School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-8--Highlighting the lives and times of two celebrated African-American women, this first offering in a new series about "people of courage who changed America," is informative, yet lacks drama. The first "chapter" begins with "Harriet's Life As an Enslaved Person," describing her childhood tasks, punishments, and separation from her family. Subsequent chapters cover how she traveled on the Underground Railroad and her escape to freedom as well as the Civil War and the end of slavery. Tubman's death in 1913 was also the year of Rosa Parks's birth. The second half of the program covers "Life in Rosa's America," "The Civil Rights Movement," and "Rosa's Act of Defiance," including archival images documenting the Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan, school desegregation, and Jackie Robinson's entry into major league baseball. Viewers may be surprised to learn that Rosa experienced an earlier bus incident in 1943 with the same driver that had her arrested 12 years later. Students learn about the NAACP and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin Luther King's involvement, and Lyndon Baines Johnson's passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The live-action re-enactments, filmed at several restoration villages, are mimed with voice-over narration, resulting in an unrealistic and stilted presentation. The action appears staged and unconvincing; the actors and backgrounds are unnaturally pristine. Nutmeg Media's DVD version of Glennette Tilley Turner's An Apple for Harriet Tubman (March 2008, p. 83) is a better choice for elementary school students.--Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.