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Reviews for Bronzeville boys and girls

Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

With acute observation and feeling, Brooks captures moments of childhood. Ringgold wisely sets her pictures in the time (1956) and place (the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago) of the original writing. The strong colors help place the poems both in the real world and the imaginary world of childhood, where a tea party seems to float in the air on a raft of blue. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Brooks's gloriously universal celebration of African-American childhood here receives a respectful and joyous treatment from one of the pre-eminent illustrators of the same. Readers coming to "Narcissa," "Beulah at Church" and "Marie Lucille" for the first time will discover them accompanied by Ringgold's trademark folk-art interpretations, the expressive brown figures depicted for the most part as vignettes against bright backgrounds. They show a Bronzeville that bustles with activity, single-family homes sharing the streets with apartment buildings and the occasional vacant lot. The children run, braids and arms out straight, and contemplate in turns, their exuberance tempered by the solemnity of childhood. While it's regrettable that occasionally the specificity of the illustration robs a verse of its universality—the "special place" referenced in "Keziah" is shown to be underneath the kitchen table, for instance—the overall ebullience of the images more than compensates. There is a drop of truth in every single playful, piercing stanza, and anything that brings these poems to a new audience is to be cheered; a lovely package indeed. (Picture book/poetry. 7+) Copyright ŠKirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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