February 2007 Children’s Books by the Month

Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue
by Julius Lester
This Coretta Scott King Author Award-winning historical fiction masterpiece is told in dialogue, using the multiple voices of slaves and their owners.

ACTIVITY
CHARACTERS IN CONTRAST
After reading the book, use what you have learned about slavery to complete a Compare/Contrast of two characters you select from the Principal Characters list in the front of the book. Add supporting detail for your character analysis by selecting at least two key quotes/thoughts for each character from the book dialogue. Display the character maps on a bulletin board and add a timeline of historical events that had an impact on the lives of the characters in Day of Tears.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Follow Harriet Tubman on her courageous journey out of slavery. Her inspirational flight to freedom is detailed with dramatic illustrations and flowing text that emotionally depicts her spiritual trek by way of the Underground Railroad.

ACTIVITY
TEXT ART
Moses is a beautiful example of the use of graphical text. Every page of the book has numerous font styles that students can decipher, determining the emotion these styles engender while they read. Isolate a font style and list the events that are described using that one font. This is a great way to "pull out" the emotional themes of this inspiring story – freedom, justice, family, risk and hope. Students can select one of the 19 additional trips by Harriet Tubman along the Underground Railroad mentioned in the story and write their own historical tale of the journey using facts from this book and graphic fonts to help "picture" the emotions of the events.

Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra
by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney
The legend of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington comes to life with a crescendo of melodic text and bold illustrations that profile his life as the King of the Keys and the Piano Prince. From his first music at the piano to his suite of "Black, Brown, and Beige," performed in Carnegie Hall, the spellbinding biography of Duke Ellington and his Orchestra will keep students enthralled with this "jazz-playin' man."

ACTIVITY
IVORY EIGHTY-EIGHTS
Create a map of Duke's music travels from cabarets in Washington, D.C., to the Cotton Club in New York City. Research the musical timeline of his songs and locate as many of the titles as you can for a student listening center. Put together a dictionary of musical terms and be sure to include the left-handed hops and right-handed slides mentioned in the book. Add a section for special jazz terms like honky-tonk and loop-de-loop and dance steps like the Fish-Tail and the Suzy-Q.

Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa
by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney
This is the story of Ella Fitzgerald and her rise to fame from an orphan-girl street performer to the dance clubs of Harlem. Singing with the jazz of swing bands to bebop, Ella became the First Lady of Song.

ACTIVITY
SCAT CAT S INGING
Ella Fitzgerald made scat singing popular. By dropping the lyrics of a song and carrying the rhythm with nonsense syllables, Ella moved her singing style from swing band jazz to bebop. Let students choose a song or lyric and try using the scat technique to create their own modern-day version of bebop.

Freedom Ship
by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Curtis James
Gripping and original, this book is based on a true story about Robert Small, his slave crew and their families, who kidnapped a Confederate gunboat and escaped to freedom. The story of the escape is told from the perspective of a young enslaved boy whose father is part of the slave crew.

ACTIVITY
FREEDOM RULES
Read the Author's Note from the back of the book to the class.Outline the life of Robert Small and his contributions to American history and the civil rights of African Americans. Research the water battles of the Civil War and chart their locations along the Atlantic coastline.Write a news article about the daring escape, the value of the "Planter" gunship to the Union forces and the devastating impact it had on the South.

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