Goin’ Someplace Special
by Patricia C. McKissack
Bibliography
McKissack, P. (2001). Goin’ Someplace Special. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. (Original work published 1944). ISBN-0-689-81885-8Summary
Tricia Ann, sets out on her first adventure alone to someplace special. She has been there lots of times but never alone and there are lots of rules about where you can and can’t go when you’re a young African American girl in 1950. She gets discouraged along the way and nearly turns back but when she recalls the words of her Grandmother it gives her the courage to continue to her destination.
My Impression
This Coretta Scott King Award and 2003-2004 Bluebonnet winner paints a vivid picture for the reader of a time most of us find hard to imagine. We can feel the emotional roller coaster that Tricia Ann rides on her journey to someplace special and empathize with her dilemma. It is a story about a time we would rather not think about but we should never forget and it ends in the perfect place.
Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
McKissack draws from her childhood in Nashville for this instructive picture book. "I don't know if I'm ready to turn you loose in the world," Mama Frances tells her granddaughter when she asks if she can go by herself to "Someplace Special" (the destination remains unidentified until the end of the story). 'Tricia Ann does obtain permission, and begins a bittersweet journey downtown, her pride battered by the indignities of Jim Crow laws. She's ejected from a hotel lobby and snubbed as she walks by a movie theater ("Colored people can't come in the front door," she hears a girl explaining to her brother. "They got to go 'round back and sit up in the Buzzard's Roost"). She almost gives up, but, buoyed by the encouragement of adult acquaintances ("Carry yo'self proud," one of her grandmother's friends tells her from the Colored section on the bus), she finally arrives at Someplace Special a place Mama Frances calls "a doorway to freedom" Ages 4-8. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Gr 3-5-'Tricia Ann's first solo trip out of her neighborhood reveals the segregation of 1950s' Nashville and the pride a young African-American girl takes in her heritage and her sense of self-worth. In an eye-opening journey, McKissack takes the child through an experience based upon her own personal history and the multiple indignities of the period. She experiences a city bus ride and segregated parks, restaurants, hotels, and theaters and travels toward "Someplace Special." Dialogue illustrates her confidence and intelligence as she bravely searches for truth in a city of Jim Crow signs. A thought-provoking story for group sharing and independent readers. Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Suggested Activities
I would use this book as a read aloud with 2nd-5th graders:
With Second and Third graders I would ask the students to retell in sequence the places that Tricia Ann visited and then have them work in groups to create maps to show the route she took from Grandma’s to someplace special.
For Fourth and Fifth grade students it would serve as a good introduction to discussion and teaching research skills for studying the civil rights movement.
