Coretta Scott

Coretta Scott is a brand new poetic biography of Coretta Scott King, with words by Ntozake Shange and beautiful paintings by Kadir Nelson. Rather than attempting to tell every detail of Coretta's life, the text emphasizes the core experiences and traits which defined her; walking five miles to school daily as a child and being passed by white-only school buses, meeting and marrying Martin Luther King Jr., peacefully campaigning for freedom, holding onto her faith in the Lord, and "singin' always singin'". I highly recommend this lovely book to young children (and adults!)

Amazing Grace

I went to the library with my little cousins today. I watch them once a week...they are seven, nine, and eleven, and boy, do they love to read. I have a great time picking out books for them at the library...I am pretty sure I read the whole children's section at mine when I was younger, so they like to bring me along. Today I turned the world upside down by checking out a bunch of books for me to read for our annotated bibliography and asked my cousins for their recommendations. :)

Today I read a picture book called Amazing Grace, by Mary Hoffman, illustrated by Caroline Binch. It's about a girl who lives with her Nana and her Ma and just loves to hear stories and act them out (she always gives herself the most exciting roles). Her class decides to perform Peter Pan, and naturally, Grace wants the leading role. But she's not sure what will happen when two of her classmates tell her she cannot be Peter Pan because she is a girl and she is black. But with the help of her family, Grace discovers that she can be anyone and do anything she chooses to.

I think that this book would make a great read aloud for early elementary students. The issues that it addresses are very relevant and important. Grace's dilemma will appeal to any child who feels that they are somehow different, and the story itself is quite empowering. The illustrations are beautiful, too!