About the Author

Faith Ringgold was born in Harlem in 1930. She received a degree in art education from the City College of New York and was an art teacher long before she became a professional artist. She is best known for her painted story quilts, some of which hang in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Tar Beach, Ringgold's first book for children, won the Coretta Scott King Award for illustration and was named a Caldecott honor Book. Her other picture books include Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky, My Dream of Martin Luther King, Cassie's Word Quilt, and We Came to America.

Learn more about Faith at faithringgold.com

Reviews

"This allegorical tale sparkles with symbolic and historical references central to African-American culture.... A practical and stunningly beautiful book."--Horn Book, starred review

"The triumphant soaring of imagination over reality is beautifully expressed in Ringgold's bold, vibrant paintings….Beautiful, innovative, and full of the joy of one unconquerable soul." --Kirkus Reviews

"Ringgold's strong figures and flattened perspective bring a distinctive magic to this dreamy and yet wonderfully concrete vision, narrated in poetic cadences that capture the language and feel of flight." --Publishers Weekly

Gr 1 Up--Tar Beach is a work of modern art translated into a children's picture book, and the adaptation is so natural that it seems inevitable. From her 1988 story quilt, reproduced on the cover and within the last pages of the book, Ringgold has taken both the setting and the text. The painted scene in the center of the quilt shows a Harlem rooftop on a starry night with four adults playing cards and with Cassie Louise Lightfoot and her brother, Be Be, lying on a blanket gazing at the sky. Cassie sees herself flying over the city lights; dreams of wearing the George Washington Bridge as a necklace; imagines giving her father the union building he is not allowed to join because of his half-black, half-Indian heritage; flies over the ice cream factory; and takes her little brother with her to the sky. Cassie's story, written along the borders of the quilt in tiny script, becomes the text of the book. The illustrations painted for the book version are done in the same colorful, naive style as the quilt. This type of art translates beautifully into the storybook format, and a border of bright fabric designs on the bottom of each page duplicates the material used in the quilt. In capturing the euphoria of a child's dreams, and in its gentle reminder of the social injustices of the adult world, the book is both universal and contemporary. --Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ

"This allegorical tale sparkles with symbolic and historical references central to African-American culture.... A practical and stunningly beautiful book."--Horn Book, starred review

"The triumphant soaring of imagination over reality is beautifully expressed in Ringgold's bold, vibrant paintings....Beautiful, innovative, and full of the joy of one unconquerable soul." --Kirkus Reviews

"Ringgold's strong figures and flattened perspective bring a distinctive magic to this dreamy and yet wonderfully concrete vision, narrated in poetic cadences that capture the language and feel of flight." --Publishers Weekly