Circle Unbroken

by Margot Theis Raven

Paperback, 2007

Status

Available

Call number

813.5

Publication

Square Fish (2007), Edition: First, 48 pages

Description

A grandmother tells the tale of Gullahs and their beautiful sweetgrass baskets that keep their African heritage alive.

User reviews

LibraryThing member SummerLester
Circle Unbroken is a story about families and traditions. It also tells a lot about African Americans and their journey from slavery to freedom. The grandmother is sharing the tradition of basket weaving with her granddaughter. As she does she tells the history of the tradition and how it began in
Show More
Africa, sailed to America, was sold into slavery and eventually to freedom. The tradition was with them all the way.

I loved this story because the grandmother was so proud of her heritage. She was so happy and eager to teach her granddaughter the tradition that had been passed down to her. She was so patient and loving.

This would be a great book for introducing slavery and the Civil War. It is very detail and very interesting at the same time. You could have the children use maps and globes to fine the places mentioned in the story such as Africa and Charleston.
Show Less
LibraryThing member SandraKLee
Information about sweetgrass baskets added information. Bibliography.
LibraryThing member kjarthur
I liked this story because it shows how some things are unchangeable in a changing world can help you remember the history of African people. But this message can apply to other ethnicities because if cultural traditions are maintained, they can hold more than things, they can hold parts of your
Show More
identity.
Show Less
LibraryThing member satyridae
Deceptively simple story is very powerful and at the same time quite warm and accessible. Lovely watercolor illustrations.
LibraryThing member ghimbert
Circle Unbroken was the other book that I used in the African American read in and I do not think I could have chosen a better book. The children were so engaged with this book and after reading it I could understand why. It is one of those books that has you wanting to know more and more. You get
Show More
a better understanding of history as told by the grandmother and I learned some things about the Gullah community that I did not know before.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ejoy13
This book, circle unbroken, is a historical fiction book about a grandmother who is telling her granddaughter all about their family's history. The story starts back in Africa where her ancestors learned to make sweetgrass baskets. The story then follows her ancestors through slavery, the world
Show More
wars, and on until today. The story shares about the trials and joys her family had gone through and what brought them to where they are today.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Salsabrarian
A grandmother relays to her grandchild the ways of her West African ancestors, how they learned to weave baskets tight enough to hold water. Even when they were captured as slaves, they continued to make baskets and teach their children the tradition. Despite wars and changing lifestyles, the art
Show More
of weaving sweetgrass baskets continues and are sold roadside to tourists. The references to old-timey grandparents and great-great-great-great-grandparents confused me.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Whisper1
A well-written story of the history of the sweetgrass baskets of South Carolina and Georgia. When a young girl asks her grandmother about the baskets, her grandmother patiently tells to story of long ago slavery when her grandfather was taken from his African home and used as a slave on a
Show More
plantation. After the Civil War, the grandfather and grandmother marry.

They continue the African tradition of the sweetgrass basket weaving. And thus, the circles contained in the basket are a symbolic measure of the circle that binds together.

Two Stars
Show Less

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

48 p.; 10.75 x 9.55 inches

ISBN

0312376030 / 9780312376031
Page: 1.3755 seconds