This Is the Dream

by Diane Z Shore, James Ransome (Illustrator), Jessica Alexander

Overview

Our nation was founded on the belief that all men are created equal. Nearly two hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, slavery had been abolished but America was still segregated.

Then: Enter the students who marched into the first desegregated school, the passengers who boycotted the buses, and the leaders who stood up and spoke out. When they started, it was all just a dream. . . .

Through striking, powerful verse and gorgeous, detailed illustrations, this is the dream catalogs the American experience before, during, and after the civil rights movement. Come along on this incredible journey, and see how far we've come in attaining freedom and justice for all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060555191
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	12/27/2005
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.25(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander have collaborated on several children's books, including This Is the Dream and This Is the Game. One thing they have learned while cowriting stories is that when people work together, great things can happen. Both authors live with their families in metro Atlanta, Georgia.

James Ransome has illustrated more than fifty books for children. His titles include The Creation by James Weldon Johnson, winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award; Uncle Jed’s Barbershop by Margaree King Mitchell, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book; and My Name Is Truth: The Life of Sojourner Truth by Ann Turner. He lives in New York State and teaches illustration at Syracuse University. See more of his work at www.jamesransome.com.

Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander have collaborated on several children's books, including This Is the Dream and This Is the Game. One thing they have learned while cowriting stories is that when people work together, great things can happen. Both authors live with their families in metro Atlanta, Georgia.

Editorial Reviews

An excellent resource for discussing the changes of the civil rights era.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Lyrical verses and distinguished illustrations. A valuable addition to children’s literature.” — School Library Journal

“A soaring tribute.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Powerful. Ransome’s artwork makes large ideas comprehensible through visual details. This will provide a solid springboard for adult-child discussions.” — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

An excellent resource for discussing the changes of the civil rights era.

Booklist (starred review)

"An excellent resource for discussing the changes of the civil rights era."

Booklist

Concise and child-friendly, this overview of the civil rights movement helps kids grasp where we were ("These are the buses-a dime buys a ride, but the people are sorted by color inside") and where we are now ("This is the bus that roars through the streets, and all of the passengers choose their own seats"). Empathetic, insightfully painted scenes make both the everyday indignities and the historic events even more palpable. (ages 6 to 9)
The February 2006 issue of Child magazine

Ransome (Satchel Paige) creates a striking juxtaposition of closely focused paintings and collage borders incorporating powerful historical photographs. These images will make a strong impression on readers of this expository chronicle of events preceding, during and following the civil rights movement, as Ransome's artwork makes large ideas comprehensible through visual details. The singsong rhythm and "House-that-Jack-Built" meter creates a chilling contrast to what's going on between the lines: "These are the buses-a dime buys a ride,/ but the people are sorted by color inside." Ransome shows the demarcation of the bus's white and black sections, and in a border across the top creates a collage of stirring portraits. Text and artwork similarly depict segrgated lunch counters, libraries and schools. One of the most powerful spreads portrays three black children stepping into a newly integrated school ("These are the students who step through the doors/ where people of color have not walked before"), Confederate flags flying, while a photocollage on the top edge shows the fractured images of angry white bystanders, effectively emulating a mob mentality. Concluding spreads demonstrate the contrast today, with images of a multiracial array of people waiting to use the same drinking fountain and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in one voice at school. This will provide a solid springboard for adult-child discussions, especially since younger readers might need help deciphering some of the poetic narrative's references. All ages. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 6-A chronicle of the Civil Rights movement presented through lyrical verses and distinguished illustrations. Ransome juxtaposes collaged archival photographs and newspaper clippings with his paintings (he credits Romare Bearden and Robert Rauschenberg as influences). The book opens with an image of two very stark and separate drinking fountains with identifying signs spanning the pages ("These are the fountains/that stand in the square,/and the black-and-white signs/say who will drink where"). Segregated buses, lunch counters, libraries, and schools are followed by a series of paintings of the civil rights heroes who partook in nonviolent protests and boycotts. Each succinct and evocative verse is accompanied by a double-page image. At the book's center are portraits of Ella Baker, Walter White, Thurgood Marshall, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., placed on a black-and-white collage of the masses marching. The corresponding verse reads: "These are the leaders whose powerful voices/lift up the marchers demanding new choices.-" A turn of the page presents paintings of people from diverse racial backgrounds interacting on buses, in restaurants, and in parks. Like Doreen Rappaport's Martin's Big Words (Hyperion, 2001), this book honors our humanity while leading readers through a painful history. Notes at the end by the authors and the illustrator suggest that as a nation we have seen the "power of nonviolent change," but "the journey is not over." A valuable addition to children's literature.-Teresa Pfeifer, Alfred Zanetti Montessori Magnet School, Springfield, MA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

A soaring tribute to the accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement in earnest, if sometimes clumsy, verse and mixed-media collage. After opening with a catalog of segregation, from water fountains and busses to schools and libraries, the writers point to the courageous souls who marched across those lines-"These are the passengers, on weary feet / walking until they can choose their own seat"-then close with visions of today's fountains, tables, busses and classrooms open to all. Ransome illustrates these visions, before and after, with painted figures (some recognizable, others generic) against tumultuous backgrounds and borders that incorporate clipped period photos; he then closes with an array of patriotic symbols. Despite a simplistic implication-countered only by a closing note in smaller type that younger readers may very well skip-that the movement's work is done, even children unfamiliar with the struggle's origins and landmark events will come away with profound appreciation for its nonviolent methods, and for its dream of "freedom and justice for all." (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews