The Blacker the Berry by Joyce Carol Thomas

Title: The Blacker the Berry
Author/Illustrator: Joyce Carol Thomas/Floyd Cooper
Major Awards: Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts (NCTE); New York Public Library's "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing"; Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book; Coretta Scott King Honor (Author & Illustrator); Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice; ALA Notable Children's Book
Genre: Fiction
Age: 5-8

This book is a collection of poems geared toward celebrating African Americans. This book celebrates the many shades of black people. One of the poems labeled "The Blacker the Berry" talked about how this girl was midnight and berries, she said since she was dark the moon and stars would shine brighter. The author mentions that the darker the berry the sweeter the juice. There wouldn't be day without the night and colors wouldn't shine brightly without black. Another poem tilted "Golden Goodness" talks about a girl who was picking huckleberries from a bush noticed the leaves were a shiny bronze color like that of her skin tone, and realized that the bush gave good things. She had asked her dad earlier if yellow was a good color and after seeing how it was in the garden when the sun reflected off it it, it was beautiful color to her. The illustrations with each poem really help it come to life, and we see different representations of African Americans. One poem talked about a girl who was albino and her poem was called "Snowberries."  It mentioned how people would say she's not really black, but she knew deep down that if she bled one drop of blood she was black, and didn't have to prove it to anyone. In the end it finishes with a poem called "Color Struck" highlighting the different shades of black beauty, each color is rich in its own right. It finishes by saying "We come in all shades-- Night, sun bright-- Color thick-- Color slight-- Color struck." That ending really touched me because I know the lasting effect it can have on young children who get teased, or bullied over their skin color, or don't feel comfortable in their own skin.

I think this book would be great for a young African American girl who didn't feel comfortable in her own skin. With social media mainstreaming what skin tone is a great color, it can affect young girls' confidence in who she is and maybe even guys. I think if I noticed any of my students who are African American, feeling less than, because they don't like their skin tone, or someone called them too dark, I would have them read some of these poems and let them know that their beautiful just as they are. I don't think this book would be used in a lesson, since it's more geared towards a specific ethnic group and not everyone could relate to what this book talks about. I think an appropriate age for this book would be children 5-8, but if some students who are older feel this way then it would be a great book to have.
- Peace. Love Giraffes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Childhood Book Memories

Image
     I have had a great experience with reading and keeping my mind active growing up. During the summer, my mom frequently put me in summer reading programs, and I read many different books, genres, and authors, at times it was required for school, other times, she just wanted to make sure that I was being active mentally, and not regressing with my education. She even bought me different work books so that I could do them and she would check them and give feedback on what I had done to help me get better.     Which books I've actually read is a little bit harder to remember because there were a lot. I did get into John Grisham books at a young age, and I frequently read his books ( A Time To Kill , Sycamore Row , The Runaway Jury , just to name a few). Crime and mystery fascinate me a lot and he writes them in such great detail that I feel like I'm there, and I think in some other form I wanted to be a lawyer or something in the legal field, however I don't think it's
Read more

The Rooster Prince of Breslov by Ann Redisch Stampler

Image
Title: The Rooster Prince of Breslov Author/Illustrator: Ann Redisch Stampler/ Eugene Yelchin Genre: Folklore Age: 5-7 years old This book is based off a Yiddish folktale, and deals with a young, spoiled prince, who assumes the likeness and characteristics of a rooster, until one week and old man spends seven days with him and shows him how he can mature. The book starts out with this young prince who essentially had more than he could ever want and need, nice meals, people waiting on him hand and foot. Until one day during his lavish lifestyle he had, had enough and starting acting like a rooster. He had taken off his clothes and started clucking about the palace, he pecked at things like a rooster, hunched over like a rooster and believed himself that he was a rooster. He wouldn't utter a single human word and wouldn't get dressed when his parents asked him to. They had a doctor come see him and he had said he had a case of roosterism which wasn't really real. So s
Read more

The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone

Image
Title: The Three Billy Goats Gruff Author/Illustrator: Paul Galdone Genre: Fairy Tales; Fiction Age: 4-7 This book is about three goats who walked over this bridge and they each get stopped by this troll who wants to eat these billy goats, and how they outsmarted him. They lived on a hillside and were hungry and wanted to get fat the only way to do so was to cross the bridge, which was over a rushing river and a Troll lived underneath it. The first Billy Goat Gruff was tiny and small and warned that a bigger goat was coming along and that he would fill him up, rather than a tiny goat. So the Troll let him go free. Then came along the second slightly larger Billy Goat Gruff and as he was crossing the bridge the Troll stopped him as well. He said he was going to eat him up, but the second billy goat, like the first one warned that a bigger billy goat was coming along and would fill up the Troll. So the Troll let him go as well. Along comes the third and biggest billy goat and like t
Read more