Talking Walls - Tapa blanda

MARGY BURNS KNIGHT received the National Education Association’s Author-Illustrator Human & Civil Rights Award for her work with Anne Sibley O’Brien and the Children’s Africana Book Award for Africa Is Not a Country. She is the author of Talking Walls, which has sold more than 200,000 copies. She writes a blog, “Discover Your World,” and is a Service Learning Coordinator, an English teacher, and a Peace Corps veteran.

ANNE SIBLEY O’BRIEN has illustrated 31 books, including Talking Walls, and is the author and illustrator of the picture book I’m New Here and the graphic novel The Legend of Hong Kil Dong. Annie’s passion for multiracial, multicultural, and global subjects grew out of her experience of being raised bilingual and bicultural in South Korea as the daughter of medical missionaries. She writes the column “The Illustrator’s Perspective” for the Bulletin of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and a blog, “Coloring Between the Lines.” The mother of two grown children, she lives with her husband on an island in Maine.

Grade 3-6-- A unique introduction to the history and beliefs of a diverse group of cultures. In each of the 14 double-page spreads, Knight journeys to a new location, presenting information and folklore about famous walls all over the world. Some of the choices are obvious: the Great Wall of China, the Lascaux Cave, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Berlin Wall. Others are less traditional but imaginatively appropriate: the Mexican murals of Diego Rivera, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Nelson Mandela's prison walls. Although each vignette is brief, the author holds readers' interest with personalized stories, such as the one of a young boy who proudly chalks his handprint next to those of his ancestors on an Aborigine cave wall, or the Jewish child who solemnly places his handwritten Hebrew prayer in a crevice of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Additional information is provided at the back of the book, as are two simple maps and endpapers that feature the word for wall in 36 languages. Beautifully executed pastel paintings capture the variety and vitality of each culture presented. Use this to launch a discussion about the uses and abuses of boundaries, or connect it to more familiar sights such as graffiti or billboards, and talk about walls as a means of cultural expression. --Joy Fleishhacker, New York Public Library
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.