McKissack, P. (2001). Goin’ Someplace Special. Antheneum Books for Young Readers.
Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration - 2002
This picture book is about a young girl named Tricia Ann, who is based mainly on the author and her experiences growing up in Nashville, Tennessee in the 1950s during Jim Crow and segregation laws existed. Tricia begs her grandmother, Mama Francis, to let her go “someplace special” by herself one day, saying that she is responsible and old enough to do so. It’s clear that Mama Francis feels protective of Tricia Ann, not because she thinks she’s irresponsible or immature, but because of the meanness and unfairness that exists outside of their neighborhood in the city. She allows her to go, and reminds her “no matter what, hold yo’ head up and act like you b’long to somebody.” When she boards the bus and has to sit in the back, she offers her seat to an older African American woman she knows named Mrs. Grannell, who gives her advice as well: “Carry yo’self proud.” Tricia Ann encounters another act of unfairness when she sees that she can’t sit on the park bench, or knows that she wouldn’t be allowed in the restaurant she stands in front of while visiting Jimmy Lee. He reminds her: “Don’t let those signs steal yo’ happiness.” Her worst experience that day is when Tricia Ann accidentally gets swept up in a crowd and shoved into a crowded hotel lobby, only to be humiliated by an insensitive manager and told to go. After being upset, she remembers her Mama Frances’ words that carry her on to her special destination, “You are somebody, a human being-no better, no worse than anybody else in this world. Gettin’ someplace special is not an easy route. But don’t study on quittin’, just keep walking straight ahead-and you’ll make it.” Indeed, the bittersweet story ends on a positive note in the fact that Tricia Ann does indeed make it to someplace special, some place where all are welcome, the public library. In the author’s note at the end, McKissack shares how her family instilled in her not only pride and a loving support system, but that “reading is the doorway to freedom.”
This picture book has wonderful watercolor and pencil illustrations done by Jerry Pinkney, and their softness lend to the spirit that is visually portrayed of Tricia by the book’s illustrations. The colors of yellow flowers against a blue background on her dress, along with the smile we see in part of the book, light up as the main feature of the otherwise and purposely more drab background. This picture book is a good example of a book that teaches about tolerance and about how life was like in a much different generation. McKissack’s book is also a positive example of how the importance of family values and support can give a child the foundation to stand up to the wrongs in society and know that he or she is loved and important regardless of the wrongful ignorance some people have.
This picture book is about a young girl named Tricia Ann, who is based mainly on the author and her experiences growing up in Nashville, Tennessee in the 1950s during Jim Crow and segregation laws existed. Tricia begs her grandmother, Mama Francis, to let her go “someplace special” by herself one day, saying that she is responsible and old enough to do so. It’s clear that Mama Francis feels protective of Tricia Ann, not because she thinks she’s irresponsible or immature, but because of the meanness and unfairness that exists outside of their neighborhood in the city. She allows her to go, and reminds her “no matter what, hold yo’ head up and act like you b’long to somebody.” When she boards the bus and has to sit in the back, she offers her seat to an older African American woman she knows named Mrs. Grannell, who gives her advice as well: “Carry yo’self proud.” Tricia Ann encounters another act of unfairness when she sees that she can’t sit on the park bench, or knows that she wouldn’t be allowed in the restaurant she stands in front of while visiting Jimmy Lee. He reminds her: “Don’t let those signs steal yo’ happiness.” Her worst experience that day is when Tricia Ann accidentally gets swept up in a crowd and shoved into a crowded hotel lobby, only to be humiliated by an insensitive manager and told to go. After being upset, she remembers her Mama Frances’ words that carry her on to her special destination, “You are somebody, a human being-no better, no worse than anybody else in this world. Gettin’ someplace special is not an easy route. But don’t study on quittin’, just keep walking straight ahead-and you’ll make it.” Indeed, the bittersweet story ends on a positive note in the fact that Tricia Ann does indeed make it to someplace special, some place where all are welcome, the public library. In the author’s note at the end, McKissack shares how her family instilled in her not only pride and a loving support system, but that “reading is the doorway to freedom.”
This picture book has wonderful watercolor and pencil illustrations done by Jerry Pinkney, and their softness lend to the spirit that is visually portrayed of Tricia by the book’s illustrations. The colors of yellow flowers against a blue background on her dress, along with the smile we see in part of the book, light up as the main feature of the otherwise and purposely more drab background. This picture book is a good example of a book that teaches about tolerance and about how life was like in a much different generation. McKissack’s book is also a positive example of how the importance of family values and support can give a child the foundation to stand up to the wrongs in society and know that he or she is loved and important regardless of the wrongful ignorance some people have.
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