Bound To Stay Bound

View MARC Record
 

Full Text Reviews:

Booklist - 02/01/2014 With spare text and minimalist illustrations, Weatherford and Christie pay fine tribute to the tradition of artistic expression that bloomed during the Harlem Renaissance. Each page turn reveals a luminary of the scene with just a single line of text that gracefully sums up his or her contribution. Although more likely to appeal to nostalgic adults than young readers, this could be a valuable addition to classrooms and libraries. It could be used, for example, to introduce children to the names and work of Zora Neale Hurston, Faith Ringgold, Miles Davis, and many others, showing young readers how the artists of that era were also activists and how that affected the children living there: “Sugar Hill, Sugar Hill / where life is sweet / and kids play stickball in the street. / Where DuBois outlines social tracts / and Thurgood Marshall plots legal attacks.” More than anything, this is about a caring community where cultural pride and the possibility of dreams not deferred ran gloriously rampant. - Copyright 2014 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2014 Gr 2–4—This lyrical tribute to the New York City historic district so central to the Harlem Renaissance pays homage to such notable African Americans as Faith Ringgold, W. E. B. DuBois, Thurgood Marshall, Paul Robeson, and Miles Davis. "Sugar Hill, Sugar Hill where life is sweet/And the "A" train stops for the black elite.…Where Duke and Count plunk out new tunes/and Zora spins stories by the moon.…Where grown-ups lift the young ones high/and give them wings to touch the sky." Weatherford's words celebrate the people and the neighborhood where black culture blossomed in the '20s and '30s. Friendly, well-dressed neighbors dance and swing or discuss new ideas while children play stickball, visit the library, and are lifted up by their elders. Christie's signature paintings-bold and simple-capture the excitement and energy of the place and time. An author's note and "who's who" provide background information on the neighborhood and its accomplished inhabitants. Pair this perfect read-aloud introduction to the Harlem Renaissance with Bryan Collier's Uptown (Holt, 2000) to inspire students to write and illustrate their own neighborhood poems.—Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 04/01/2014 Essentially a poetic list of the notables who resided in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, this bouncy exercise in name-dropping introduces listeners to high profilers whose concentration in the well-to-do African-American neighborhood shone a floodlight on black cultural achievement and material prosperity. First names and nicknames make the presentation more intimate: “Where Duke and Count plunk out new tunes/and Zora spins stories by the moon.” Figures named more formally, such as Thurgood Marshall and Faith Ringgold, rub shoulders with average residents designated by neighborhood activity; “Where doctors and lawyers live next door/ to the owners of a corner store.” Rhyming and scansion are sometimes clunky, and for children unfamiliar with the litany of Big Names, there’s little to encounter in the main text other than atmosphere. The real heft of this title is found in the end matter, which includes an author’s note on the significance of the neighborhood (and its place on the National Register of Historic Places), and brief paragraphs on the residents mentioned within the text. Christie’s compositions, which streamline the Sugar Hill-ites to softly defined shapes with a few deft touches of individuation, should stand up to the kind of group sharing that this book is likely to enjoy. Although designed as a celebration of the past, it may serve as a wake-up call for children to look around their own neighborhoods and pick out the movers and shakers. EB - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

View MARC Record
Loading...



  • Copyright © Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. All rights reserved.
  • Privacy Policy