Dave the Potter

Author: Laban Carrick Hill

Illustrator: Bryan Collier

Awards: Caldecott Honor Book of 2011 and Coretta Scott King Award 2011

Medium: Watercolor/Collage images

Genre: Biography/Poetry
It is an episodic biography as it is focused on how Dave created pots/jars and how he wrote his poems on them. In the back of the story, there is few pages elaborating more about Dave’s life and poems on his pots/jars)

Theme: When in bondage, you still can make a difference no matter who you are or what people think of you. Unifying theme: slavery, fighting for social justice

Summary: A biography about Dave who is a slave, poet, and potter. The story explains how he created beautiful jars/pots, on it he wrote poems--about his life in general.

Illustrations: Collier is a fabulous artist! He used water color and collage. I’ve noticed how he seems to have a hidden, powerful message into several pages that has college images. For example, Dave stands behind a tree with his eyes closed. In the tree’s branches, there are several African Americans’ faces. This makes me think the illustrator seems to try to tell us that Dave’s family must have been taken away due to slavery or those people he knew as a slave have died as he is praying for each one of them. It is up to any of us to interpret his meaning for each collage image in the book.

Collier did a great job of displaying the process of how Dave created his pots and how determined and brave Dave was for making pots/jars along with his poetry. Each page, all texts match the pictures beautifully.

Setting: The setting takes place in South Carolina in 1800s where at the time slavery was legalized. Slaves at the time were not allowed to learn how to read or to write. They would be severely punished if they did. In the story, we are seeing a slave who was determined to get his life story written on his pots and he did it secretly and cleverly! The way it is written and illustrations make the setting so much realistic and believable—therefore it is an integral setting.

Plot: Facts and story lines are not exactly integrated throughout the story but facts are shown in the last few pages. However, details with the storyline is linked to Dave’s accomplishments such as the fact that he is a slave who actually is allowed to make pots/jars, knew how to read and write, and bravely to share his words on pots/jars.

Style: Hill’s writing is engaging and comprehensible but does not exactly explain slavery or did not explain why Dave had to write poems on his pots/jars. However, this book would be great for teachers to slowly introduce the sensitive topic: slavery for young children.

Characterization: Dave was not a well-developed character as Dave only showed us how he created pots/jars and then wrote his poem. However, the reason for him to do is powerful—it will require for students to have prior knowledge about slavery in order to understand the message that Dave had been sending.

Reflection: To be honest, this might be a difficult book for any younger children because the texts are complicated to understand. It is not just about Dave creating a pot a jar. Each verse is viewed metaphorically which may be very difficult for younger children. I would be more likely to use this book for my future middle school or high school students.

Also, it is very refreshing to see someone new from American African history..even though Dave may not be famous like Martin Luther King or "Rosa Parks", but it showed me that even though he is not exactly famous like them.... smallest thing Dave did...that meant a lot to his people. It might even had given hope to his people that one day..all would be able to read, to write, and to work. To be treated like a true human being. A beautiful story done, really.