Module 5: Goin' Someplace Special by Patricia McKissack

Book Summary: 'Tricia Ann is a young African American girl living in a segregated town during the era of Jim Crow laws. She wants to go her "Someplace Special" but her journey along the way is one that has her pride and faith hurting. In the end, with the help and love of her friends and family, she reaches her special place: the public library, which is open to all.

APA Citation: McKissack, P. C., & Pinkney, J. (Illustrator). (2001). Goin' someplace special. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Impressions: Goin' Someplace Special was a book that I found myself writing down quotes from, which surprised me as it is a children's illustrated book. It was also a book that I wanted to share with others because of the message. I loved how Patricia McKissack brought the segregated south to life from 'Tricia Ann's journey to find a place that was special to her. The characters along the way encouraged her, reminding her that she had love and support and self-worth to help her survive and thrive in a place that continued to try to knock her down.

The author used her own past to depict a childhood of being black and living during the era of Jim Crow laws. 'Tricia Ann is a beautiful, smart, and proud girl that continues to face inequalities--from where she can sit and drink to which buildings she can enter and the way people look at and treat her. The message and artwork is amazing. I loved taking in more of the story with the illustrations than I would have if it was only text.

I also loved that her "someplace special" is the local public library. I agree with 'Tricia Ann in that libraries are open to all and are still one of the last places of democratic equality.

Professional Review: McKissack draws from her childhood in Nashville for this instructive picture book. "I don't know if I'm ready to turn you loose in the world," Mama Frances tells her granddaughter when she asks if she can go by herself to "Someplace Special" (the destination remains unidentified until the end of the story). 'Tricia Ann does obtain permission, and begins a bittersweet journey downtown, her pride battered by the indignities of Jim Crow laws. She's ejected from a hotel lobby and snubbed as she walks by a movie theater ("Colored people can't come in the front door," she hears a girl explaining to her brother. "They got to go 'round back and sit up in the Buzzard's Roost"). She almost gives up, but, buoyed by the encouragement of adult acquaintances ("Carry yo'self proud," one of her grandmother's friends tells her from the Colored section on the bus), she finally arrives at Someplace Special—a place Mama Frances calls "a doorway to freedom"—the public library. An afterword explains McKissack's connection to the tale, and by putting such a personal face on segregation she makes its injustices painfully real for her audience. Pinkney's (previously paired with McKissack for Mirandy and Brother Wind) luminescent watercolors evoke the '50s, from fashions to finned cars, and he captures every ounce of 'Tricia Ann's eagerness, humiliation and quiet triumph at the end. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)

Publisher's Weekly. (2001). [Review of the book Goin' someplace special by P. McKissack]. Publisher's weekly. Retrieved February 23, 2015 from http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-689-81885-1

Library Uses: This would be a great book to read during a story time around Martin Luther King, Jr. day. It could lead to a discussion about the Civil Rights Movement.