"A cooling breeze on a sweltering day; a sun-dried quilt in fall; the enchantment of snowflakes extending the horizon; the promise of renewal at spring" (Giovanni, 2005, p. 4). This is how the author, the first recipient of the Rosa L. Parks Woman of Courage Award, describes the heroine of her book. Young readers will surely be inspired by the story of a remarkable woman whose act of civil disobedience precipitated the Montgomery bus boycott.

The story begins with the description of a rather routine day: Rosa's mother recovering from the flu; her husband, a barber, working at the Air Force base; and Rosa hurriedly leaving her job as a seamstress as she thinks about preparing a meatloaf for dinner. These ordinary events make her extraordinary act of courage in standing against injustice even more remarkable. The events on the bus are described in detail, and her quiet refusal to give in to the demand that she give up her seat to a White passenger is in sharp contrast with the behavior of the bus driver who yelled, "I said give me those seats!" (p. 14) and the passengers who demanded that she be arrested. The story closes as groups of people who share her mission, including the Women's Political Council and the NAACP, mobilize to organize a bus boycott. Ultimately, the courage of these heroes, named and unnamed, led to the Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation to be unconstitutional.

The rich watercolor and collage illustrations are captivating. The fold out pages that show those who walked, instead of riding the bus, and those who marched, capture how a number of people from all walks of life came together for the cause of Civil Rights. Many readers will notice how effectively Rosa is portrayed as the gentle hero of this story. In the illustrator's note, Bryan Collier writes, "to me, she is like a radiant chandelier, an elegant light that illuminates all our many pathways" (p. 4).

In an interview about her book, Giovanni said,

I've always liked the hero … I always liked the people that stood up, and Mrs. Parks had a particular stand that said, "You can make a difference. What you do can make a difference." And you do it with no expectation. And she always said that. Again, in my book, I'm not overly stressing that, but she always said she didn't know who, if anyone, would stand with her. She just knew that it was time for her to stand. (http: // www.readingrockets.org)

Giovanni's statement reminds readers of the value of standing up for what is right even when we are unsure about the support we will receive from others. Rosa Park's dignified resolve continues to inspire and to set an example for future generations.

Rosa Parks sat. “She had not sought this moment, but she was ready for it.” When she refused to move out of the neutral section of her bus to make way for white passengers, she sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. She was tired of putting white people first. Giovanni’s lyrical text and Collier’s watercolor-and-collage illustrations combine for a powerful portrayal of a pivotal moment in the civil-rights movement. The art complements and extends the text, with visual references to Emmett Till, the Edmund Pettus Bridge and Martin Luther King, Jr. The yellowish hue of the illustrations represents the Alabama heat, the light emanating from Rosa Parks’s face a shining beacon to all who would stand up for what’s right. A dramatic foldout mural will make this important work even more memorable. An essential volume for classrooms and libraries. (Picture book. 5+)

The text is accessible to young readers, but without sacrificing the complexity of the story, and the paint/collage illustrations by Bryan Collier are radiant.

It's easy to see why ROSA won both the Coretta Scott King Award and a Caldecott Honor -- the illustrations are spectacular. Bold yet detailed, they show Rosa Parks as she was -- not an old lady too tired to get up, but a strong young woman tired of oppression. In paintings that combine watercolor and collage, realistic images of people are set against slightly abstract backgrounds with skewed perspectives. The pictures radiate heat, light, and power.

Poet Nikki Giovanni's text is at times preachy, however, and Parks is portrayed as perhaps more than a mere mortal -- at times Bryan Collier's art suggests a halo above her. Though the book is aimed at 4- to 8-year-olds, some of the story will go over their heads, and many things are unexplained. What is the NAACP? What happened to Parks after the police came? There is a vivid picture of a cop confronting her, but her actual arrest is not mentioned. And she virtually disappears from the book halfway through. Various news events, such as the lynching of Emmet Till and freeing of his killers, are mentioned but not explained; an author's note would have been welcome. These events can be used as openings for parents to discuss them in more detail with their kids, but the book on its own may be confusing. Still, this is a gorgeously illustrated introduction to a watershed event.