num_pages: 48
description: Keeping the African heritage alive As she teaches her granddaughter to sew a traditional sweetgrass basket, a grandmother weaves a story, going back generations to her old-timey grandfather's village in faraway Africa. There, as a boy, he learned to make baskets so tightly woven they could hold the rain. Even after being stolen away to a slave ship bound for America, he remembers what he learned and passes these memories on to his children - as they do theirs, so that . . . when your fingers talk just rightthat circle will go out and out again -past slavery and freedom, old ways and new,and your basket will hold the past . . . This powerful picture book, with its rhythmic text and evocative paintings, spirals through time, becoming a triumphant song - a rich story of a craft, a culture, and a people.
language: English
title: Circle Unbroken
titlecomplete: Circle Unbroken
genres: Historical, Childrens, African American, Picture Books, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Cultural, Africa, Realistic Fiction, Family
ratings_count: 221
places: West Africa
awards: awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Texas Bluebonnet Award
publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)