which was wrong"), pointing out
that Mrs. Parks was in the neutral section of the bus and (as some
fellow riders observe) "She had a right to be there."
The author and poet lyrically rephrases what the heroine herself has
frequently said, "She had not sought this moment, but she was ready for
it." After Mrs. Parks's
arrest, the narrative's focus shifts to the 25 members of the Women's
Political Council, who met secretly to stage the bus boycott.
Inventively juxtaposing textures, patterns, geometric shapes and
angles, Collier's watercolor and collage art presents a fitting graphic
accompaniment to the poetic text. After viewing an image of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
encouraging a crowd to walk rather than ride the buses, readers open a
dramatic double-page foldout of the Montgomery masses walking for nearly
a year before the Supreme Court finally ruled that segregation on buses
was illegal. A fresh take on a remarkable historic event and on Mrs. Parks's extraordinary integrity and resolve."
Use in Library
Librarians could read Rosa aloud elementary school children and then start a discussion about standing up for one's beliefs. Librarians could use a few different situations in which standing up for one's belief's is appropriate (when someone is being bullied, when someone is lying, etc.) and then ask the children to describe situations in which they've stood up for their beliefs.Rosa. (2005). [Review of the book Rosa]. Publishers Weekly, 252(34), 56.
Rosa. (2006). [Review of the book Rosa]. School Library Journal, 52(3), 88-89.
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