Ms. Tointigh's Book Blog

  Title:   Beautiful Blackbird Genre:  Fiction Author/Illustrator : Ashley Bryan Major Awards:  Coretta Scott King Award Age group : 2rd-4th Summary This story is about the Blackbird and how beautiful and wonderful he is.  All the other birds are so colorful like the rainbow however when questioned which of the birds is the most beautiful of them all they all shout and sing that Blackbird is the most beautiful.  He is the only black bird and no one else has the any marks of black at all.  So the Ringdove asks the blackbird to paint him a black ring around his neck and the blackbird mixes up his brew in the medicine gourd and the next morning paints a ring around the ringdoves neck.  After seeing how beautiful the ringdove now looks every other bird begs to be painted with a black embellishment.  The black bird brew up an even bigger brew and the next morning happily obliges to paint and mark all the other birds.  All the birds cannot bel...

  Title:   New Kid Genre:  Realistic fiction Author/Illustrator : Jerry Craft Major awards : Newberry Award & Coretta Scott King Award Age group : 4th-10th Summary This story is written in the format of a graphic novel, this is like comic book style.  It follows the life of student Jordan Banks as he attends a new prestigious school.  Jordan comes from an urban area in New York and has grown up this way his entire life.  At this new school diversity is slim to say the least.  On his journey Jordan wrestles with finding his fit because of how all his classmates were raised and how his race is highly misrepresented at the school.  He wants to make friends but no one talks to him or when they do stereotypes and microaggressions run amuck.  In the beginning Jordan does not even want to befriend the other black student in his grade because of how that ma be perceived to others. Through it all Jordan is able to be aware of the stereotypes but n...