Book title: "Trailblazer: The Story of Ballerina Raven Wilkinson"
Author: Leda Schubert
Illustrator: Theodore Taylor III
Publisher: Little Bee Books, Copyright 2018
Genre: Children's Nonfiction Literature, Biography
This story tells the story of a young African American girl that goes on to become the first black ballerina to perform in a classical ballet. Raven Wilkinson began dancing at the age of 9, and began touring with her first "troupe" in 1955. Raven experienced great racism and discrimination throughout her career, but chose to overcome it all for her love of and passion for dancing.Theodore Taylor III uses beautiful illustrations, majority line illustrations, that truly bring the story to life. The pictures are extremely vivid and colorful. I believe that students would be very engaged with this text.
Grade level: 3rd grade
Content area: ELA (Literature)
Standard: 3) Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. [RL.3.3]
Like many books, this would be great for a read aloud with your students. They could do a follow up discussion with a partner, sometimes referred to a Turn & Talk with younger children, and then share their discussions with the rest of the class. They could discuss Raven Wilkinson and the actions she had to take in order become the strong individual that she was.
This is a wonderful book to use to teach children to overcome their differences and follow their dreams. The standard is perfect because the character's traits make the story meaningful.
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