Ellington Was Not a Street

Author: Ntozake Shange
Title: Ellington Was Not a Street

Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Genre: Picture Book
Subgenre: Juvenile Nonfiction Poetry
Theme: Dealing with adversity.
Primary and secondary characters: The Narrator as a littler girl
Award(s) date of publication: Corretta Scott King Award, 1988

Publishing Company: Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing Division

Brief Summary and how I would use this book with students: Ellington Was Not a Street is the authors recount of the events that took place in her life growing up. It talks about her struggle with dealing with adversity during a time when people were segregated by the color of their skin. This book is very good and the pictures are very descriptive but the underlining message or theme of the story would be hard for younger readers to comprehend expecially if they are not aware of historical African American individuals. This book could be used in the classroom to talk about diversity and multiculturalism. It gives a uniquw perspective through the eyes of a little girl about what life was like growning up in a segregated world.