Rosa 

Title: Rosa
Author: Nikki Giovanni
Illustrator: Bryan Collier
Medium: Mixed media
Genre: Picture Book-Biography
Theme: Other Relavant information: This book won the Caldecot Honor Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award and the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award.
Summary: This book is about the life an African American seamstress called Rosa Parks who got tired of standing up for what was wrong and decided to sit down for what was right. She did this by refusing to give her sit to a white passenger. Her act of bravery helped start a movement that changed the political and racial landscape of America and the world.




Literary elements: This is a biography depicting the life of a woman whose courage and determination help change the course of American history. The author makes good use of figures of speech such as metaphors and similes,  especially when he refers to Dr. King's speech and and Rosa's tiredness; which was not due to physical exhaustion but to something deeper than that. She was tired of always being pushed around; tired of "Colored" taxis, entrances, etc.

Evaluation: It is a well illustrated book with vivid images that make it easy to see what actually took place back in hose days. The illustrator's work is quite remarkable with his use of mixed media to depict the characters in the book.

Social justice Element: This book deals with the issue of segregation on the buses in the United States of America in the 50's. An issue that necessitated the intervention of Supreme Court to right the wrongs that have done to the black community and decide for what is right according to the constitution the land.

Follow-Up Activity: As follow up activity I would like to have the students work in groups and brainstorm on  changes that they would like to see happen in school, in their classroom, in their neighborhood and families, and what they believe they can do to bring about the desired changes. Then we will get back together and each group will share their ideas with the rest of the class. After that all their  ideas will summed up into one common document called "road-map for change" and and the students will be challenged to begin to act, like Rosa, on their good ideas and become agents of positive change in their classrooms, school, families and the community.