up on the roof

Tar Beach, Faith Ringgold
(New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1991) 

1992 Caldecott Honor Book

Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration

Reading Rainbow Feature Selection

A New York Times Best Illustrated Book

Parents' Choice Gold Award
The children's book, Tar Beach, was taken from [seen on right] Tar Beach (Part I from the Woman on a Bridge series), 1988. Acrylic on canvas, bordered with printed, painted, quilted, and pieced cloth, 74 5/8 x 68 1/2 inches (189.5 x 174 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,Gift, Mr. and Mrs. Gus and Judith Lieber  88.3620. © Faith Ringgold 
This information came from the website of the Guggenheim's online collection, here is a link to the page about Tar Beach

Tar Beach is another favorite book. My mother, who was born in Brooklyn, New York (Bensonhurst) brought this book home to show my brother what life in 1950's New York looked like. These, she said, were her memories of that time, just in an Italian Jewish neighborhood, where the apartments were too hot for sleeping, so they'd go up on the roof. I used to envy my mother having lived in the city. And then I moved to a city, where, among other things, you have to pay for parking, there's no drive through anything, except for ATM's, there's not a tree in sight, so the temperature in the summer skyrockets, and to go anywhere to do something is a major production. Bleh. 

I see now why she says of the town I was ultimately born and raised in that she smelled the cow manure and knew she'd come home. It's a totally different world.  

Tar Beach 2 (deluxe), 1990 /2000
printed in 1990 / quilted in 2000
quilt edition, silkscreen on silk
75 x 75

Tar Beach 2, 1990
quilt edition, silkscreen on silk
The Fabric Workshop
quilter: Gail Liebig
68 x 64

I guess someone has been screen printing Ms. Ringgold's paintings onto silk and then quilting them, so instead of a poster, you have a quilt.  I'd hate to think what that costs. Not something I'd have in my classroom.