I Am Rosa Parks (Easy-to-Read, Puffin) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Jim Haskins (Author), Wil Clay (Illustrator) "Many years ago black people in the South could not go to the same schools as white people..." (more)
Key Phrases: Pine Level

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3?This brief autobiography introduces readers to Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. The subjects of segregation in the South and Parks's experience when she refused to give up her seat set a serious and later, hopeful mood. Told in the first person, the text is powerful, accessible to beginning readers, and succinctly covers the events surrounding the boycott. Best of all, Parks ends on a positive note with the desire that children will learn respect, not hate. A few lines of dialogue, several dates, and the mention of locations put the story in perspective. Clay's watercolor paintings enhance the text. Other good books appropriate for the same age group include David Adler's A Picture Book of Rosa Parks (Holiday, 1993) and Eloise Greenfield's Rosa Parks (HarperCollins, 1995).?Mary M. Hopf, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 2^-4. Without dumbing down, the famous civil rights activist has simplified her YA autobiography, Rosa Parks: My Story (1991), and made it accessible to beginning readers as a Dial Easy-to-Read Book. Like the original title, this one is cowritten by Jim Haskins, and the style is clear and direct, beginning with the drama of her arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. Parks shows that her personal role was part of a wider political struggle, and she relates the bus boycott to the civil rights movement and to her continuing fight against racism. The design is spacious, with big type, and Clay's paintings, some of them based on famous photographs, capture the segregation scene and the fight to end it. The first-person voice gives weight to Parks' final message: "I hope that children today will . . . learn to respect one another no matter what color they are." Hazel Rochman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (December 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141307102
• ISBN-13: 978-0141307107
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #147,152 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #7 in	Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Biographies > Social Activists
  #27 in	Books > Children's Books > Early Reader Series > Puffin Easy-to-Read
  #74 in	Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Social Issues > Prejudice & Racism > Fiction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Next to Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks is remembered!, August 3, 2002

By	Bonnie McKinzie (Garden Grove, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Rosa Parks is best remembered as the Black woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a White person. However, she was much more that that. She was raised by grandparents because her mother taught school in another city. Her grandfather was the child of a slave owner and a slave. Rosa was determined to make a difference for her people. She and her husband took part in supporting the Scottsboro boys, Black youth who were accused of crimes they did not commit. Rosa became secretary of the NAACP and contributed greatly to her people, eventually receiving the Congressional Gold Metal award.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rosa Parks, May 6, 2003

By A Customer

This book is a great read for a young child...maybe K-2nd grade. It was good at laying out for the reader the life of Rosa Parks.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I AM ROSA PARKS, March 27, 2000

By	Sarah Dabydeen (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am Rosa Parks (Easy-to-Read, Dial) (Hardcover)

This book is about a girl that had to give her seat up in a bus for a white person. She did not get up so they called the police.The police arrested her for not getting up.Then when Rosa got out of jail she made a statement saying, " Why do black people have to give up for white people?" They compromised and the black people do not have to give up there seat anymore. I liked this story because if Rosa Parks did not say anything we will be still separated from black people.