Author / Illustrator : Ashley Bryan
Genre: Multicultural, Fairy Tale, Folklore, Fiction
Major Awards: Coretta Scott King
Age Group: PreKindergarten - 6th
Summary:
All of the birds of Africa were the same, representing colors of the rainbow. None of the birds had any spec of black on them, except one bird. Blackbird was the only one who had it all. In the other bird's eyes, Blackbird was the most beautiful of them all and everyone wanted to become like Blackbird. One by one, birds started coming to Blackbird asking if they could be colored black like him. The other birds were so excited and kept wanting black even though Blackbird would always tell them that they don't act like him, eat like him, move like him, or even look like him. Despite all of this, Blackbird still fulfills their wishes and gives the birds some of his black color. This process continues for a couple times and all the birds end up dancing happily and continue praising Blackbird with their new black color.
Evaluation & Comments:
I loved reading this book multiple times both in class and at home. I think it has such an important message for kids of all ages. Students need to learn that even though we look different, act different, behave different, and eat different things from one another, we are each beautifully unique in our own way. We can admire qualities and personalities of other people, but we shouldn't want to change things about ourselves because of that. Our differences make the class how it is and I, personally, think it's awesome to see variation throughout! I also really liked how colorful the illustrations were in the book as it caught my eye while reading it. An activity that I could think of had something to do with arts and craft. We could prepare some cut-outs for younger students or print-outs for older students to cut out. After they cut it out, they can use markers, color pencils, or crayons to imagine what they would want the bird to look like. Older students can also use paint because they would not make it as messy. Once they are done, the teacher can hang it up on the wall or even outside the classroom so other classes can see their artwork and creativity.
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