Rosa's Bus

December 1, 2010

Gr 1-4-Unlike Faith Ringgold's If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks (S & S, 1999), Rosa's Bus is a factual history in picture-book format of Bus #2837 itself and its role in the larger Civil Rights Movement. No fantasy elements are present. The story starts with the bus rolling off the factory assembly line in 1948 and ends with the restored vehicle becoming an exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan. After a few scenes showing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., explaining the protest, the empty bus rolls by with walkers shown through its windows. The solid, heavy lines of Walker's oil paintings match the massive quality of the bus. The saturated colors convey strength and determination. Some prior knowledge is assumed because words such as boycott and Jim Crow are not explained in the text. Although there are already several high-quality picture books about Dr. King and Rosa Parks, this distinctive work is an excellent addition.-Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2010
Grades 2-5 In an inventive approach, this handsome picture book frames the biography of Rosa Parks with the story of the bus on which she famously refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. Beginning with where the bus was built and first driven, the free-verse narrative and dramatic oil paintings tell the larger story of discrimination in daily life: Thats just the way things were is a frequent refrain, and one double-page view of the bus interior shows a Colored sign marking the seats. After Parks refusal and arrest, there is the drama of the boycott: Bus #2857 rode down the street / with plenty of empty seats. . . . / They walked for 382 days. A climactic picture shows the bus full again, blacks and whites sitting together. With the final long note about the history and the museum where the bus is on display, kids will connect with the unsentimental, contemporary message: Imagine where it has been / and where we have yet to go.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)