Module 10: Goin' Someplace Special

Book summary: ‘Tricia Ann is excited with her new dress that she asks Mama Frances if she can visit her “Someplace Special” by herself today. This routine trip is haunted with the hardships of a southern town in the 1950s, but ‘Tricia Ann learns a valuable lesson from an acquaintance.  

APA Reference of book: McKissack, P.C. & Pinkney, J. (2001). Goin’ someplace special. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Impressions: This book is a beautiful and accurate illustration of the struggle of African-American life in the late 1950s. The illustrations were well-blended, with the background colors muted and secondary, allowing ‘Tricia Ann to be the focus of every set of pages. Her cheery disposition is captured by the yellow ribbon tied around her waist and the smile on her face for most of the book. The book illustrated the struggles experienced by African-Americans during segregation in the 1950s, with the separate sections on the bus and park benches. It was a wonderful surprise to learn what ‘Tricia Ann’s “someplace special” is, especially after reading the “Author’s Note” and understanding McKissack’s childhood experience.

Professional Review: “McKissack draws from her childhood in Nashville for this instructive picture book. "I don't know if I'm ready to turn you loose in the world," Mama Frances tells her granddaughter when she asks if she can go by herself to "Someplace Special" (the destination remains unidentified until the end of the story). 'Tricia Ann does obtain permission, and begins a bittersweet journey downtown, her pride battered by the indignities of Jim Crow laws. She's ejected from a hotel lobby and snubbed as she walks by a movie theater ("Colored people can't come in the front door," she hears a girl explaining to her brother. "They got to go 'round back and sit up in the Buzzard's Roost"). She almost gives up, but, buoyed by the encouragement of adult acquaintances ("Carry yo'self proud," one of her grandmother's friends tells her from the Colored section on the bus), she finally arrives at Someplace Special—a place Mama Frances calls "a doorway to freedom"—the public library. An afterword explains McKissack's connection to the tale, and by putting such a personal face on segregation she makes its injustices painfully real for her audience. Pinkney's (previously paired with McKissack for Mirandy and Brother Wind) luminescent watercolors evoke the '50s, from fashions to finned cars, and he captures every ounce of 'Tricia Ann's eagerness, humiliation and quiet triumph at the end. Ages 4-8.”

Reference

[Review of the book Goin’ someplace special, by P. McKissack & J. Pinkney]. (6 August 2001). Publisher’s Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-689-81885-1.

Library Uses: This book would be used as part of a book display during National Library Month to show the values of libraries within their community. I would also provide coloring sheets that allow kids and teens to illustrate and color their favorite library. After completion, they will be displayed in a public mural inside the building.