Final Reflection

I chose five picture books on African American culture. I wanted to choose this category because I believe that African Americans have struggled throughout the years and throughout the years changes have occurred to benefit the lives of African Americans. Although each book was unique, one characteristic that I believe provided the most inspiration was the issue and theme of slavery.

Slavery is a painful and frightening part of our history as Americans, a part which many elementary school teachers would rather not discuss. But our silences about slavery are potentially more damaging to the well-being of our children than the pain associated with learning about slavery. The silences hide from Black children who they are and prevent all children from thinking about what kind of people they want to be. Children of all backgrounds need to feel empowered when they are faced with the fearful events of slavery, and I believe that stories about resistance to slavery and the hope of freedom are critical to giving them that sense of power. Children also have to learn about the pain of slavery, however, or they won’t be able understand why people struggled as they did to become free. Each book I selected has the ability to inspire children to think and learn about hope and struggle, as well as all having extraordinary illustrations. This set of children's books provide, in most part, a knowledge and history of events that have taken place throughout history even though they are not all non-fiction books. I believe that the integration of history in fiction books is an important quality when choosing great literature for children!