Tar Beach written and illustrated by Faith Ringgold. Crown Publishers, 1991. ISBN 0-517-58030-6
Reader's Annotation: Cassie Louise Lightfoot can do something that we have all, at some point in our lives, wished we could -- fly! In the evenings, she soars over her Harlem neighborhood, above the tall buildings and among the stars.
Summary: On hot summer evenings in Harlem, Cassie's family heads up - to the cooler air on the tar-papered roof to enjoy picnic style dinners with the neighbors. As Cassie and her brother lie on a mattress gazing at the stars, she floats up to fly above the George Washington Bridge and the construction projects her high-steel worker father has helped to build.
Cassie believes that her power of flight allows her to raise her family above the racial prejudice and financial struggles that they face at ground level. She will buy the bridge, the skyscrapers, and an ice cream factory and give them to her father. Her mother will be happy, and she will teach her little brother to fly too. There is just no stopping this brave heroine in her search for freedom and equality.
Critical Evaluation: Ringgold provides an approachable explanation, even for the very young, for the discrimination that many minority families experienced in our nation's history. By telling the narrative from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl, children can more easily grasp what life was like for a biracial child of this era.
Ringgold based the illustrations and text on a story quilt that she created in 1988, and portions of the quilt's fabric squares are shown within the colorful patchwork border on each page. The acrylic on canvas paintings are folk-like in style, and the colors Ringgold uses are vibrant and hopeful, just like Cassie's spirit.
The author has captured this family's summer evening experiences so clearly, you can almost hear the buzz of adult conversation in the background, and feel the warmth of the day's heat rising from the tar paper rooftop.
Age or Interest Level: Kindergarten to Grade 3
Lexile Level: 790L
Awards:A Caldecott Honor Book
Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award
A New York Times Best Illustrated Book
Winner of the Parents' Choice Gold Award
Why Included? The colors! The patchwork! Cassie's dream of freedom!
Malala, a Brave Girl from Pakistan / Iqbal, a Brave Boy from Pakistan written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter. Beach Lane Books , 2014. ISBN 978-1-14814-2294-9
Reader's Annotation: Here are the true stories of two brave young people, Malala Yousafzai and Iqbal Masih, who were both shot for speaking out for freedom and education in Pakistan.
Summary: Malala was born in 1997 in a small town in Pakistan, and greatly enjoyed her studies at the local school until the Taliban began to make it difficult for girls to attend. When Malala was eleven, she began to speak out about the rights of girls to have access to education, but due to her brave public statements, she began receiving threats, and was gravely injured when a Taliban fighter shot her on her way home from school.
Malala was rushed to hospitals in Pakistan, but when the Pakistani doctors did not have the ability to heal her, she and her family flew to England where she was treated and began to recover. As Winter so eloquently states, "The shot fired at Malala is heard the world over". Malala's story does not end here, but continues as Malala transcends above the hatred and ignorance that wounded her, and carries on in her efforts to fight injustice.
Fifteen years before Malala was born, Iqbal was born in another village in Pakistan, but unlike Malala, who was lucky enough to attend school, Iqbal began working at the age of only four, as a bonded worker in a carpet factory. He was shackled to the loom each day, and his existence was little better than a slave's.
When Iqbal was ten, he was freed from his bond by the Bonded Liberation Front of Pakistan, and began to speak out against child labor. His brave words were heard around the world, and he traveled internationally to share his childhood experiences. Iqbal dreamed of studying law, to help others who continued to suffer under unjust labor practices, but when he was just twelve, he was shot and killed as he was riding his bicycle. His murder was never solved, but it is suspected that the assassin was hired by the carpet industry.
Critical Evaluation: Winter has taken a difficult subject, and adapted it with sensitivity to the developmental level of her young readers. Her passion for the rights of children everywhere is clearly evident in her telling of these two biographical tales. By combining these two life stories with the picture book format, Winters has created a lovingly crafted tale that can be shared with children much younger than the typical reader of juvenile biographies.
The illustrations are representational of the true accounts of these child heroes, but are drawn in such a way, and with a jewel-toned palette, that the combination of the text and images never allows the tone of the work to become frightening or overly graphic.
The two stories are published back to back, and are connected by a single spread that can be enjoyed as it is reached from either segment of the book. It shows Malala and Iqbal flying kites towards each other across the night sky and the mountains of Pakistan. This page can be appreciated at numerous levels, literally, spatially, or spiritually, depending on the maturity of the children who are reading the book.
In our modern world, where an appreciation for multi-culturalism, and an awareness of global human rights issues are necessary, Winter's picture book biographies provide an excellent starting point for young children to develop these character qualities.
Age or Interest Level: Ages 5 to 9
Lexile Level: 640L
Awards: Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature, Best Multicultural Books of 2014; Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People - 2015, Kindergarten to Second Grade; 2015 Amelia Bloomer Project List, Early Readers, Nonfiction
Why Included? The sharing of stories like Malala's and Iqbal's is so very important in our country, where children are born into freedom. Growing up without an awareness of the plights of others less fortunate will result in a child who takes his or her own freedom for granted, and who may be less likely to realize that part of a free person's responsibilities is to help those who are not free themselves.