For my diverse book review I chose the book “Firebird” by Misty Copeland which was published in two thousand and fourteen. Firebird is the story of Misty Copeland, a renowned ballet dancer sharing her words of wisdom and encouragement with a young dancer who doesn’t think she measures up to Misty. This book was a very enjoyable read, I first discovered it on the ends of the year book list on the “we need diverse books” website.
The book Firebird is a semi-autobiographical about Misty, who is the main character as well as the author, an accomplished person of color who inspires a nameless young African American woman who feels inadequate about her dancing ability and looks up to Misty. She tells this young woman “darling child, don’t you know you’re just where I started let the sun shine on your face your beginning’s just begun.”
Misty saw the need to write this book, to use her own words on why she wrote this book Misty states “…when I opened up ballet books, I didn’t see myself. I saw an image of what a ballerina should be, and she wasn’t me, brown with tendrils sweeping her face.” This is why I think this book is incredibly important, Firebird focuses solely on people of color. It’s coming from someone who has been excluded because of the lack of visibility in children’s literature. This book is exactly what we need, people of color from all fields writing about their experiences so others who grow up and fall in love with that type of art or science can see themselves in the book.
This book shows women subscribing to a “girly” passion, ballet. However, I do not believe this is a bad thing. Many people regardless of gender may be interested in ballet and just because is a young girl does not exclude anyone else. The author projected herself onto the young girl in the story. Making it anything else, in my opinion, would have delegitimized what she went though.
I think this book amplifies its characters rather than silence anyone. The story begins with the nameless character putting herself down then Misty showers her with words of encouragement. This book tells it like it is, if you work hard at your craft, you’re going to get better at it. Nothing worth having comes easy.
My only real complaint about this book is the complete lack of punctuation. If you’re using this book to teach literacy this can be a huge problem. Instead this book should be used for visibility, fun reading, and to promote self-esteem.
