Ellington was not a Street

Ellington was not a Street

Author: Ntozake Shange
Illustrate: Kadir Nelson
Genre: Multicultural (Poetry)
Awards: Coretta Scott King Award
Grades: PK-2

This poem is written as a book to describe the different things a little girl would see.These things include all the people that would come in and out of her life with her dad. All the men surrounding her were important figures in history and have a description of all of them at the end of the book.

I would read this book to my students because it is a short book with a good connection to African-Americans in history. This book describes the cultural aspect a young girl witnessed throughout her life since her father was an important man who contributed to history. Throughout the book, there are images of men who would sit and talk to her father, all who were actual men in history. This book is good to teach a unit on African-American culture or African-American figures. I would use this book for children in PK through second grade since it is a short poem that they can understand with significant value.