Multicultural Children's Literature
A 10-month Author Study
October: Faith Ringgold
photo from Danforth Art
Faith Ringgold is an artist, author, and activist. A professor emeritus at UCSD, Ringgold now lives in New Jersey and contiues to create art and write children books. In addition to her many awards for art and public service, Ringgold has received a Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award for her first children's book Tar Beach. Ringgold was born and raised in Harlem, and is famous for painting story quilts that tell the story of her growing up there. According to Ringgold:
When my mother died in 1981, I started making quilts as a tribute to her. During that time, I was trying to get my autobiography published, but no one wanted to print my story. In 1983, I began writing stories on my quilts, as an alternative. That way, when my quilts were hung up to look at, or photographed for a book, people could still read my stories. I have “written” 30 story quilts since then. They are written the way I write my children's stories - each section written on the quilt is a page.
-from Scholastic.com
Ringgold's children's books begin as a painted quilt, and are visually stunning. The students loved her illustrations and were curious about the process of creating a story quilt, so a mixed-medium art lesson seemed like a logical choice! Some of Ringgold's books are also quite political and deal with issues of prejudice, which led to some very thoughtful conversations with the kindergarteners. "Why do some people want to treat other people bad?" is a question I got from several students. They were all familiar with Dr. Martin Luther King, but most did not know Rosa Parks or some of the other notable activists who appear in Ringgold's If a Bus Could Talk, Dinner at Aunt Connie's House, and Aunt Harriot's Underground Railroad in the Sky.
Below: Faith Ringgold describes her creative process. "Nobody can tell you that you can't write or can't paint...you just keep doing it. And if you keep doing it, it's going to be good work." Inspiring words as I encourage my students to keep writing!
Tar Beach
1991 Random House, New York
Written and illustrated by Faith Ringgold
image from Scholastic.com
Cassie's Word Quilt
2004 Dragon Fly Books, New York
Written and illustrated by Faith Ringgold
image from Faith Ringgold.com
My Dream of Martin Luther King
1995 Crown Publishers, New York
Written and illustrated by Faith Ringgold
image from Faith Ringgold.com
Dinner at Aunt Connie's House
1995 Scholastic, New York
Written and illustrated by Faith Ringgold
image from Faith Ringgold.com
Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky
1992 Random House, New York
Written and illustrated by Faith Ringgold
image from Faith Ringgold.com
The Invisible Princess
1998 Crown Publishers, New York
Written and illustrated by Faith Ringgold
image from Faith Ringgold.com
Wonderful Books by Faith Ringgold
video from Craft in America
Tar Beach is Ringgold's first children's book. It is narrated by Cassie Lou Lightfoot, a young girl growing up in Harlem (like Ringgold herself), who imagines herself flying over New York. This was a favorite book for the students and inspired their own imaginative flying art (see lesson plan and work samples below). When asked what buildings they would want to fly over, students gave a variety of answers including "my house," "the building where my mom works," the Jelly Belly Factory, our school, and Oakland's Oracle Arena. The Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were also popular choices, as you can see in the student's work.
This was another student favorite pick during quiet times in the day spent looking at books. Cassie Lou Lightfoot from Tar Beach explains the sights and sounds of her home and neighborhood. Ringgold's pictures are very detailed and the students could recognize many of the words in the pictures' labels. Ringgold had written other easy reads that are good for this age group including Cassie's Colorful Day and Counting to Tar Beach.
In My Dream of Martin Luther King, Ringgold describes a dream about Dr. King and the events of his life. There was some debate among the students as to whether this qualified as fiction or non-fiction, a new topic for them in language arts. Dr. King is a figure that the students are familiar with and they were eager to share what they knew about him and why he is important. I teach at a Catholic school so I shared this story during religion class; the class made some very good connections about King's message and the way we should treat one another.
In Dinner at Aunt Connie's House, a young girl named Melody visits her relatives. As she explores her aunt and uncle's house, she finds a hall of talking paintings, all portraits of famous African American women. I asked the students who was an important woman that they admired; most responded with their mom, grandmother, or auntie.
Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky is another blend of fiction and non-fiction. Cassie Lou Lightfoot from Tar Beach and her little brother, BeBe go flying once again, this time back in time to the time of slavery in the South. The students were fascinated by the depictions of slavery in the book; I don't think it's what they imagined. It also brought up another question in light of our Tar Beach art project: When would you want to fly to? Many kindergarteners don't have the best conception of time yet so it was interesting to ask them to think about the past.
My students were excited to hear this story; in the wake Frozen many of my little girls are princess-obsessed! I liked this story because it's not a typical Disney-esque fantasy. Ringgold actually wrote this story for her daughters, who wondered why there were not African American princesses in their bedtime stories. It's educational as well, set in the South during the time of slavery, which was especially of interest to the kids after reading Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky.
