Q: Which book should win the NAACP's Outstanding Literary, Work Childrens?
(of 44 respondents)
11% GOD INSIDE OF ME
36% HAPPY TO BE NAPPY
16% IF A BUS COULD TALK
9% LITTLE BILL: THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE
27%
THROUGH MY EYES
Above are the results of the AALBC visitor's poll,
conducted prior to the award. All the nominees are shown below.
The actual winner is highlighted in yellow.
God
Inside of Me Author: Della Reese, Yvonne Buchanan (Illustrator) Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children Date Published: March 1999
Grades 1-4
Reese, a celebrity from the TV show Touched by an Angel, has spun a story that, despite
its wonderfully oral voice, is long-winded and lacks child appeal. Kenisha knows that
there's a piece of God in her, but it takes a lesson from her doll to see that there's
also "...good in everyone, even those who get on our nerves." The girl's talking
toys make up the main cast of characters and are not convincing. Also, Kenisha slips too
often into an adult voice, revealing the storyteller's edifying intentions. The pastel and
warm-toned watercolor illustrations are full of life and movement, but the human features
are often so distorted that the girl and her brother not only look like different people
on each page, but also appear elderly. Some schools or libraries may have an adult demand
for this kind of Sunday-school story, but otherwise it holds little use. - Nina Lindsay,
Oakland Public Library, CA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Happy
to Be Nappy Author:bell hooks, Chris Raschka (Illustrator) Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children Date Published: August 1999
Kindergarten
- Grade 3
A short, rhythmic tribute to little girls with "nappy" locks. "Girlpie hair
smells clean/and sweet/is soft like cotton,/flower petal billowy soft,/full of frizz and
fuzz." Raschka's illustrations are a perfect accompaniment to the brief, handwritten
cursive text. They bring out the spirit behind hooks's writing and have great child
appeal. With only watercolor-washed squares as background, the whimsical figures dance and
caper. Reduced to the simplest childlike element, they nevertheless convey emotion and
movement with the curve of a mouth or the jut of a hip. Using broad brush strokes, the
artist creates fantastic hair that curls, whirls, and flows across the page or flips and
piles over heads. This title is sure to invite comparisons to Carolivia Herron's Nappy
Hair (Knopf, 1997). Hooks's text is gentler, a single, almost dreamy, literary voice. It
is less personal than the lively call-and-response device found in Herron's book, which is
full of the loving, yet pointed teasing of a large, close-knit family. Both authors, in
their different ways, have written joyous celebrations that give hair a life of its own
and encourage self-acceptance. - Karen James, Louisville Free Public Library, KY Copyright
1999 Cahners Business Information.
Kindergarten
- Grade 4
A talking bus is literally the vehicle for this picture-book biography. Marcie, on her way
to school, finds herself on a driverless bus occupied by a group of unfamiliar passengers
who don't seem to notice she's there. A disembodied voice tells her that this used to be
the Cleveland Avenue bus but is now the Rosa Parks bus, and then launches into an account
of the woman's life. Ringgold recounts the dramatic events triggered by Parks's refusal to
give up her seat: the Montgomery bus boycott; the leadership, persecution, and death of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; the Supreme Court decision to ban bus segregation; and public
recognition of the woman who started it all. The story ends when Parks herself enters the
bus for a birthday celebration with the passengers who are now revealed as personages from
her history. While the artifice of the talking bus and a few minor lapses in logic
sometimes detract from a solid telling, the story does much to humanize a larger-than-life
figure. Ringgold's colorful, textured acrylic-on-canvas paper paintings done in a na f
style are a perfect complement to the stark realism of the events and the simple dignity
of the subject. Color and line are used to suggest ideas, such as the turbulent purple,
black, blue, and chalky white and the jagged forms depicting the Ku Klux Klan and
bombings. Text and art harmonize, with print changing from black to white and appearing on
each page in an interesting variety of layouts. An accessible telling and beautiful
illustrations result in a worthy contribution to this developing genre. - Marie Orlando,
Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business
Information.
2000 Award Winner
Outstanding literary work, Childrens- "If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks"
by Faith Ringold.
(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Little
Bill's parents expect him to dress up and act like a gentleman during their party, even
though he would rather be playing soccer with his friends.
Grade 4 - 7
Profusely illustrated with sepia photos-including many gritty journalistic
reproductions-this memoir brings some of the raw emotions of a tumultuous period into
sharp focus. In her recounting of the events of 1960-61, the year she became the first
African-American child to integrate the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans,
Bridges is true to her childhood memories. She is clear about what she remembers and what
she later learned. Her account is accompanied by excerpts from newspaper articles,
comments by her teacher, and a time line that fill in the details and place her story
within the context of the Civil Rights Movement. The narrative draws a distinct contrast
between the innocence of this six-year-old child who thought that "Two, four, six,
eight, we don't want to integrate" was a jump-rope chant and the jeers of the angry
crowd outside her school carrying a black doll in a coffin. A powerful personal narrative
that every collection will want to own. - Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal Copyright
1999 Cahners Business Information.