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| Image: Penguin Random House |
#tbt features Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson. Ms. Woodson can trace the matrilineal side of her family back seven or so generations to a Virginia plantation where "Soonie's great grandma" was sold at the age of seven, ripped away from her family and sent to a plantation in South Carolina with a needle, some red thread and a bit of muslin. Big Mama took care of Soonie's great grandma, taught her how to sew, but also told stories about freedom. The story follows each daughter through the years to Ms. Woodson's own daughter, who learns about Soonie's great-great grandma. I've read this "picture book for everyone" aloud to classes many times over the last fifteen years and the response is always the same - the room becomes pin-drop silent as students fall under the spell of Ms. Woodson's spare storytelling and Hudson Talbott's evocative mixed media illustrations. This is a True family story and, since some names were lost to history, the book is classified as a work of fiction. That doesn't make it any less True.
This book is one of my all-time favorites; one I do not mind returning to again and again. One in which I continue to lose myself in the gorgeous writing and absolutely stunning spreads. Back in 2005, when I first read it, I thought, "Caldecott for sure!" Imagine my surprise when it received nothing from that committee. It did, however, win a Newbery Honor. the first of four Newbery Honors for this much revered former National Ambassador for Children's Literature. It is also one of few picture books to receive a Newbery nod.
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