Book Descriptions
for Circle Unbroken by Margot Theis Raven and E.B. Lewis
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
A grandmother connects the past with the present for her granddaughter as she teaches her how to make a sweetgrass basket. In doing so, she is bestowing two gifts on the child: the skill of basket weaving and the story of her past, which stretches back many generations to Africa. The grandmother tells the girl of a young man in Africa who was taught to weave a basket, “Just as I am teaching you...” His basket pleased the elders of his village, “Just as I am pleased with you...” Margot Theis Raven’s moving story briefly but powerfully traces the history of African Americans through the child’s family history, chronicling kidnappers in Africa and slavery in the United States, the Civil War and new hope, changing times and new challenges. Through it all, there are two constants: the passing of the skilled tradition and the love of parents and elders for children—always affirmed, just as the grandmother affirms her grandchild in many ways. The unbroken circle that the basket represents embraces the past and present, weaving them into the future. An author’s note provides additional information about sweetgrass or “Gullah” baskets from the coastal islands off of South Carolina, where the story is set. E.B. Lewis’s full-page illustrations are stirring, resonant with emotion. (Ages 6–9)
CCBC Choices 2005 . © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2005. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
Keeping the African heritage alive
As she teaches her granddaughter to sew a traditional sweetgrass basket, a grandmother weaves a story, going back generations to her old-timey grandfather's village in faraway Africa. There, as a boy, he learned to make baskets so tightly woven they could hold the rain. Even after being stolen away to a slave ship bound for America, he remembers what he learned and passes these memories on to his children - as they do theirs, so that
. . . when your fingers talk just right
that circle will go out and out again -
past slavery and freedom, old ways and new,
and your basket will hold the past . . .
This powerful picture book, with its rhythmic text and evocative paintings, spirals through time, becoming a triumphant song - a rich story of a craft, a culture, and a people.
As she teaches her granddaughter to sew a traditional sweetgrass basket, a grandmother weaves a story, going back generations to her old-timey grandfather's village in faraway Africa. There, as a boy, he learned to make baskets so tightly woven they could hold the rain. Even after being stolen away to a slave ship bound for America, he remembers what he learned and passes these memories on to his children - as they do theirs, so that
. . . when your fingers talk just right
that circle will go out and out again -
past slavery and freedom, old ways and new,
and your basket will hold the past . . .
This powerful picture book, with its rhythmic text and evocative paintings, spirals through time, becoming a triumphant song - a rich story of a craft, a culture, and a people.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.
