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    Rosa
    Rosa
    Rosa
    Audiobook12 minutes

    Rosa

    Written by Nikki Giovanni

    Narrated by Nikki Giovanni

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery, Alabama city bus and refused to give up her seat to a white man, an act that ignited a movement that changed modern history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWeston Woods
    Release dateJan 1, 2007
    ISBN9780545836340
    Rosa
    Author

    Nikki Giovanni

    Nikki Giovanni, poet, activist, mother, and professor, is a seven-time NAACP Image Award winner and the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award, and holds the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry, among many other honors. The author of twenty-eight books and a Grammy nominee for The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection, she is the University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

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    Reviews for Rosa

    4.5/5

    68 ratings48 reviews

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    • 3/5
      "Rosa" is a book about the important events in Rosa Park's life. It tells of that history making day when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. It also explains how that day helped pave the future for African American rights and freedom. This was a great book. It gives you more details on the story of Rosa Parks than I ever learned in history class. It gives more background and personal information. It shows how certain historical events tied in to each other. I would read this book to my class after learning about desegregation. I would discuss with my students how they would have handled the situation. I would ask them if they thought her actions were justified and why they felt the way that they felt. I would want them to learn that although they may feel like their actions are unimportant, they can change history with one simple action.
    • 3/5
      This picture book biography takes you into the daily life of an African American woman. Rosa Parks is sent on a mission in order to attempt the change the rights that African American woman have in Montgomery, Alabama. During the civil rights era, Rosa parks was one of the most influential women. Her dedication to changing the way things were was crucial to the understanding of this picture book. I would read this book to a group of fourth graders because I feel as though they would understand somewhat the hardships during the civil rights era.
    • 5/5
      "Rosa" is a biography about the story of Rosa Parks and how she sat to stand up for African American civil rights. This may be a heavier topic for the younger students to read about, but this can be connected used for the social studies lesson as well. This book describes well Rosa Parks was an important activist in the history, and the main points she made when she said "no" to the bus driver who made her stand up because she was an African American woman. The illustrations in the book are beautiful, dramatic and compliment the story well.
    • 4/5
      This Coretta Scott King Award winning book tells the story of Rosa Parks and her contributions to the fight for civil rights. The story also includes those who helped her.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed reading this book. My favorite part was the enhancement of the illustrations. They were created by small pieces of cut out paper orchestrated to create the images. This made them look 3D. The images on the endsheets are also very power as they are a picture of Rosa on the bus and at the end a picture of the flyers labeled "Support Rosa Parks." The black/white illustrations of the endsheets at to the mood of the time period. My other favorite part of this book was the message. It explains the day that Rosa Parks said "no" on the bus and ties it together at the end by stating, "the integrity, the dignity, the quiet strength of Rosa Parks turned her no into a YES for change." I love how this sets the message of standing up for what is right in order to make a difference in the world.
    • 3/5
      Rosa written by Nikki Giovanni and illustrated by Bryan CollierRosa is the story of how Rosa Parks took a stand for what she felt was right. I feel this is a good book to share. It tells a powerful story about the struggle for equal rights. It shows the courage of those who fought, and died, for what the felt was right and fair.Extension Activity:provide-- magazines, scissors, paper, and glue Discuss how people are different and how people are the same. Have children look through magazines, cut out pictures of things they like (food, activities, books, bikes, etc...)and glue the pictures to paper. Have children explain why they chose the things they like, and see if their classmates chose some of the same things. (can then graph choices to extend activity)Extension Activity: fingerprintsuse ink pad and paper, provide magnifying glass to look at prints. Are they the same, different?
    • 5/5
      This book had beautiful artwork, which enhanced the story. It was historical fiction, and followed the story of Rosa Park's stand against racism. I enjoyed that the author built up the scene first, and then let the action against Rosa play out. This developed her relatedness to the reader.
    • 4/5
      This is a book about the civil rights activist Rosa Parks and the work that she did during that movement. This story discussed how Rosa didn't give up her seat on the bus and discussed the different laws that were changed during the course of her activism. This was a good book to illustrate this moment in history in a tangible way. This was done through the precise language used to describe the events of the book. As well as the texture in the illustrations made by watercolor and collage.
    • 5/5
      “Rosa” was a very moving book, which I enjoyed reading. Rosa Park’s story has always been an inspiration because I have always been a strong believer in nonviolent actions that change the world. Rosa Park’s extraordinary action teaches children to stand up for what they believe is wrong, but to do so in a nonviolent way that shows others ones good conduct. This book is good for fifth graders and above because it teaches them to always act in positive ways.
    • 5/5
      Rosa by Nikki Giovanni is a partial biography about the story of Rosa Park's refusal to give her seat on the bus to a white man. Rosa was tired. She was physically tired from work and taking care of her sick mother. She was mentally tired of "colored" entrances, "colored" balconies, "colored" drinking fountains, and "colored" taxis. Rosa decided to stand up for what she believed was right and said "no". She was then arrested. Women's Political Council held a private meeting where they made posters hand all over the city to boycott the bus. A revolution began. Martin Luther King Jr. was their leader for hope and prosperity. It all started with one women taking a stand for what she believed in.This would be a good book to use in a 2nd-5th grade classroom when learning about biographies. This book could also be used in a text set about racism and segregation. Students could find more books about Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. to learn more about the civil rights movement.
    • 5/5
      Books about Rosa Parks abound, but this one stands out among the rest. In the post- Civil Rights era, Rosa Parks has become symbol of the movement, sometimes to the exclusion of her humanity. Giovanni’s lyrical prose succeeds in making Rosa Parks a real person to readers, with a sick mother, and a husband to make dinner for. The book also connects Rosa Parks to the larger events surrounding her decision to remain in her seat; readers see the link between not only her decision and the bus boycott that followed, but also Brown vs. Board of Education and the lynching of Emmett Till. Collier’s illustrations are somewhere between collage and stained glass, and a halo-like light surrounds the heads of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. at critical junctures in the story. Rosa would of course be welcome during Black History Month, but it would be a shame to confine a book of such caliber and importance to one month of the year. The only thing missing is an afterward giving information about Rosa Parks’ life after the bus boycott, and sources for further information. Readers will want to learn more after reading this book, and it would have been nice if Rosa gave easy access to resources to do so. Other than that, I recommend this book highly.
    • 5/5
      Nikki Giovanni is well-known for her lovely Black poetry.
    • 4/5
      Giovanni, N. (2005). Rosa. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.Grades 3 and up. Giovanni’s Rosa is a picture book that begins with some background about Mrs. Parks’ life. From there, the story moves quickly to December 1, 1955. On that day, Rosa Parks sat in the neutral section of the bus. Whites and Blacks could sit in this section if it was available. However, as the bus filled up, bus driver James Blake told her to move. Mrs. Parks continued to sit and eventually was arrested. From there the Women’s Political Council, churches, and the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) decided to support Mrs. Parks by encouraging people to boycott the Montgomery buses. The story ends by explaining that the Supreme Court ruled in 1956 that segregation was wrong. Although Rosa is a short story, it can serve as an introduction to the Montgomery bus boycott. The picture book highlights Mrs. Parks’ motivations for civil disobedience, the various organizations that participated in the Civil Rights Movement, and the significance of her courage. The book also foreshadows Dr. Martin Luther King’s role in the movement.Rosa is also well deserving of being a 2006 Caldecott Honor Book. The illustrations use varied textures, patterns, watercolors, and deep hues. The pictures combine abstract and realistic images. At climatic points of the story, such as when Dr. Martin Luther King speaks, there is a two-fold page layout. Readers should note that Giovanni idealizes Mrs. Parks. The book does not mention that her refusal to move was premeditated. Even though this picture book could be read to young children, it could also serve as an emotional, yet profound story for high school students learning about the Civil Rights Movement. I highly recommend this book for any school library.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful picture book biography. It has a strong, encouraging message, accurate details, and vocabulary that children can easily understand.
    • 5/5
      Very good. I learned alot about Rosa Parks and the movement.
    • 5/5
      "Rosa", written by Nikki Giovanni and illustrated by Bryan Collier, tells the amazing story of Rosa Parks and the day that will go down in history when she chose to stand up against inequality by not giving up her seat in the neutral section on the bus. Giovanni's writing style is very elegant and old-fashioned, which I believe was intended to represent Rosa Parks and the time that this event took place. The writing is also very simple and to the point; it follows along smoothly just as Rosa's day was before the situation took place on the bus. The illustrations were my favorite part of this book; they filled almost the entire page except for a third of it where the writing was. Collier's illustrations look like he pulled pictures of real people out of magazines, altered them to look like drawings, and pieced them together very carefully. There is two pages towards the end of the book that opens up to four pages to show the people marching towards Washington, D.C.. This was a very powerful illustration in the book. I believe that the overall message readers are supposed to take away from this book is that if people gather together to fight inequality peacefully and are determined, then they will be able to make a change.
    • 4/5
      Giovanni, N., & Collier, B. (2005). Rosa. New York: Henry Holt.Grades 3 through 5Rosa Parks is a talented seamstress whose quiet demeanor and attention to detail made of her the best seamstress in the alterations department at a Montgomery shop. On that Thursday, December 1, 1955, with work ahead of schedule, Rosa’s supervisor sends her home to care for her sick mother. Rosa looks forward to a night of meatloaf, her husband’s favorite, when she pays for her fair and then gets off to enter the bus from the back door as all colored people must. With the colored section crowded, she takes seat in the neutral section, but when she is asked to leave to make room for a white man, she refuses. With quiet strength ad resolution, she remains seated until the policemen arrive and arrests her. Her action helps give strength to the Civil Rights movement and leads to the Supreme Court victory that determines segregation to be illegal. In Rosa, Nikki Giovanni creates an idealized version of Rosa Parks as a springboard to the larger discussion and segregation and the Civil Rights movement. Parks is portrayed as a caring daughter and wife and a hard worker whose main desire on that Thursday evening is to get home and make her husband some meatloaf—a picture that helps make the humiliation she endures in the bus even more vile. Her arrest prompts the bus boycott in Montgomery and almost a year later, the Supreme Court decision that marks the legal end of segregation in the US. The reader loses sight of Parks, and what happens with her after her arrest is never discussed. The book introduces children to difficult topics such as the Civil Rights, segregation, and racism in a very thoughtful way. Young readers will surely have questions about this historical period and how it still affects the US today. As a biography, Giovanni uses factual evidence to create a version of Parks that is more ideal than real. She treats her subject with dignity and infuses her with the spirit of the struggle of millions of Americans, but nothing of Parks’ life before or after that Thursday is mentioned. Dialogue is used minimally, but it helps highlight the action. Even though readers will not learn much more than what they already know about Parks, this picture book is an essential title in classrooms and school libraries as it brings to light a difficult moment in American History. The double-page illustrations combine watercolor and collage to bring together realistic and surreal elements—for example, the image of Dr. King speaking to an ocean of hands, people, and graphic elements. Rosa is the Winner of the 2006 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and a Caldecott Honor Book.
    • 4/5
      Award-winning writer Nikki Giovanni chronicles the events occuring on the day of Rosa Park's arrest on December 1, 1955. The book, that is beautifully illustrated with paper cut-outs by Bryan Collier, reveals a story most readers are not familiar with: what the daily life of Rosa Parks was like leading up to her history-making decision to stay seated on an Alabama bus in 1955. The details used to tell the story, like mentioning an evening trip to the Piggly-Wiggly and secret meetings to show support with Mrs. Parks, paint vivid pictures mental pictures. A great biography selection for the 3rd-5th grade age group.
    • 4/5
      This Coretta Scott King award winner and Caldecott Honor book tells the story of Rosa Parks as she refused to get out of her seat on a bus and and inspired the bus boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama. Collage looking artwork brings the characters to life.Classroom connection: Could be used during a unit on civil right in a middle school social studies class. Or as part of Black History Month in an elementary school. Could also be used as part of a unit on Martin Luther King. As an award winner this is an example of an outstanding book and could be used to introduce the Caldecott award and the Coretta Scott King Award.
    • 5/5
      This book does a better job than any other I've read at showing the fateful day in Montgomery from Rosa's point of view. Rather than making Rosa Parks an icon, it humanizes her and shows just how exhausting it must have been to spend a life in segregation. Absolutely stunning. An excellent addition to any African-American history or civil rights unit, a Women's history unit, or just one on American heroes.
    • 5/5
      When Rosa Parks is told to move from the neutral part of the bus to the back of the bus, she takes a stand for what she believes is right. This ignites a movement to create social change; change known as the Civil Rights Movement.
    • 4/5
      Rosa Parks is obviously a significant figure in our history and this book goes through the events on the bus as well as her life. This book does a nice job of making Rosa relatable while also providing the information that made her a huge image in our society.
    • 5/5
      This story follows the life of Rosa Parks from the morning of her arrest on the bus through the final change that was made due to her strength. The author does an excellent job of letting us know Rosa as an individual with a regular thoughts for the day as everyone else, she did not go out seeking this rebellion, it just came to her.
    • 5/5
      A beautiful book with detailed text and gorgeous illustrations about Rosa Parks' life and the series of events that led up to and followed her bus protest. While Parks' protest has been told so many times it's almost become cliche, this book avoids being another humdrum text by presenting a familiar tale in a new way. This is one of my students' favorite historical books to read.
    • 3/5
      The key strengths of this book are a) it's absolutely important message and b) it's stunning illustrations, which seem to be a combination of collage and painting. Rosa more than lived up to its promise in both categories.

      But...I'm not entirely sure who the audience is for this book. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm white. To me, most of the story seems to geared toward kids about 5 to 7--they need to be able to sit for longer reading sections and they need to understand some bigger words and concepts. But then Giovanni brings up Emmett Till, lynching (not defined in the text), and his open-casket funeral. So we've gone from the kind of harassments that kids might be familiar with from bullies (the implied "get out of my seat" and "you don't belong here", as well as Giovanni's ominously vague "potential for ugliness") to some incredibly dark territory, including words and events that adults will have to explain. (I believe there is now or soon will be a picture book about Emmett Till's mother.) This is a book-long story about Rosa Parks, but I feel like that one paragraph about Emmett Till would probably spark the most and most difficult conversations.

      From that point on, as the story gets larger than just Rosa, it also has a couple sidetracks: in addition to the paragraph about Emmett Till, there is, for some reason, an entire paragraph about using a stencil-making machine. Giovanni also drops in the NAACP, "the nonviolent movement", "segregation" (not previously defined) and the doozy of a phrase, "makes no provision for second-class citizenship." All of these are important things, of course, but they mean that you need a kid who's a) old enough to either sit all the way through a longer reading or read this book for themselves and b) old enough to ask for more information instead of just getting bored when they don't understand something. That age probably varies by child.

      I appreciate Giovanni's efforts to add in a few feminist comments, such as Rosa Park's thought that men take up more space than women. There's a parallel there with white people demanding that black people give them more space. Then Mrs.-Robinson-who's-actually-Dr.-Robinson has to make dinner, clean, put children to bed, and kiss her husband goodbye before she can go organize the bus boycott. To me, the critique is obvious--why the heck is an important woman doing all these chores without her husband helping when there's important work to be done? However, neither of these situations have any indication that this is not the way things have to be. In Rosa's mind, "Men take up more space." Period. Fact. To Dr. Mrs. Robinson, there's no annoyance or alternative. For both of them, it seems like this is just the way it is. If they can protest their treatment at the hands of white people, why do they let men walk all over them?

      There also isn't really a conclusion to Rosa Parks' own story. We know she was arrested. How long was she in jail? How did she get out? Did she go to court? Did she ever get on a bus again? For a book called Rosa, this one doesn't stay focused on Rosa more than about halfway.

      Gosh I feel like I'm being a grump about this award-winning, absolutely beautifully illustrated book. It addresses a lot of the annoying myths that white people like to say: that Rosa didn't stand up because she was tired from working (Giovanni spins this word out brilliantly) and that her protest ended segregation and that black people and white people all lived happily ever after. I'd love to talk to a teacher who uses this book in their curriculum to hear how they use it, what books they use as supplements, and what their conversations are like. Of course, these days this book is probably being banned from classrooms, because [sarcasm] how dare we teach children that progress is possible if doing so makes white people look bad? [end sarcasm]

      Finally, about that amazing art: it's a little thing, but I love that Collier gets a little space for an illustrator's note. Ever since I started reading the historical notes in the back of American Girl books, I've loved reading everything that authors and illustrators can tell us about their work.
    • 2/5
      2.5 stars. A very simplified account of Rosa Parks' famous refusal to move her seat. Disappointed that it wasn't a full biography. The collage-style illustrations were neat, but just a little off for me.
    • 5/5
      This is a great book to get a look into what Rosa Parks thought when she decided not to get up from her seat. She was tired of being treated the way she does because of the color of her skin. She wanted to stand up for not only herself but for people of color. This book also talks about what came after and the civil rights movement.
    • 5/5
      This is a beautiful reminder of the courage and sacrifice Rosa Parks made to resist racism and white supremacy and engender change for all.
    • 4/5
      This book tells the story of Rosa Parks and her journey to bring equality to the black race. The story begins by describing the few days leading up to Rosa's arrest and how it sparked a fire in the black community of Montgomery, Alabama, to fight for equality. After Rosa's arrest, her friends organized a bus boycott and Martin Luther King Jr. led a walk that eventually led to the Supreme Court ruling that buses could not be segregated.Genre: BiographyCritique: This book is a good example of biography because it presented to factual story of Rosa Parks, a highly known name of the Civil Rights Era, and presented it in engaging way.Media: collage
    • 5/5
      Rosa is a fictional picture book. Even though it depicts real events it is still listed as a fictional book. It was written by Nikki Giovanni and was illustrated by Bryan Collier. This book takes place in the town of Montgomery, Alabama in the mid 1950s during times of segregation, when things were supposed to be “separate, but equal”. The book starts out telling a little bit about Rosa Parks such as some information about her family members and where she works. It is a very short story about how she got on a bus one day and ended up changing the world. I liked this book because it was based on history, but it presented it in an interesting way. I think for an event such as this that the pictures are very useful in telling the story. The issues discussed in the book are mainly about racism and segregation. Even though laws had been passed saying that everyone was equal, not everyone saw it that way. Segregation divides a nation…until someone decides that it’s time to change things. I would definitely use this book in my classroom. It is an effective way to teach a historical event and make it stick in the mind of the student. The students will notice the pictures first, then, since the book is written in story form rather than factual form, enjoy the reading as well. As previously mentioned, I really enjoyed this book for more reasons that one. It is an interesting read and presents the history in a form that is easy to comprehend. Segregation is wrong, and separate is not equal. Rosa Parks had the audacity to stand up for what she believed in and knew was right…do you?