Fats here.
I would like to end this year with lovely excerpts from Jacqueline Woodson’s picturebook entitled, This is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration. The book was published in 2013. Jacqueline Woodson dedicated it to the more than 6 million African Americans who left the unjust conditions of the South for a better life in the North from the early 1900s until the 1970s. The book was beautifully illustrated by Coretta Scott King Award recipient, James Ransome.
Poetry Friday round-up is hosted by Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe!
This is the rope my grandmother found
beneath an old tree
a long time ago
back home in South Carolina.
…
This is the rope my grandfather used
to tie the few things they owned
to the top of a car that drove my grandmother,
who was a mother now,
from South Carolina all the long way to a place called
New York City.
…
This is the rope my mama held out to the girls on the block,
her new Brooklyn block, a home of their own
that they finally owned.
…
This is the rope my daddy used
when he showed me the way
to tie a sailor’s knot—
Two times around and pull it real tight.
You want whatever you make or do
in your life, my daddy said, to last…
Check out Myra’s review of a similar book:
Gathering Books 
What a joy to have heard her speak enough times to actually hear her voice in my head when I read her written words! Thank you for this offering today. It reminds us to celebrate whatever “rope” ties our past to our present and future.
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I love this book, seems simple but there are connections I would never have thought of. I don’t know the Vaccarino book, so thanks for that, too, Fats. Happy New Year!
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I read Jacqueline Woodson’s “Brown Girl Dreaming” but haven’t read this picture book–thanks for sharing it with us Fats, I definitely want to check it out!
I have one of Dan Yaccarino’s books on Jacque Cousteau, it’s wonderful, will have to look for this one too!
Happy New Year!
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This book got overshadowed by Brown Girl Dreaming for me, and yet it’s what I need in my classroom. I love the way the rope “ties” the generations together, and yet perhaps carries a hint of tragedy along with it, for those who know the history. Thank you, Fats, and wishing you a 2018 that’s merry and bright all year!
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I don’t know that Dan Yaccarino book, thank you so much for highlighting it! And Jacqueline Woodson is such a treasure.
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