To Be a Drum

To Be a Drum by Evelyn Coleman art by Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson

Online Link: StoryLineOnline - To Be a Drum  

Overview: Daddy Wes tells the story of how Africans were brought to the Unites States as slaves using a drum to tell the story. He tells his children to listen to the beat of the earth and encourages them to continue beating. 

Target Audience: This book is great for children and adults alike. Using a drum to tell the history of Africans. 

Reading Level: N/A

Overall Rating 32/32:

-This book tells the story of African slaves being brought to the United States, it evokes a lot of emotions. It gives a raw visual of how things happened and puts an image to a piece of history we all know often gets sugar coated. For this reason I gave the book a 4/4 in critical thinking. I would love to hear of discussion of how this makes students feel after reading it.

-Even though some images may not be visually appealing (because of how sad it is that this actually happened) I rated it 4/4 because its a piece of history that should be shown in its truest form.

Literary Elements:

-Climax

-Tone

-Theme

Coleman, E., & Jones, J. E. (2012, May 21). To Be a Drum - Storyline Online. Retrieved January 23, 2016, from http://www.storylineonline.net/to-be-a-drum/