Saturday, November 5, 2016

Tar Beach

Tar Beach (1991) by Faith Ringgold is about a young girl who dreams she can fly. She likes to fly above her Harlem home, where she claims all she sees for herself and her family. The story, in fact, is based on a family quilt that the author made. The story quilt is also called Tar Beach and has the story sewn into the quilt itself.

The story itself is a mixture of autobiography, fictional narrative, painting and  quilt making. The title, Tar Beach, refers to the rooftop of the building, where the author and her family would get together on hot summer nights. They would go up there to spend time together and eat, both parents and children alike.

The young girl in the story (the author) called the George Washington Bridge "hers" due to the fact that it had been part of her view for her entire life. In fact, the author claimed that anything she flew over, she claimed as being "hers."

Tar Beach, however, also speaks of the social injustices of the time period. In the story, the young girl's father, a construction worker, isn't able to join the union due to the fact that he's "colored or a half-breed Indian." However, the author wants to right this injustice by flying over the building, claiming it as her own, and giving it to her father.

I found this story unique because the author used her own paintings to illustrate the story. Also, the author uses images of the actual quilt to frame the bottom edges of the pages. Additionally, the text is printed on a seeming textured material -- the same visual texture as it's printed on upon the quilt. Each of the images seems to look down on all the characters, as the reader is in the sky flying along with the author.

While my kindergartners would not be able to understand the social injustices of the story, they would be able to understand what is happening. I think this would be a wonderful opportunity for them to make their own "story quilts." They would be able to draw their own pictures for the center, then create a "quilt" of scrap pieces of paper to surround the story picture. Then the students would tell the story so someone could help them by writing it on the back of each individual quilt.

An award winning book, Tar Beach is a must have title for any teacher's personal classroom library!

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