We March

We March

Author: Shane W. Evans

Illustrator: N/A

Copyright, Roaring Book Press, 2012

32 pages

Multicultural

                I chose this book because it can be used during black history month. This story could easily be read by even a second semester kindergartner. This story is about a little boy who is preparing to march, march for freedom. This is about when the African Americans marched together to the capitol to gain their freedom. The little boy shows how they got ready to march. How they prayed for the march, and even though they were tired they marched. They all came together for something that was important to them and made a statement for their freedom. In We March it is a very easily written way to introduce the freedom of African Americans to your students.

                The illustrations in this book were done with water colors and pen and ink. The colors of these illustrations are bright and neat. The people in the story are depicted like normal humans they do not look very cartoony. The text in the story is very simple. There is only one small sentence on each page and the text goes in a straight line. I think that makes it easier for the students to read it. The pictures go from one page to the next, and some are just on one page. This book would be appropriate for kindergarten through fourth grade. I feel that the older students might think the book is to childish for them.

                It is very easy to make classroom connections with Martin Luther and the freedom march. The students could write their own I have a dream speech. The students can write about what they dream of for the future. The students also can write how they would feel if they were the young boy in the story going on a march for their freedom. The teacher can talk about how it used to be different and not everyone had the same freedoms as someone else. The students could talk about how scared and sad the little boy could have been. Lastly the teacher could talk more about the march, and the
“I have a dream” speech. The teacher could read the speech to the children and stress on the importance that the speech had to so many people.