We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past, Jacqueline Woodson

We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past is a diverse book written by Jacqueline Woodson.  It is about an African American family who is getting together for a picnic.  The book goes along telling about the different family members and tells a little bit about them.  It also tells what they are bringing to the picnic.  The book shows the culture of the family and provides for them a view of the African American culture and how they view the importance of family.

One thing that stood out to me in this book was the illustrations.  They are so bright and colorful.  We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past was illustrated by Diane Greenseid.  So before I read the book aloud to the class I would put up one of the pages of the book without the text.  As a class I would have students pick out different things in the picture and tell me what they think about what is going on in the picture and what they think the book will be about.  I will prompt students with questions about things like culture and family.  This will be a great lead in activity to the read aloud of We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past.