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Title: Beautiful Blackbird (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner)
ISBN: 0689847319
Author:
Publicate Date: 2003-01-01
Publish: 2003-01-01
List Price: $17.99
Average Customer Rating: 3.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.70
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $1.07
Amazon Merchant Price: $14.39
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Universal Meaning...NUH-HU!
BEWARE...your child may bring this book home from their PUBLIC SCHOOL LIBARY.
The book states it has universal meaning, maybe in its orginal form as stated from a previous reviewer, but Ashley Bryan's adaptation makes it, should I say; "monoversal." The singular theme of this book is envy not pride for what color you are. Ashley Bryan writes in the book the "color on the outside is not what's on the inside." he failed to expound on that theme. This story left me feeling if you ain't black you ain't all that.
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2: The Magic and Joy of Ashley Bryan
In his illustrations, Ashley Bryan has explored a wide range of media, and in Blackbird he uses paper collage to a magical effect that will no doubt inspire readers to many home craft projects. In addition to his prolific career as a children's book author and illustrator, Bryan is a long standing scholar of African American poetry and African folklore, an emeritus professor of Dartmouth College, and a well-regarded painter. He has also travelled the world as an oral storyteller, book in hand, introducing children world wide to a love for reading and the joy of hearing the story on the page. The message of Blackbird is that all living creatures are beautiful. Though different from one another, children (of all ages) should take pride in their individuality and unique beauty.
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3: Not authentic
This book is described as an adaptation of a tale from Smith and Dale: The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia. (Now Zambia) The Bryan book is at best a loose adaptation of 'How the Ringdove came by its Ring', as set forth by Smith and Dale. The phrase "Black is Beautiful", appearing repeatedly in Beautiful Blackbird, is absent from the original tale. The only reference to 'beauty' is in the question and answer: "--who is the most beautiful? ----Blackbird is the only beautiful one." Then the birds want to be like blackbird. Ringdove petitions "Blackbird, transform me so that we may be alike." The next day Blackbird puts the ring around Ringdove's neck. All the birds want medicine. They agree that if Blackbird will only give them medicine to become black, he may do with them as he pleases. When the birds return the next day Blackbird places curses upon them. "All the birds I condemn because they begged for medicines, saying 'Let us be like blackbird.'; whereas in truth they do not at all resemble me, they do not act as I act nor eat as I eat. To be alike in the fashion of our bodies! No I refuse!"
The Ila are proud and independent people. The very name Baila means 'The Chosen'. The rest of us humans are Bantu bulyo 'merely people'. Their folklore does not require a theme such as "Black is Beautiful". Historically, the Baila did not associate 'black' and 'beautiful'. 'Black' was used metaphorically in a deprecating sense.
Blackbird's condemnation of the others was because they wanted to have the advantage and esteem brought about by his good looks without having his inward character. Had the author chosen to make this important point he could have remained true to the original. Instead, the folktale appears to have been used to advance the theme "Black is beautiful".
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4: A Book for Everyone
The Reader from Texas could not be more wrong. This is so far from being a "racist" book that the criticism doesn't even make sense. This is an incredibly beautiful story that, emphatically, CANNOT be reduced to a "skin color" story --- it's a metaphor for any and every sort of difference, and how sharing what we have makes us all more beautiful. This is a very simple yet moving story, and to criticize it because the bird is "only admired for being black" is to miss the point. To quote C.S. Lewis in another context, someone so blind who could read this book as racist "could look all over the sky at high noon on a clear day and not see the sun." Ashley Bryan is a genius, a consummate story-teller --- I have seen him perform many, many times -- and I have never seen anyone better able to bring together, in complete joy, audiences of every color of the rainbow and every age. A beautiful, beautiful book!
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5: A big letdown!
When I bought Beautiful Blackbird, I anticipated a story that would capture my heart. I was extremely disappointed. The "black is beautiful and every other color is not" theme comes through loud and clear. Never in the story is the blackbird admired for anything other than his color. Fortunately, he agrees to share it by painting black brew onto the other birds who then celebrate their "black" spots. If it was intended to be a story that brings readers together, it has sadly missed the mark because it reeks of racism.
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