Mrs. Lima's First Grade Class Honors Jerry Pinkney

Room 102's Display Board

I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery written by Cynthia Grady, illustrated by Michele Wood

8ll GRA
I lay my stitches down and troubles fall away. Before too long, I’m breathing with the rhythm of my quilting — listening wide with every fiber of my soul: the praise songs of my people; voices of my kin; drumbeats of my motherland form the threads that weave the fabric of my life.

The role of quilts in slavery, particularly as signals in the Underground Railroad, is an ongoing debate in historical circles, but in the exceptional “I Lay My Stitches Down,” quilts become an affecting metaphor for the patchwork lives endured by American slaves. Using a structure of 10 lines of 10 syllables to reflect square patches of cloth, D.C. author Cynthia Grady presents 14 poems touching on aspects of slavery, including moments of peace, a terrible lashing and an escape attempt. Grady incorporates references to needlework into every poem: “I wait — then thread my way to freedomland”; “That overseer cut from the same cloth/as the devil hisself, the very warp/and weft.” Michele Wood’s vibrant paintings are likewise wrapped up in quilts, each one a gorgeous hodgepodge of images, colors and patterns. In one illustration, showing an escaped slave crossing a river, the blue-green night sky is made of squares and ornamented by the North Star and the moon; the water’s rings seem part of another quilt with a circular pattern embellished by small animals and lily pads. Throughout the book, the interplay between pictures and words, including the poems and succinct historical background, is deeply impressive, as seamless as it is stirring.

— Abby McGanney Nolan

Golden Bear by Ruth Young, Illustrations by Rachel Isadora

In mellifluous, rhymed couplets, Ruth Young portrays the friendship between a cherubic African American child and a cuddly, life-size teddy bear. The fluid verse describes the two as constant companions: ``Golden Bear, Golden Bear, / I have seen him everywhere: / Dancing up the golden stair, / Rocking in my rocking chair.'' Isadora's robustly colored, full-page paintings present large-scale renditions of the duo as they play together during various seasons--they build a snowman, spot tulips in the grass and pretend they're ``pirates in the tub.'' Finally, they snuggle together at bedtime, ``Dreaming dreamy dreams at night, / Golden Bear tucked in tight.'' A touching tribute to a special relationship--and to a youngster's fertile imagination. (Publishers Weekly)

Rachel Isadora, Illustrator

Rachel Isadora (born 1953) is an award-winning children's literature author and illustrator. She is most famous for Ben's Trumpet (1980 Caldecott Honor Award book), which has been adapted to video and was also translated into a ballet by the Boston ballet company BalletRox in 2009. The more than 150 children's books Isadora has written and illustrated span a wide variety of topics, including ballet and dance, American urban culture and family life, life in Africa, and traditional fairy tales. Isadora was a professional ballet dancer before an injury led to a change of careers.  In addition to freelance writing and illustration, Isadora shows and sells oil paintings, many of which reflect her love of dance, as well as her experiences living in Africa and New York City.

Thank You Ms Isadora for these illustrations. It matters.

Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace

FIC LOV

There are lots of children on Hill Street, but no little girls Betsy's age. So when a new family moves into the house across the street, Betsy hopes they will have a little girl she can play with. Sure enough, they do—a little girl named Tacy. And from the moment they meet at Betsy's fifth birthday party, Betsy and Tacy becoms such good friends that everyone starts to think of them as one person—Betsy-Tacy.

Betsy and Tacy have lots of fun together. They make a playhouse from a piano box, have a sand store, and dress up and go calling. And one day, they come home to a wonderful surprise—a new friend named Tib.

Ever since their first publication in the 1940's, the Betsy-Tacy stories have been loved by each generation of young readers.

Lois Lenski

Lois Lenski was born on October 14, 1893 to a Lutheran minister and a schoolteacher who raised their daughter in Anna, Ohio. Her third grade teacher encouraged her to draw. She traced flowers from seed catalogs and filled them in with watercolors. She copied magazine covers. Until she was fourteen she used a twenty-five cent box of Prang paints. An artist lived with their family while he painted the fresco at Lois' father's new church. He told the family, "This child has talent. She needs a better box of paints." Lois' father gave the painter three dollars and he bought her a box of twenty Windsor Newton watercolors. The artist said it would last her a lifetime. "It nearly did, being replaced only once." 

No one ever suggested that she draw the life she saw around her, encouraging her instead to copy other artwork. It wasn’t until she went to college that she began to study art.The first book she illustrated was Children's Frieze Book for Platt & Munk. They paid her one hundred dollars. Helen Dean Fisher, the art director at Stokes, suggested that she try writing to accompany her illustrations. The first book she both wrote and illustrated was Skipping Village, published in 1927. Lois Lenski gave birth to her son, Stephen, in 1929. Her picture books reflected her observations of her son and his friends as they grew. The "Little" and "Small" books were drawn for them. The Little Family, The Little Auto, Cowboy Small, Policeman Small are just a few. 

Many of these titles are being reissued today. She is perhaps most well-known for her historical and regional series of books. The ALA awarded Bayou Suzette a Newbery Medal in 1946. Two of her books received Newbery honors: Phebe Fairchild: Her Book in 1937 and Indian Captive: the Story of Mary Jemison in 1942. Arguably, Strawberry Girl is probably the best-known of all of her books. Many fans know her best for her illustrations of Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy books.