When I taught the early elementary grades, there was one non-fiction book that I loved to read to my students throughout the year. The Story of Ruby Bridges was my happy introduction to Robert Coles, the author of this captivating picture book. I don’t think I ever read the story to my students without crying, so powerfully does Coles capture the story of Ruby’s ‘integration’ into a white school in Louisiana. Not only did the book have a significant personal impact on me (and my students), it gave me a thirst for really good children’s literature, and an understanding of how profoundly such literature can affect the character and conscience of teachers and students.
Dr. Coles (whom I have subsequently discovered to be a prolific author), in The Call of Stories: Teaching and the Moral Imagination, captures clearly the dynamic of literature:
“Novels and stories are renderings of life; they can not only keep us company, but admonish us, point us in new directions, or give us the courage to stay a given course. They can offer us kinsmen, kinswomen, comrades, advisers - offer us other eyes through which we might see, other ears with which we might make soundings” (pp 159-160).
I experienced how his book, The Story of Ruby Bridges, admonished, directed and encouraged me and my students. Through his stories and wisdom, Dr. Coles has played a powerful role in shaping the design of tumblon to recommend developmentally appropriate literature so that parents and their children may be challenged and encouraged by the likes of Ruby Bridges. We trust that our recommendations, keyed to a child’s development, will inspire an early love for great books.
