Circle Unbroken

Circle Unbroken by Margot Theis Raven




Reader Response: Several years ago during a family trip to South Carolina, my grandparents purchased Circle Unbroken after admiring the process and creation of Sweetgrass Baskets.  This book has connected a surface level appreciation of a beautiful object to a deeper story about the history of a people who have continued to train and treasure their children in spite of the tremendous obstacles surrounding slavery and displacement from home.  Each page is filled with vivid paintings of lives filled with loving relationships from centuries ago in Africa to the present day.  As a reader, the story of this basket and its people has encouraged me to look for the common threads that provide an unbroken circle in my family legacy and seek to recognize it among others.

Evaluator Response:  The grandmother's narrative to her granddaughter about her heritage is honest but designed toward a young child by connecting the themes of each lesson back to her upbringing.  For example, an entry about the pleasure felt by one of her ancestors after weaving a basket that could hold rain was completed by stating to the granddaughter "Just as I am pleased with you."  This approach is repeated several times throughout the book to connect the emotions of the child's ancestral past to her present circumstances.  The vocabulary and theme of Circle Unbroken is accessible for whole group reading up 3rd grade and can serve as stimulating independent/discussion reading through middle school grades.

Teacher Response:  Incorporating this book into a Social Studies unit about the period of the slave trade to America will give an understanding that not all is lost when circumstances dramatically alter the lives of a people or culture.  There are anchors in every culture that draw members as well as outside learners into that heritage, and the Sweetgrass Baskets serve as such an anchor when many school lessons about slavery fail to showcase the investment that such peoples have made to continue important legacies.  Students struggling to connect unique legacy to cultures or needing strong connecting text to illustration will benefit from this book.

Literacy Coach Response: The text and illustrations of this book complement each other by providing just enough detail to trigger the imagination but not overwhelm with facts like many informational texts. This book can be used as an example for writing components that call for students to compare and contrast a another person's written or oral story to their own personal story.  The grandmother's narration connects process to emotion, and students can benefit by responding to this and other stories with their own emotions while working through complex narratives.