Book 20 Tar Beach

Title:  Tar Beach  

Author: Faith Ringgold

Year Published: 1991

Ages:  4-9 years old

Why I chose this book:  Tar Beach was introduced in my Children's Lit class one lovely Wednesday evening over a hot cup of tea and a crispy crumbly cookie.  I was drawn to the illustrations, the pieces of art. 

Reaction:This treasure of art and the celebration of dreams and family should be read to every child.  The main character dreams that she flies over 1939 Harlem, the George Washington bridge and the Tar Beaches what are the rooftops in NYC.  This book is part autobiographical, part historical, and part multicultural.  I had used this book in a class to demonstrate how to use visualization techniques as a tool to improve comprehension.  The vivid words lent well to the demonstration.  In fact as a class we made a Visualization quilt based on this book.  Each class member was  given a page to  illustrate what they envision based on the text alone.  Then we gathered and shared our art and described what our inspiration was.  After we all presented our square, we compiled them (and tape them together) making a Quilt of our own illustrations.  I'll post the pic tomorrow.  It was an awesome activity.   This book was fun, beautiful and made the activity possible.