Author: Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins
Title: I am Rosa Parks
Illustrator: Wil Clay
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Year: 1997
Genre: Biography
Format: Hardcover
Reading level: Transitional
Interest level: Elementary
Topics: Rights of Blacks vs. Rights of whites
Summary: This book is a biography of Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks tells her story of being a young black woman in a world full of whites and their rules. Rosa tells how whites used to be in control of a lot and how they made the majority of decisions. When Rosa got on the bus for example, she was forced to give up her seat to a white man who needed a place to sit. Blacks were told to sit in the back of the bus, if they did get to sit. Rosa was finally fed up with the whites and decided to stand up for what she believed in. One day she was told to give a a white man a seat and she refused to give up her seat. She was arrested, but shortly after released. After she was released from jail she decided to attend a meeting in a church. A minister, named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the church. He influenced all of the black people of Montgomery, Alabama to join to together to stay off the buses in the city until the unfair laws were changed. Rosa and the the other blacks boycotted and stayed off the buses for quite some time. The buses soon stopped running because there was not enough riders without the black people. After a while, the laws were changed and blacks no longer were forced to give up their seats to whites on the bus. After this, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. decided to fight against segregation in other ways. Soon the Civil Rights Movement was put into place. This book states that many people believe the Civil Rights Movement happened because of Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks is a great historical figure that many thank and look up to as a role model. Her story touches many hearts and is retold to generation after generation. The pictures in this book are very realistic- water colors with great detail.
Extension Activity(s): Provide children with a worksheet with the following questions:
(1) Write about a time when you or someone you knew was treated unfairly
(2) What did you ( or they)do to change that?
(3) Were you brave like Rosa Parks and spoke for what you believed in?
Also this book could be talked about in a History class. The Civil Rights Movement could be a topic discussed.
