Rosa by Nikki Giovanni and Bryan Collier, ill. New York: Henry Holt, 2005.
ISBN: 978-0-8050-7106-1
Annotation: This picture book tribute retells the historical events that made Rosa Parks a pivotal figure of the Civil Rights Movement with her refusal to move to the back of the bus.
Media: cut paper and water color collage
Curricular Connections: 5-8th grades: Civil Rights, US History, Prejudice and Racism, Race Relations, Civil Disobedience
Aspects of Artwork: Collier uses cut paper and water color collage in deeply hued colors, incorporating abstract and surreal elements plus realistic figures. The collages are then set on color pages. The book includes a double fold-out page of the Montgomery marching masses a year before the Supreme Court verdict ruling against segregation on the bus in 1956.
Awards: Caldecott honor 2006, Coretta Scott King Award 2006, Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance 2006
Rating: 5Q/5P
RAC 7.30.09
Giovanni, N. (2005). Rosa. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN:
9780805071061
4Q/3P
On the first day of December, 1955, Mrs. Parks found a seat on the neutral zone of the bus. When ordered to give up her seat for white people who had boarded the bus, Rosa declined – a challenge that would help to ignite the Civil Rights Movement.
Media: watercolors and collage.
TK 4/29/08
Giovanni, N. (2005). Rosa. New York: Henry Holt.
ISBN: 9780805071061
Illustrator: Collier, B.
Media: Watercolor, Collage
4Q/3P
Curriculum Connection: Grades 5-6; US History, African American History, Civil Rights
Literary Application: Allusion
Illustrations detail passengers on the bus reading the newspaper with headlines referencing the murder of Emmett Till. Till’s murder helped mobilize the civil rights movement, which the illustrations in Rosa allude to.
Annotation: Beautifully depicted, this biography introduces Rosa Parks first as a woman living her everyday life—making breakfast, going to work, talking with friends, etc.—and then chronicles her transition from an ordinary life to an extraordinary one.
5.18.08 cjm
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