Birmingham, 1963

Birmingham, 1963        Carole Boston Weatherford         Wordsong 2007

This poem uses a fictional narrator to recount the events in Birmingham before and after the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing.

Along with the poet’s voice, the accompanying photos give context and lend impact to the events depicted. The book as a whole is an excellent answer to the question of how do you use fiction to tell a nonfiction story.

The information on the photos used is given in the back of the book. Some photos have clear documentation about their content and context, while others do not.

It would be a very good exercise to have kids find the missing information for the photos that lack clear documentation. Students can check the digital archives of the Birmingham Public Library. Also, this may provide an opportunity to introduce the kids to reverse search engines.

The author’s note in the back provides historical background and context for the presentation, and it is the logical starting point for presenting this book to students

Breaker Boys: How a Photograph Helped End Child Labor

Breaker Boys: How a Photograph Helped End Child Labor     By Michael Burgan

Compass Point Books    2012

Firstly, I must state that I love this series. I especially like having kids visually analyze photographs and illustrations. Kids are incredibly visually savvy, and with a little bit of effort and prompting, they are able to leverage those skills in order to pull out previously unknown information in an organic way.

Sometimes images are so powerful that the reactions they provoke can galvanize social movements and change history.  Such is the case with the photography of Lewis Hine’s photos of child labor.

The featured photo appears on the cover of the book, and it is extraordinarily haunting. This is the photo that I would pair with the picture that appears on the cover of “Kids On Strike”. On that photo, striking kids are demanding access to school, as well as improved working conditions.  The haunted faces and dire circumstances of the young coal miners provides a stark contrast, and illuminates why kids would beg to be in school.

Often times, kids today wish they did not have to attend school. The photos contained in “Breaker Boys” outline the stark reality of the alternative.

Stand out photos include…

Stark conditions at a Penn. Coal mine field hospital    p.14

Coal miners’ housing –It would be a good exercise to compare with tenement housing.       p. 17

Breaker boys at work – evocative of a Roman slave galley    p.31

A mule driver standing    p.32

Injured and dead   p.38

The text outlines the dangers kids faced when working in the coal mines, both in the immediate term, as well as the long range health impacts. Also, the economic exploitation of the workers through such means as paying workers in company scrip, overpriced company stores, and high rent, substandard housing.

One interesting thing to consider when studying these photos is the nature of the equipment that Hine used. Its limitations helped dictate what could be photographed. The camera equipment weighed up to 50 pounds, and took time to set up. Also, his film was slow exposure – he could not capture moving objects clearly.

It is always interesting to consider what could have been left out of Hine’s depiction due to these limitations.

I, Too, Am America

I, Too, Am America Poem by Langston Hughes, Illustrations by Brian Collier

Simon and Shuster   2012

For our purposes, let’s start at the back of the book and refer to the illustrator’s notes. The poem is written in a collective voice in which the narrator’s identity is not specified. Collier’s execution of the artwork provides a fantastic example of using cross curricular connections to link the text of the poem to African American history.

He highlights the practice of Pullman porters collecting newspapers, magazines, and blues & jazz records that were left behind by passengers in order to toss them out of the last car of the train so that people who could not afford or otherwise obtain these items could access them.

This practice became the central metaphor for Collier’s treatment of the poem. The items that the Pullman porters gather travel through time and space across the deep South of the time to contemporary New York as a reflection of the progress that has been made. Regardless of time or distance, the recipients are elated to receive the objects and the messages that they contain.    

In another historical parallel, the objects that the Pullman porters release follow the trajectory of the Great Migration. This book would be an ideal match for Jacob Lawrence’s Great Migration book and The Jerry Pickney illustrated “God Bless The Child”.

Another use for this book would be to have this as a template for students' artistic interpretation of the poem. Who would they pick as their narrators, and how would their sentiments be expressed artistically? Those are very interesting questions.  

Barbed Wire Baseball

Barbed Wire Baseball        Written By Marissa Moss     Illustrated By Yuko Shimizu      2013

Abrams Books For Young Readers

Brilliant, brilliant book that presents a fascinating story that is little known.

The subject of the book is Kenichi “Zeni” Zenimura (1900-1968). He is considered the father of Japanese-American baseball, and he also popularized the game in postwar Japan. Zenimura was an extraordinarily talented player who played all nine positions. He pitched right handed, but he bat left handed.

Zenimura was born in Japan, and he moved to Hawaii when he was 8 years old. There, he fell in love with baseball. After he graduated from school, he moved to Fresno and formed a baseball team. In October of 1927, he was one of four Japanese–American players picked to play in an exhibition game with the Yankees in Fresno. There is a photo of Zenimura standing in between Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig that is reproduced in the artwork of the book. The actual photo appears in the afterword.

When he was interred at the Gila River camp, Zenimura began to covertly build a baseball field at the camp. When his efforts escalated to the point that he was going out under the cover of night to steal wooden posts from the camp fence so that he could build bleachers for the field, the camp guards noticed. However, they observed that he we only taking every other post, and thus leaving the structural integrity of the fence intact. The guards did not raise the alarm. They quietly watched Zenimura. Eventually, their position moved from quiet acquiescence to providing assistance to the effort.

As Zemimura’s efforts grew, more and more of the camp got involved. They pitched in to help weed the field, level it, plant grass, make uniforms, and they become players and spectators.

I am especially impressed by the insight that is offered in the artist’s note in the back of the book. I am always fascinated by the way that the real, the imagined, and the fanciful all interact and come together when non fiction stories are recounted in picture books. This illustrator’s notes are highly unusual because they present this interaction as its central theme.

The artist notes that while barbed wire was present at the early stages of the camp, it was later removed. He decided to maintain it in the illustrations in order to stress the fact that the camp was indeed a prison for those who were held there.

There are almost no photos of Zenimura during his concentration camp years. Actually there is one that was shot from distance in order to show the field. Zenimura and son appear in this photo, but the distance is too far to make out their features. The artist had to use photos of Zenimura from before the war to provide the model for his face.

I also appreciate the fact that the artist shares with us that while he did extensive research on the Gila River camp in order to depict it accurately, he also used photos from other camps in creating the art.

He could not find any visual images of the teams’ uniforms, so he adapted a homemade uniform from the period as a pattern, and he applied a bit of artistic imagination.

It is all too rare that we get such insights into how the creative process informs the depiction of nonfiction presentations.

The art is extraordinarily striking. Very stark and engaging, and yet with a fantastic range of expression preserved. There are elements of collage, older Japanese art styles, and a hint of Chinese propaganda poster style. The effect is very visually impactful, and it brings home the fact that this is a prison camp being depicted.

In emphasizing the starkness of the camp, the art highlights the humanity of the people held within.

Highest possible recommendation!

By all means, use in conjunction with “My Dog Teny” .

Zenimura standing between Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth