I think the problem with Rosa Parks isn’t so much what Nelson includes; it’s what he omits–that it wasn’t a spontaneous incident and protest. I’m not sure if I would describe Nelson’s treatment as perpetuating a myth, but I wouldn’t describe it as dispelling one either. The biggest culprit is probably the cursory survey treatment that elevates the roles of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King over other players in the drama.

In the author’s note, Nelson writes: I knew I could not convey the *whole* story in a hundred pages. To which I answer: Why do you have to contain the story in a hundred pages? The great Kadir Nelson can’t get more than a hundred pages in his book? No, I don’t believe it! And haven’t we been whining about all the fiction writers this year who ought to show a modicum of this restraint?

The note further describes how he started with oral history in his own family, and I wish that this book had been a personal memoir of his own family rather than a fictional one with an unwieldy scope. Jacqueline Woodson had great success with that approach in SHOW WAY as did Mildred Taylor in ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY. Not that this is relevant in any way to its Newbery consideration.

I didn’t think the book felt incomplete, although I was sorry when it ended, and didn’t find textbookesque paragraphs that interrupted the flow; I see them quoted above, and they sound dry there, but it didn’t interrupt my reading. I liked that this book included lengthy sections on the contributions of African Americans during the two world wars, the Great Migration, the women’s suffrage movement–all things that are often glossed over lightly during the mad rush from Reconstruction to the civil rights movement, with a stopover at the Harlem Renaissance if we’re lucky. Clearly something had to give here, I don’t mind much that it was the later era.

Nina points out that the book design is better than in We Are the Ship (which I don’t have in front of me), but the large blocks of text still bothered me–until I got swept in by the narrative, anyway.

I do agree there is a lot that was left out. Since only so much information could fit more back matter inculding bibligraphy was very much needed. I would have loved to seen the back pages have more on of the chapters that it’s difficult to find a lot of information on like Black inventors, the Harlem Renassiance, and the great migration.

I have to give Nelson a lot of credit for the first paragraph of chapter three

” Every though it didn’t specifically say so, slavery was written into the new Consitiution right along with We the People. The framers, who wrote the Constitution could have ended slavery right then and there if they wanted to and they even thought about it but instead they chose to keep ot. They thought they needed it. You see America grew up on slavery. It was like mother’s milk to the new country, and it made her grow big and strong. ”

I have never seen an author talk about slavery so point blank for such a young age group

Nina, your post has inspired me to reread this one to see if I like it better. I certainly don’t need an excuse to look more at a Kadir Nelson book – the man is a national treasure.

What I find surprising is this: Mr. Nelson perpetuates what I call the myth of Rosa Parks in the text. Rosa Parks was not just “sick and tired.” She was trained, prepared, and part of an important movement of community organizing. She had lots of people behind her, both white and black. It drives me slightly crazy (I don’t have far to go) that books like this one, which will have a huge readership, continue to repeat misinformation for young people. It’s damaging. For more on Rosa Parks, I urge you to read my blog (I don’t want to paste in the whole rant) from some time ago, which you can find here:
http://www.ledaschubert.com/blog.htm?post=732992

It seems to me that there are other noticeable aspects of more recent African American history that are missing as well. Gaps. The entire Black Power movement; the Panthers, Malcolm X, Birmingham Sunday. I find the text a bit over-simplified, I guess, in that it purports to be a more complete story than it is. I hope the Sibert committee pays attention, because I guess I don’t think it qualifies as nonfiction.

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. Newbury? Not so sure.

http://www.hbook.com/2011/10/blogs/calling-caldecott/heart-and-soul-the-story-of-america-and-african-americans/

Now we just need Someday My Printz Will Come to join in the fun . . .