GOING DOWN HOME WITH DADDY: FAMILY TREE ACTIVITY

Best Users: Librarians, Educators, Early Childhood Educators, Home Learners
Best Audience: Children Grades 01-05

This Activity and Read Aloud comes via the mighty Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival. The festival will be celebrating books from across the African diaspora throughout the Summer! Look for more engagement materials at BeautifulBlackbird.com.

READ ALOUD & INTERVIEW WITH CALDECOTT HONORED ILLUSTRATOR, DANIEL MINTER

Going Down Home With Daddy by Kelly Starling Lyons from Indigo Arts on Vimeo.

 

ABOUT THE ACTIVITY

In the Caldecott Honored picture book Going Down Home with Daddy (Peachtree Publishing), author Kelly Starling Lyons calls the family, “mighty.” The Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival created this activity to explore the definition of family and the beautiful complexity of a true family tree.

What is a family tree?
You might have been asked to do a family tree showing who your parents are and who their parents were and who their parents were…and so on. This is not that kind of family tree. Trees do not just grow because one branch makes another. They grow because of sunshine, 
bees, beetles, dirt, worms, rainfall, wind, and unexpected things. And trees don’t stand alone. They grow together in fields, in forests, in groves, and jungles. Trees are even said to “talk” to each other through their roots. 
Trees warn each other of dangers and share resources. Trees make each other resilient 
and strong.

DOWNLOAD Going Down Home with Daddy: Mighty Family Tree Activity (PDF)

 

Going Down Home with Daddy Mighty Family Tree Craft from Indigo Arts on Vimeo.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Going Down Home with Daddy
By Kelly Starling Lyons
Illustrated by Daniel Minter
Published by Peachtree Publishing Company
ISBN-13: 9781561459384
Age Range: 4 – 8 Years

A 2020 Caldecott Honor Book

“On reunion morning, we rise before the sun. Daddy hums as he packs our car with suitcases and a cooler full of snacks. He says there’s nothing like going down home.”

Down home is Granny’s house. Down home is where Lil Alan and his parents and sister will join great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Down home is where Lil Alan will hear stories of the ancestors and visit the land that has meant so much to all of them. And down home is where all of the children will find their special way to pay tribute to family history. All the kids have to decide on what tribute to share, but what will Lil Alan do?

In this rich and moving celebration of history, culture, and ritual, Kelly Starling Lyons’ eloquent text explores the power of family traditions. Stunning illustrations by Coretta Scott King Honor-winner Daniel Minter reveal the motion and connections in a large, multigenerational family.

Even if it seems…impossible!

“In a lushly illustrated tribute to family history, an African-American boy and his family take their annual trip to his great-grandmother’s farm for a reunion…Lyons’s image-rich prose and Minter’s powerful acrylics—rendered in shadowy blues and fiery shades—convey a sense of historical struggle alongside cherished tradition while capturing the experience of performance jitters.” —Publishers Weekly
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“Minter’s illustrations, rendered in an acrylic wash, work in beautiful harmony with Lyons’s joyful portrait of a deeply loving multigenerational family. Carefully layered images, patterns, and textures reinforce the narrative links between family history, American history, ancestral land and nature, and the bonds of family: “When we go down home with Daddy, everything we see holds a piece of him and us.” Readers will enjoy this moving celebration of familial love, history, and tradition. Highly recommended.”
—School Library Journal
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“Minter’s acrylic-wash prints soar as stenciled cotton bolls, okra, and pecans dot the pages alongside images of family members in sepia and blue-black hues. One striking spread details silhouettes of Lil Alan, Sis, and Momma layered on top of one another, same eyes, lips, and textured hair and same reunion T-shirt imprinted with a simple, familiar, deeply rooted tree. A warm, loving, necessary reminder of the power in families coming together.”
—Kirkus Reviews