Coretta Scott - Softcover

Shange, Ntozake

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061253669 ISBN 13: 9780061253669

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books, 2011

Synopsis

Walking many miles to school in the dusty road, young Coretta Scott knew the unfairness of life in the segregated south. A yearning for equality began to grow. Together with Martin Luther King, Jr., she gave birth to a vision of change through nonviolent protest. It was the beginning of a journey—with dreams of freedom for all.

About this title

About the Author:

Ntozake Shange is a celebrated poet and author of many novels and plays, including the Obie Award-winning play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, which was made into a feature film. Ms. Shange is also the author of several children’s books, including the Coretta Scott King Award-winning book Ellington Was Not a Street, illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

Kadir Nelson won the 2012 Coretta Scott King Author Award and Illustrator Honor for Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans. He received Caldecott Honors for Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford, for which he also garnered a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and won an NAACP Image Award. Ellington Was Not a Street by Ntozake Shange won a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. Nelson's authorial debut, We Are the Ship, was a New York Times bestseller, a Coretta Scott King Author Award winner, and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor book. He is also the author and illustrator of the acclaimed Baby Bear.

From School Library Journal:

Starred Review. Grade 4–9—Poetic language paired with powerful images makes this biography/history of the Civil Rights Movement a moving, provocative read-aloud. Young Coretta and her siblings solemnly "walked all/of five miles to/the nearest colored school/in the darkness/with the dew dampening/their feet." A close-up of the stoic children as the "white school bus/left a/funnel of dust/on their faces" reveals the hurt they already knew. The peaceful, prayerful profiles of Coretta and Martin juxtaposed against a stained-glass church window provide a soothing contrast—"they prayed together/found joy/and were married." Later came the sit-ins and the marches; "hundreds then thousands/white and black/marched/in Alabama/Carolina/Georgia/and Chicago." Until "a quarter of a million at the March on Washington/peacefully singing 'we shall overcome'/and listening to the words/that would inspire a nation." A bird's-eye view of the crowd looks like a garden of flowers surrounding the Reflecting Pool. Yet, despite the song and solidarity, "things nature never intended/a child to see/haunted them...." The book ends with several spreads of marchers and singers accompanied by an excerpt from the traditional gospel song "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round." Nelson's stirring oil paintings on plywood are all full-spread with large, easy-to-share images. An author's note provides a summary of the subject's life and of the Civil Rights Movement, though there are no credits or references to the songs. Every library will want copies of this lyrical tribute to an elegant woman and the era she represents.—Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools
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About this edition

• Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0061253669
• ISBN 13: 9780061253669
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Nelson Kadir