A Taste of Colored Water by Matt Falkner. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
ISBN: 978-1-4169-1629-1. Subjects/Genre: Segregation, Racism/Picture Book Grades: 5/6
Crosshatching and water colors illustrate the surprise of cousins faced with the ugliness of segregation and how it was handled in the South.
Curricular Connections: History teachers may want to use it to provide a vivid context of life in the 50's/60's in the South.
Q/P: 4/2 : I can't imagine that many students would pick this up by choice, but Faulkner has done a good job at conveying Jelly and LuLu's confusion at what they've seen.
BVG, 7/22/09
A Taste of Colored Water by Matt Faulkner. NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2008. ISBN 978-1-4169-1629-1
Abby Finch has just come back from town talking about the "colored water" and now LuLu and Jelly must see it for themselves. But, their vision of the colored water is much different than the reality of it.
Ink and Watercolor illustrations.
Themes: Segregation, Civil Rights
Curriculum Connection: 5th grade-8th grade, great for provoking discussions on racism, segregation and civil rights
Lesson Plan:
Audience: 5th grade, but can be adapted for upper grades
Topic: Segregation/African American life in the South
This is a three part lesson.
Week 1: Teacher will read A Taste of Colored Water without full introduction; students will be instructed to look for background events to gain understanding of story. After reading, teacher will lead discussion, soliciting comments from students about their impressions of the story. Additional history about segregation will be shared and related books will be on display for students to look at.
Week 2: Students will be reintroduced to subject of segregation and discrimination with a discussion of Jackie Robinson and his experiences traveling through the South, being the only African American baseball player at the time. Teacher will read Champions on the bench: the Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars. Teacher will then "book talk" through other books that tell true accounts of children experiencing discrimination during this time period. Students will then perform Freedom Summer, using Readers' Theater scripts. Class will end with instructions to write a narrative account developing a related situation, describing the event and feelings they experienced "walking a day in the shoes" of someone growing up in the segregated South. Again, related books will be on display.
Week 3: Students will wrap up lessons by reading aloud their narratives. Teacher wil facilitate discussions throughout.
5Q/5P
"TOP TEN"
ggolden 6/30/09
Faulkner, M. (2008). A taste of colored water. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN:
9781416916291
4Q/3P
When Abbey Finch tells Lulu and Jelly that there is a colored water fountain in the big city, their imaginations run wild with what colored water might look and taste like. When they get a chance to go to the city and see the colored fountain, they find themselves in the midst of a civil rights demonstration.
Media: watercolor illustrations with ink
TK 4/29/08
Citation: A Taste of Colored Water by Matt Faulkner. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
ISBN: 1416916296
Annotation: After hearing of a magical fountain that spurts out colored water, two children wander to find it, only to be disappointed when they discover the reality of intolerance and racism.
Media: Watercolor, Ink
Curricular Connections: 5th-7th grade American History/ Social Studies. Subjects- Segregation, Racism, Civil Rights, American History
Rating: 5Q/4P
S.F 06/21/09
A Taste of Colored Water by Matt Faulkner. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2008. ISBN-10: 1416916296
Two young cousins hear of a special colored water fountain in town but they find that its meaning is different than they had imagined.
- Media: Ink Illustrations and Watercolor
- Rating: 5Q/5P
- Curricular Connections: Grades 5-8, Language Arts, Social Studies, History
CHA 7/31/09
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