Bright Eyes, Brown Skin By Cheryl Willis Hudson and Bernette G. Ford

Hudson, Cheryl Willis and Bernette G. Ford. Bright Eyes, Brown Skin. New Jersey: Just Us Books, 1990.

This book is in the form of a poem emphasizing the beauty and characteristics of all children and African American children in the form of the children enjoying typical activities at school. The children are very positive and portrayed as having lots of confidence and self-esteem. It celebrates a positive self-image of African American children by using phrases such as “teeth that glisten” and “very special hair and clothes.” This book is written by an insider author, Cheryl Willis Hudson, who is a co-founder of Just Us Books, Inc which is a premiere publisher of African American Interest books for children and young adults. Their website is a very valuable website for other high quality, authentic African American texts: www.justusbooks.com


This book is intended for students of preschool or kindergarten age. Hudson starts off the story as describing the characters in the story as “Bright eyes, brown skin.” This establishes with the readers the race of the characters in a very positive way. Hudson continues by very thoroughly depicting the children in the story as average, typical children by stating their characteristics that all children have such as “Bright eyes, cheeks that glow, chubby fingers, ticklish toes.” The drawings, which are also illustrated by an insider illustrator, George Ford, portray the children as regular students who go to school, and their routine activities. Hudson has done an excellent job of writing an authentic book that can build self esteem and positive self-image in African American readers. She is also successful in writing a book that outsiders can read and enjoy that will promote a message of inclusion and acceptance. Overall, this book is outstanding and should be included in every preschool classroom to promote a positive image and acceptance of African American students.

Book Review by Ashley Zimmerman

Tears of a Tiger

Title: Tears of a Tiger
Author: Sharon Draper
Publisher: Simon Pulse
City: New York
Year: 1994

I ripped through the pages of Draper’s tragic tale in Tears of a Tiger barely able to put the book down. The novella opens with blunt news article describing the brutal and tragic death of Hazelwood High School’s star basketball player, Robert Washington. He dies in a fiery car accident where his best friend Andrew Jackson (better know as Andy) is driving the car. Three out of the four passengers, including Andy and Robert, were drinking. The emotional novella discusses very in-depth themes such as death, suicide, guilt, underage drinking and depression.

Andy struggles for many days after the accident. He is faced with much guilt over the death of his best friend and pays the ultimate price for his actions. I expected the novella to be a typical story of the black youth who struggles academically and excels athletically. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the text. If you were to strip away the racial make-up of the school you would be left with a gripping story of youngsters playing with the flames and life, only to get burned in the process.

Book Review: Goin' Someplace Special

McKissack, Patricia C., Pinkney, Jerry. Goin’ Someplace Special. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2001.

The Monarch Award:Illinois' K-3 Children's Choice Award. 2007 Nominee

Goin’ Someplace Special is the story of Tricia Ann’s travels through a day in the life of a young colored girl during a segregation period. She is on her way to someplace special alone for the first time where she discovers the “White’s only” signs. She is confused and saddened but finally reaches her final destination of the public library where the sign reads “All are welcome”.

McKissack and Pinkney focus their readers on the segregations of the Jim Crow signs of the past. They allow one young girls journey to tell the story of which places are off limits to those of color. This book allows readers to get a glimpse of what life was like for a young, impressionable, African American girl. Multiple signs are pointed out throughout the book and all the while Mama Frances’ voice is in the background telling Tricia Ann she is someone special and she belongs to somebody. The text is written using old southern language when switching characters, and the kind characters are represented in a caring light. The illustrations aide readers in discovering the trials and hardships people of color had to deal with in the past. People of color are clearly defined as well as the areas within which they are expected to abide by. This is a great illustration of what can be learned from the past about segregation and how far we have come as a society since the past. Children can gain a cultural sense of what others before them had to go through to experience the freedom we now carry. This is a great portrayal of multicultural literature and should be considered a viable resource for personal and classroom libraries.

Book Review: The Other Side

Woodson, Jacqueline. The Other Side. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2001.

The Other Side is the story of two little girls separated by a wooden fence running between their yards. Both mothers warned each girl not to cross the fence, saying it was not safe on the other side. Throughout the summer Clover and Annie Paul observed each others lives and eventually became friends, sitting on the fence together, never crossing it. As Clover observes others reactions to this new found friendship, she learns about the multicultural world around her and the changes that are to come.

Woodson spends a fair amount of time emphasizing the idea of the other side of the fence through her text. She never bluntly states what is on the other side that makes it unsafe, but the strong emphasis is there for readers to make their own assumptions. I believe that through the illustrations of two young girls facing one another on opposite sides of the fence, Woodson is able to imply that even these young girls can see past color differences, and make friends when needed. This book is a great example for seeing what is and was to come in the future. As Woodson states best on the last page in reference to the fence “Someday somebody’s going to come along and knock this old fence down”. That is exactly the positive attitude that should be instilled in our youth, therefore this book is highly recommended.

Book Review: PINK and SAY

Polacco, Patricia. PINK and SAY. New York: Philomel Books, 1994.

PINK and SAY is the story of Sheldon Curtis (Say) and Pinkus Aylee (Pink) who both fought together for the Union somewhere in Georgia during the Civil War Period. The story of these two boys journey through the war has been passed from great-grandfather to grandmother, to son, and finally to the author-artist herself, Patricia Polacco. The two boys lost their Union troops so they found themselves taking rest at Moe Moe Bay’s, Pink’s mother’s home, to recuperate before regaining their search for their lost Union troops. Their stay was cut short as the Confederate troops rode in killing Moe Moe Bay and imprisoning the two boys in Andersonville. The end of the story recaps the true environment of a prison during the war period along with summing up the long lived life of Say after the war and the early death of Pink shortly after entering the prison. The story of the interracial friendship lives on through the tellings of those who shared Sheldon Curtis’ life, never forgetting Pinkus Aylee.

Polacco puts forth great effort in giving the text authentic African American dialect that can be seen during this time period in Georgia. The story creates a great portrayal of interracial relationships between soldiers of this time period. The idea of two relationships forming from two people going through similar battles is displayed clearly, and readers are able to gain a sense of belonging together among different racial backgrounds. The illustrations aide the relationships in portraying powerful depictions of Pink and Say grabbing hands as they are pulled apart. She does a fabulous job of representing the relationships that were to come in the future and gives her readers hope of interracial lasting relationships. I would recommend this book not only to African American families but also to many other families looking to broaden their multicultural experiences.

Book Review: The Skin I'm In

Flake, Sharon G. The Skin I'm In. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 1998.

The skin I'm In, is a great book that I could not put down once I started reading it. The main character Maleeka, is tormented daily for her clothes, her good grades, and her dark skin. She is pushed around by a girl who claims to be her friend, and does things like this girl's homework in exchange for clothes to wear that aren't handmade by her mother. There is a new English teacher, Miss Saunders, who is a little different than the rest of the people in the school. Everyone can tell she has money, and she has a very distinguishing mark on her face that makes her the target for constant ridicule. She has also never been a teacher before. She forms a relationship with Maleeka where she tries to bring her true potential out. Maleeka is resistant to this, but ends up finding out that she has a hidden talent in writing. She then learns that this is a talent that she shares with her father who passed away.

This story is truly inspirational, and I feel that Maleeka is a character that anyone could relate to. In the beginning, Maleeka is a meek girl that has no self confidence. Throughout the book Maleeka begins to form her own identity and become more comfortable with the way she is. Through expectations that Miss Saunders places on the class, Maleeka learns that she has talents. She also learns that being smart and getting good grades is not as bad of a thing as her classmates make it out to be. On page 167, Maleeka says, "Call me by my name! I am not ugly. I am not stupid. I am Maleeka Madison, and ,yeah, I'm black, I'm real black, and if you don't like me then too bad 'cause black is the skin I'm in". I feel that this statement is very powerful and sends a great message to other girls who relate to Maleeka, as well as anyone who is not comfortable in their own skin. Maleeka could be a great role model for any teen.

The Skin I'm In is also a Coretta Scott King Award winning book.


For more information about Sharon G. Flake please visit:http://www.sharongflake.com/

Stars in the Darkness- Joosee Barbara

Joosse, Barbara. Stars in the Darkness. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2002.

Stars in the Darkness is a story about an African American boy who lives with his mother and brother in an apartment in the city. The boy is the narrator of the story and is dealing with the issue of his older brother, Richard, who he looks up to and respects, joining a gang. The narrator and his mother decide to rally the neighbors together to fight against the gangs by starting Peace Walks at night to stop the gangs. The story deals with the emotions the boy is feeling along with his mother as they realize that Richard has become part of a gang.

The book is written by Barbara Joosse, who grew up in Milwaukee, and who according to the images on her website she does not appear to be African American and according to her biography she also did not appear to grow up in the inner city. For these reason she would be considered an outsider author for this particular book about African American individuals. On the issue of her writing as an outsider Joosse stated that, "I often write outside of my own experience, drawing word pictures of places or people or activities other than my own. In order to do this, I need to visit those places (whether it is a geographic location or a new activity), record the voices of people who live the story I tell, research and call on a team of expert readers to check for accuracy”. This is an important thing to note when thinking about her as an author because it explains how she does her research to create these authentic books even from a culture that is not her own.

However, even as an outsider author she uses African American Language (AAL) in both the narrative and the dialogue in the book. Since the narrator is an African American boy the narrative text also uses this language. Through the use of words that drop the final consonant, as is a typical grammatical form of AAL, such as howlin’ fightin’ playin’ sleepin’ and nothin’, the author uses this grammatical form used in AAL to add authenticity to the text. This correct grammatical form of AAL as written by Joosse shows the way in which an outside author can also authentically create AAL in text. For this reason I believe that this book is a great example of a diverse literature book written authentically by an outside author and would be great to add to a classroom collection.

Nappy Hair- Carolivia Herron

Herron, Cavolivia, Nappy Hair. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

Nappy Hair is a picture book written in a unique style of writing known as Call and Response. This call and response story tells the story of a young girl, Brenda, and her Uncle Mordecai’s view of how she got her “nappy hair”. The book talks about this young girl and how proud she should be of her hair because it comes from “the lord” and her ancestors from Africa, and how “one nap of her hair is the only perfect circle in nature”.

This style of call and response is an authentic African American story telling technique in which the characters in the story respond to the narrator of the story. Uncle Mordecai is the narrator in this story and throughout the book the author uses different styles of text to show that another character is speaking in response to Uncle Mordecai. For example in this passage the standard text is Uncle Mordecai and the other text is the response by other characters in the book:

“Brenda, you sure do got some nappy hair on your head, don’t you?
Well.
It’s your hair, Brenda, take the cake,
Yep.
And come back and get the plate.
Don’t Cha know.”

Call and response technique of story telling is an African American traditional way of telling stories and this adds authenticity to the text and the story as told by Carolivia Herron. Herron uses another grammatical form of AAL in her writing as she writes, “ain’t going to be nothing they come up with going to straighten this chile’s hair”. In this passage the author also makes use of AAL in the way in which she uses multiple negation in her passage through the phrase “ain’t going to be nothing”. Multiple negation is also a AAL grammatical style which adds authenticity to the text itself.

The illustrations in this book are done in a cartoon style and depict an African American family and specifically Brenda with her nappy hair. Each character in the book is African American as depicted in the illustrations, including the angels in heaven. Brenda is the character with the nappy hair and her expressions in each illustration depict her happiness and how proud she is of her hair showing through the illustrations that she is proud of herself and her hair. The illustrations depict a multi generational family, all dressing in various clothing some traditional and some modern, and they all have different styles of hair which is an important emphasis of the book and a detail the illustrator considered in his illustrations.

The different techniques of AAL used in the text by the author of Call and Response and multiple negation are grammatical forms of AAL that add authenticity to the text itself. This authenticity in the way the book is written and the accurate use of AAL throughout the text and the illustrations makes this book a piece of diverse literature. Herron also uses the word “nappy” a traditionally negative word used to describe African American people’s hair, in a positive light throughout the book, which counteracts the typical negative stereotypical view of the word “nappy”. For these reasons I believe that Nappy Hair is a unique book that would be piece of diverse literature that could be used in many ways to inform others about African American culture and to ignite discussion about things such as call and response techniques, AAL, and even ideas about nappy hair.