Summary: In Goin’ Someplace Special, a young girl named ‘Tricia Ann asks her grandmother if she can go off on her own to a special place. As she travels to her special place, she sees the unfairness of segregation all around her— she has to sit at the back of the bus, and she can’t sit down on a bench and enjoy a beautiful fountain. When she gets caught up in a crowd and ends up inside a swanky hotel, she is yelled at and thrown out. Tricia Ann starts to despair that she will ever make it to her special place, and wants to turn around and go home. However, with the help and encouragement of her friends, she finally arrives at her special place where all are welcome— the public library. The illustrator of the book, Jerry Pinkney, won the 2002 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for the book.Citation: McKissack, P., & Pinkney, J. (2001). Goin' someplace special. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
Impression: Goin’ Someplace Special is such a touching book. It is even more heartbreaking knowing that it was based on the author’s own experiences growing up in Nashville. Many books have been written about segregation and the Civil Rights movement. This book stands out because it comes from the perspective of a child and it shows the many ways in which segregation affected the daily lives of black people during that time. This combination and the picture book format make Goin’ Someplace Special a great tool for teaching children about segregation and the role it played in our history.
Ultimately, Goin’ Someplace Special is a hopeful book. Tricia Ann is one determined and spunky girl. I especially liked the scene where she told a little boy and his sister that she would never sit in the back rows of the movie theater, “even if watermelons bloomed in January.” I also liked how the support and advice of her like friends Jimmy Lee and Blooming Mary helped give her the strength to continue on her journey to her “someplace special.” (Of course, as a public librarian, I loved that her special place was the public library.)
Review:
Horn Book:
Young Tricia Ann is off to Someplace Special — and about to "burst with excitement" because her grandmother is letting her go there alone for the very first time. The journey is not an easy one: she must face the indignities of life in the Jim Crow South. She has to sit behind the sign on the bus that says "COLORED SECTION," She is not allowed to sit in the park by the Peace Fountain her stonemason grandfather helped build. She visits her friend the doorman at the elegant Southland Hotel and is asked to leave. "What makes you think you can come inside? No colored people are allowed!" the manager says. Despite these humiliations, Tricia Ann is strengthened at every turn by people who care about her and who bolster her with reminders to "Carry yo'self proud" and "Don't let those signs steal yo' happiness." Soon she reaches her beloved Someplace Special — the public library The words carved in stone proclaim: "Public Library: All Are Welcome." Jerry Pinkney's illustrations place Tricia Ann at the center of each page, willing to face the challenges the outside world throws at her. Whether Tricia Ann is in her grandmother's kitchen (surrounded by bountiful fresh fruits and vegetables and the love they symbolize) or fearfully looking over her shoulder on the bus, Pinkney makes it clear that she will triumph. Though this story takes place in an unnamed Southern city, the helpful author's note states that McKissack was raised in Nashville, where, unlike many other Southern cities of the 1950s, the public libraries welcomed African Americans. The library pictured on the final pages, bathed in hopeful lemon sunshine, is the downtown library of 1950s Nashville. There are many books about a child's first trip alone, and many books about racism and the struggle for civil rights, but this book is about more than either: it is the story of a child facing a difficult time sustained by the support of the adults in her life. McKissack and Pinkney strike just the right balance in a picture book for young readers and listeners: informative without being preachy; hopeful without being sentimental.
Smith, R. (2001). [Review of the book Goin' Someplace Special, by P. McKissack and J. Pinkney]. Horn Book Magazine, 77(6), 736-737. Retrieved from http://www.hbook.com/
Uses in a Library: A public library could use this as part of a display for Black History Month during February or in a display of award-winning books. A school library could use it as part of a display of book on the Civil Rights movement.
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