Ellington Was Not a Street by Ntozake Shange

3rd grade and up

The beauty of big words, big men, and big dreams is tangible in the poetry and images of this book. Aside from its educational value in familiarizing students with the great names of the civil rights movements that took place through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this Coretta Scott King Award winner has a quiet grandeur about it, a kind of strength that the reader can feel as the child absorbs some degree of the greatness of the people who surrounded her as she was growing up. The words of the poem are at once proud and innocent, indicative of the personal honor of these people who fought to be able to do simple, everyday things that modern society takes for granted. The book evokes the tightness of the activist community, but at the same time, it reflects on how very small the author was in this world of big ideas. The illustrations help suggest this impression: the girl is tiny in her little blue dress, always looking up at these men who filled her father’s house.

The illustrations of her as an adult are a striking contrast as she seems to be looking back to her memories of strength and community amid the hustle and bustle of Ellington Street – the people who surround her now never stop to think about why the street has its name. These illustrations are a reminder of the importance of remembering the struggles of the past and the people who fought those battles. By seeing an illustration of Duke Ellington at the end of the book, we get the marvelous sense of the dignity and grace the man exuded – and by association, we sense the dignity and grace that bound all the other great men in the poem to their cause.