The cutouts of the birds are all the colors of the rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and black, which once again stresses the message that different is beautiful. The illustrations in this book correlate well with the theme of the story because they are colorfully appealing with bright and bold colors. Another cultural marker in the story is the use of rhymes and sound effects that produce rhythm, which usually accompany African dances.īecause the theme is a celebration of diversity, uniqueness, and individual beauty, the story invites readers to reflect in-depth and value their own inner beauty and differentness. Since the bird dances are illustrated with the birds circling around Blackbird, it is a cultural marker of the African culture because this form of dance is at times seen in some traditional African dances. In the story, the blackless birds dance the Beak and Wing Dance, the Show Claws Dance, the Sun-Up Dance, and the Sun-Down Dance.
Although the story is not rich in cultural details, it does include two cultural markers. All the other birds with distinct characteristics and attributes interact with Blackbird by singing him praises and asking also for some of his blackening. Blackbird is the only black bird of all the birds in the gathering and is admired for his unique blackness. Ringdove is the bird who calls all the birds from all over to meet for a festival and is the first to plead Blackbird for a bit of his blackening. Only two birds are named which are Ringdove and Blackbird. Although Blackbird tells them that true beauty comes from the inside, the birds insist and Blackbird generously shares some of his blackening by decorating black markings on the other birds.īecause the story is a Zambian tale, the setting is a lake surrounded by trees in Africa and the characters are birds of all shapes, sizes, and colors. After all the colorful birds in Africa admire Blackbird for being the only bird who is black and select him as being the most beautiful of them all, the blackless birds beg Blackbird to paint them with a touch of his black.
This fictional picture book conveys a powerful message to all sorts of readers.
New York, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003.
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