Review: Giovanni, N., & Collier, B. (2007). Rosa.

Giovanni, N., & Collier, B. (2007). Rosa. New York, NY: Henry Holt.

A Caldecott Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Award Winner, Rosa tells the impactful story of Rosa Parks, a well-known historical figure who stood up to the oppression of African Americans by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in 1955.  The accompanying illustrations are a lovely combination of paintings and realistic photo collage, with somewhat darker tones, light emanating through certain aspects. Giovanni captures the pleasant nature and disposition of “Mrs. Parks,” through dialogue and description, and notes that she was a hardworking, well-liked seamstress, “teased” by the other seamstresses for utilizing magic, devoted to her husband and ailing mother.

Rosa is headed home early after a hard-day’s work one December when she gets onto the bus from the back, “as was the evil custom,” and moves into the “neutral section” because the area to which she is normally confined is full.  While daydreaming, she is accosted by the angry bus driver, who wants the seats being occupied by black men and women in the neutral section vacated. It’s at this point that Rosa Parks famously takes her stand, refusing to be removed, even with the threat of law enforcement, though her ensuing arrest is not detailed in this storybook.  What does follow is the coming together of community members, some given names and faces here, who assemble to organize a bus boycott.

Even as a biographic children’s story, readers are respected enough to be told of important legal cases, and the lynching of Emmett Till, only weeks before.  They are told of the involvement of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the peaceful protests. A wonderfully symbolic, four-page, pull-out spread depicts the contributions of “People from all over the United States” for over a year, until the Supreme Court finally rules that all segregation is unconstitutional, or as the book states: “wrong.”  In the end, Rosa Parks’ “quiet strength” is noted for her significant contribution to bringing about change.  The book’s end papers in the beginning present an image of Rosa Parks on the crowded bus drawn in black-and-white realism, and in the end, handmade flyers calling others to support her and oppose segregation, still fluttering on the wind.