Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies & Little Misses of Color

by Elizabeth Alexander, Marilyn Nelson, Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)

Overview

ALSC Notable Children's Book

Here is the story of Miss Prudence Crandall and her black students, who endured the cruelty of prejudice and hateful actions for the sake of their education.

Miss Crandall faced legal proceedings for opening her school of African American women. But her young students knew that Miss Crandall had committed no crime. They knew that the real criminals were the rich white residents of Canterbury, Connecticut, who had poisoned the school's water and set fire to the schoolhouse. But hatred could not destroy their patience and compassion. From March of 1833 to September of 1834, when persecution forced the school to close, these African American women learned that they deserved an education. What they needed was the courage to go after it.

Poets Elizabeth Alexander and Marilyn Nelson have re-created the remarkable story of Prudence Crandall's school in this award-winning book, using the sonnet form with innovative style. Floyd Cooper's powerful illustrations reveal the strength and vulnerability of Miss Crandall and her students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590784563
Publisher:	Astra Publishing House
Publication date:	09/01/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	651,950
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 14.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1030L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright, and teacher, and the author of four books of poems for adults, including American Sublime, one of three finalists for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize and an ALA Notable Book of the Year. She is a professor of African American literature and culture at Yale University. Dr. Alexander lives in New Haven, Connecticut. Marilyn Nelson is a past poet laureate of the state of Connecticut and a three-time National Book Award finalist. She is the author of two award-winning books for young people, Carver: A Life in Poems and Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem. She lives in East Haddam, Connecticut.

Floyd Cooper (1956–2021) illustrated over 110 books for children, including Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford, for which he was awarded a Caldecott Honor, the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, and a Sibert Honor. He was also the recipient of the CorettaScott King Award for The Blacker the Berry; three Coretta Scott King Honors for I Have Heard of a Land, Meet Danitra Brown, and Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea; 10 ALA Notables; and an NAACP Image Award, among other honors. Visit floydcooper.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ "A glorious poetic celebration of the teacher and students at a Connecticut school that defied mid-19th-century convention to educate African-American girls." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ "The images in their poems and in Cooper's quiet, dramatic pastel illustrations compellingly capture the haunting history." —Booklist, starred review

"Deftly crafted, interweaving colloquial and lofty language; reading aloud will emphasize the sonorous strength of the language, while the individual perspectives suggest possibilities for reader's theater." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

From the Publisher

Gr 7 Up
Twenty-four sonnets tell the story of Prudence Crandall and her efforts to educate young African-American women in Canterbury, CT, 1833-1834. The school began as a boarding school for white girls; when two black women inquired about taking classes and Crandall agreed, the townspeople withdrew their daughters. As she accepted more black students, the town became more vocal in its resistance, poisoning the school water supply, refusing to sell it supplies, and charging Miss Crandall and others with a variety of "crimes." The sonnet format is challenging but compelling. Each poem addresses an individual aspect of the story; therefore, the tone and cadence change depending upon the person speaking or the event being depicted. The introduction gives essential information, but readers with no background will still need help understanding the political, social, and historical context. Cooper's pastel mixed-media illustrations sometimes illuminate the poems, but at other times seem solely decorative. His portraits for "Tao of the Trial" and "Miss Ann Eliza Hammond" are powerfully rendered, while the nature scenes add little to the poetic experience. The art's sketchiness, however, does suit the poetic form. There are empty spaces in the pictures just as the language of the poetry leaves openness for readers' interpretation. A heartfelt, unusual presentation, this book rewards patient readers.
—Lucinda Snyder WhitehurstCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Two years after Suzanne Jurmain's nonfiction chronicle, Forbidden Schoolhouse (2005), comes a glorious poetic celebration of the teacher and students at a Connecticut school that defied mid-19th-century convention to educate African-American girls. Divided into six sections, four sonnets in each, the voices of the 24 girls tell, one by one, the tale, from hope and excitement at the beginning of the enterprise to fear and defiance as forces both institutional and vigilante conspire to destroy Miss Crandall's School. Nelson's sonnets adhere to a strict form while Alexander's explore the boundaries of the form; each distills the powerful emotions inspired by the story. For example, "Fire from the Gods": "I didn't know how much I didn't know, / Like Brer Mosquito on Brer Elephant, / now I know my capacity for awe / is infinite. . . . " Cooper's soft pastel illustrations provide a muted counterpoint to the text, mixing depictions of school and students with images of the natural world in a lovely rhythm. A foreword provides a brief prose history of the school; a concluding authors' note explains their collaborative process. (Poetry. 10+)

Kirkus Reviews