Melody loves the annual family excursion to Aunt Connie's house--everyone
gets to go swimming, share a fabulous dinner and see an exhibition of
Aunt Connie's most recent art. From their frames on the wall, famous
African American women such as Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune, and
Zora Neale Hurston tell their stories of their devotion to causes from
civil rights to education.

Faith Ringgold, October 8, 1930 an American
painter, writer, mixed media sculptor, and performance artist,
best known for her narrative quilts.

973

This book is about two young kids who find a room full of paintings who talk to them and tell them about who they were. This was a very cute book to teach about African American women in a k-3 classroom. The paintings spoke to the children not only about the struggles they went through and the accomplishments they made for not only African Americans, but also that changed the world. It can help children learn about history, important African American women, and even inspire students to do great things. ( )

The main idea of this book was recognizing that anything is possible if you work for it. It also is about the history of African American Women and their achievements. The main character in the story, Melody, and her adopted cousin explore her aunts paintings of twelve famous African American women. Each painting speaks to the children and tells their story. I liked this book because it tells the stories of so many praised women in history within a larger story. The reader gets to learn about all of them, while reading this story, along with the characters. The reader is reading stories within a larger, present day story. I like how the stories were intertwined. I also liked that the illustrations, looked like they were painted, making it believable for the reader that they were painted. I also interpreted this decision maybe that the entire book was illustrated as a painting to allow the reader to interpret the book as a painting and the story behind this painting is the story we are reading. Overall, I thought this book had so much in it that made it great. I loved the story, the message, and what this book stood for. ( )

(thrift store find)
How does one rate this? ?áI did not 'enjoy' it all. ?áThe conceit that the paintings of famous black women would speak their story, in a v. brief biographical blurb, made this a trivia book designed to be taught in February, and never picked up the rest of the year. ?áThe 'frame' of the romance between the children made no sense in context, and almost no sense on its own. ?áBut if you are a teacher and you need a certain book like this for your classroom because of curriculum mandates, you certainly could do worse.... ( )