Smith, Anita Hope. 2008. KEEPING THE NIGHT WATCH. Ill. E. B. Lewis. Square Fish. New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-312-65936-3

BIBLIOGRPAHY 

Smith, Anita Hope. 2008. KEEPING THE NIGHT WATCH. Ill. E. B. Lewis. Square Fish. New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-312-65936-3 

PLOT SUMMARY 

C.J., a young man who worked hard to fill in his father’s shoes is confused upon his return. He is faced with having to forgive his father for his sudden absence or work to forgive him. He feels like a stranger in his own home refusing to speak to his father but overcomes his fear of letting him back in because through life lessons and conversations with his grandmother, he realizes his family’s foundation is solid and accepting of one another.  

CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS) 

Keeping the night watch, a Coretta Scott King Honor book, is made up of novels in verse. The beginning of the story shows C.J. painted in warm watercolors with facial expressions downcast and sad. As the family is processing their father’s return, C.J. experiences anger. Zuri, his sister’s puffy curly hair is as high as her imagination of her adopted pet and C.J.’s face-to-face confrontation with his dad shows the immense tension of power in the household. This is an authentic reflection of the home life experiences some families face. In his tension with his dad, C. J. reflects his short-temper ready to explode when he says, “I walk around with my words drawn, ready to fire.” 

Although the first half of the book is of mixed emotions, the second half shows a good balance of social and emotional characteristics. C.J. begins to fall in love and learns how to shave, which all comes with growing up. We see a piece of his grandmother’s social ways when she makes place cards when setting the table and giving a lecture about how people don’t really enjoy that when there are issues between people. This shows a glimpse into how she keeps her own traditions alive. Each verse is moving, and the accompanying illustrations perfectly complement the feeling they evoke.  

The illustrations show accurate depictions and examples of the feeling for each verse. For example, C.J. can be seen walking away from his sister’s room head down and sad as his father took his place in the nightly routine of a bedtime story. The expressions on their faces describe the situation without words needed. The first part of the book is Fall and the illustrations show more dark and gloomy tones versus the Spring part of the book where the colors are brighter and facial expressions are happier. The format was appealing because each poem had an illustration that accurately reflected the verse. 

REVIEW EXCERPTS 

ALA Notable Children’s Books, 2009 

Book Links, 01/0109 

Booklist starred, 03/15/08 

Booklist starred, 03/15/08 

Coretta Scott King Author Honor, 2009 

Horn Book Magazine, 07/01/08 

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA), 02/01/08 

Library Media Connection starred, 08/01/08 

Booklist starred (March 15, 2008 (Vil. 104, No. 14)): “Although mainly free verse, there’s also a sonnet, and in one chatty 26-line piece, each line begins with a different letter of the alphabet, arranged in successive order.” 

Horn Book Magazine (July/August 2008): “The first-person account gives readers an intimate view of C.J.’s confusing mix of feelings toward his father.” 

Library Media Connection starred, 08/01/08: “The poems are deeply moving and powerful. They tug at the heart and show the struggles every family must go through to stay together.” 

CONNECTIONS 

Butler, Dori Hillestad. DO YOU KNOW THE MONKEY MAN? ISBN 978-1-68263-038-9 

Hill, Kirkpatrick. DO NOT PASS GO. ISBN 978-1-41691-400-6 

Woodson, Jacqueline. FEATHERS. ISBN 978-0-329-75923-0 

Students can create their own free verse poem describing a situation they are experiencing or have experienced and draw an illustration and paint with watercolor to match the style of this book.  

Zuri’s ABC’s is a great layout for creating a 26- line verse of anything students want to write about. This will get students thinking but give them a clear layout to follow.  

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. 2012. HAND IN HAND: TEN BLACK MEN WHO CHANGED AMERICA. Ill. Brian Pinkney. New York, NY. Jump at the Sun Books. ISBN: 978-1-4231-8303-7

BIBLIOGRPAHY 

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. 2012. HAND IN HAND: TEN BLACK MEN WHO CHANGED AMERICA. Ill. Brian Pinkney. New York, NY. Jump at the Sun Books. ISBN: 978-1-4231-8303-7 

PLOT SUMMARY 

The lives of ten black men who contributed to America’s history are told in a chronological order with familiar names starting from Benjamin Banneker to present day Barack Obama. Each of their stories opens with poems and illustrations to represent each person. Each story progressively moves on to the next building up on America’s history with each biography showing success and progress linking these African American role models together.  

CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS) 

Ten biographies working together to tell the struggle and accomplishments of these African American men shown, through poems, text and illustration make this Coretta Scott King Author award book a book of positive role models. The book starts from Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B DuBois, A. Philip Randolph, Thurgood Marshall, Jacking Robinson, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King. Jr., and ending with Barack H. Obama. Each biography reflects their cultural experiences although they all had different ones. Bejamin Banneker had papers showing his freedom and worked on his parents' farm and created a clock to better keep track of the hours of the day. His creation of an almanac that got to the hands of President Jefferson was a success for his time. We can see in his story that his father told him to work instead of reading so much, which was common for these times when they needed to work hard to make money.  

The setting is consistent with the times throughout the biographies. Long days of working outside in hot temperatures, letter writing as forms of communication, broken down schools and materials, separation of blacks and whites in public, peaceful protests, boycotting and more describe accurate depiction life for African Americans during this time. Booker T. Washington’s story explains their hard work as slaved people didn’t amount to much as “their stomachs often growled at night from hunger. It was not easy for Booker to have sweet dreams when all he’d eaten was gruel left over from the slop that had been fed to Master Burrough’s hogs earlier that day.” Their lives soon changed when they were free and began to work where they would make money.  

As the book progresses, we see the shift where men like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois work hard to teach African American people about the importance of appearance as well as a push for education. W.E.B. DuBois shows us a look into the cultural language whith the mention of the word “negro” in the essay that took offense to the views of Booker T. Washington. He supported the possibility of African American people becoming educated instead of becoming industrial professionals. This is a great example of cultural depictions at the time and his vision for the future.  

The men’s biographies all show their strong determination to use their smarts for furthering the good of their African American culture and Thurgood Marshall’s push for education of “separate but equal” resulted in him winning cases on institution’s who had denied entrance to people of color. The biography of Jacky Robinson, a famous baseball player, shows how athletes were segregated as well as he played for “the negro leagues.” There were racial barriers that did not let him play in the big leagues.  

Malcolm X. lived a life of tragedy and went down a dark path that set him to a life of peace. We see his Muslim beliefs throughout his story as he seeks pilgrimage in the middle east and established organizations and gave people hope that one person can change with hard work. Martin Luther King, Jr., a leader who preferred non-violent protests, and one of the more renowned of the men from this book shows us how difficult it was to uphold all the progress they made as we read, “When the summer ended and M.L. returned home to Atlanta, “Colored” took on its old hue.” Here we can reflect on the term colored and how it was used in a not so good way showing regression in their efforts.   

The illustrations show a lot of warm colors that fuse together to make great images. The design of each man is accurate with great facial expressions and representations for each man.  Each section of the book has an image for each chapter as well as illustrations portraying a very important piece to their contribution in American history. The warm colors also go along with the skin tone for the men. Their facial features are accurate with appropriate accessories such as glasses, baseball caps and uniforms, water fountains with a “colored” sign above and more.  

REVIEW EXCERPTS 

Coretta Scott King Author Award, 2013 

Horn Book Magazine, 01/01/13 

Kirkus Reviews starred, 09/15/12 

Library Media Connection, 03/01/13 

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) starred, 02/01/13 

Horn Book Magazine (January/February 2013): “Brian Pinkney’s illustrations are a perfect marriage of line, color, and medium and complement Andrea Pinkney’s colloquial and ebullient text.” 

Kirkus Reviews starred (September 15, 2012): “A feast for readers whose eyes are (or should be) on the prize, in a volume as well-turned-out as a dapper W.E.B Dubois, who was “more handsome than a fresh-cut paycheck.” 

Library Media Connection (March/April 2013): “Brian Pinkney’s expressive portraits complete each section.”  

CONNECTIONS 

Nelson, Scott Reynolds. AIN’T NOTHING BUT A MAN: MY QUEST TO FIND THE REAL JOHN HENRY ISBN 978-1-42630-000-4 

Myers, Walter Dean. THE GREATEST: MUHAMMAD ALI. ISBN 978-0-590-54343-9 

Galat, Joan Marie. MAKE YOUR MARK, MAKE A DIFFERENCE: A KID’S GUIDE TO STANDING UP FOR PEOPLE, ANIMALS, AND THE PLANET. ISBN 978-1-58270-845-4.  

A great connection activity to this book would be for the students to pick one who stood out to them the most and do research on them. Look more into photos, any webpages dedicated to their lives' work. Check out books for that person in specific.  

Drawing their own favorite character using the style from the illustrations in this book would be a great artistic activity.  

Creating their own poem in verse would be a fun way for students to express their feelings about African American history read from the book.