11. Dave the Potter

I found this book after beginning an illustrator study on the incredibly talented Bryan Collier (I will be reviewing a few more of his books later on in the blog). It was written by Laban Carrick Hill in 2010 and won the Caldecott Honor Award and the Coretta Scott King award. 

The book tells the story of a slave who lived in South Carolina and was trained in the art of pottery making. He was skilled and educated (against the law, he was taught to read and write), which led him to inscribe poetry into each of his creations.


While the text is largely a sequence of Dave's pottery making process, it is full of beautiful imagery and language. Hill stresses the action in his words (mixing, throwing, kicking, pinching, squeezing, etc), connecting us to the character and his creations. The simple lines remind the reader of Dave's poems...short, but full of power and meaning. The verse is almost rhythmic. It was Hill's figurative language that pulled me in the most.

"With a flat wooden paddle

large enough to row 

across the Atlantic,

Dave mixed clay with water..."

"Like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat,

Dave's hands, buried

in the mounded mud

pulled out the shape of a jar."

Collier's illustrations are a complement to Hill's words. They use a mixture of watercolor and collage. The palette of earthtone colors emphasizes Dave's connection to the land and clay. Collier positions Dave in powerful images-- the strength of his hands, the determination in his face, the pride in his eyes. Collier also takes us around his workshop, detailing the materials he used and the step-by-step process he took to make the pottery. He keeps the story moving along with a variety of full page spreads (that slightly cross the gutter and end in a jagged outline). In addition, there is a fold-out page in the middle of the book that includes 4 gorgeous panels of Dave working the clay. Collier captures the light and shadows of Dave in his workshop and makes the texture so realistic that we feel like we could reach out and mold the clay as well. Collier also has unique borders on each page that look like he ripped a strip of paper containing the words and laid it over the landscape of the pictures. It is an intimate, realistic glimpse into the life of a talented man who maintained hope and beauty in the midst of oppression.


The end of the book reminds us that this incredible story is actually an informational text about a real man-- it includes a photograph of his pottery, some biographical information, a few of his poems, and a bibliography of where to find more information about Dave. In the classroom, you could use the book in a study of important African American figures, slavery and resistance to oppression, art, etc. It teaches the values of perseverance and dignity in the face of injustice. The book rarely dwells on the fact that he was a slave, though, because he was much more than that...in fact the title reminds he was an artist, then a poet, and lastly a slave. After reading the book, children will probably become fascinated by the idea of pottery-making-- a great jumping off point for an art activity. Finally, this book would be great for studying imagery and figurative language.