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Activities with Coretta Scott King Award Winners
Activities by Nancy Polette © 2002

CHRISTMAS IN THE BIG HOUSE, CHRISTMAS IN THE QUARTERS
by Patricia and Frederick McKissack. Scholastic, 1994.
1995 Winner

It is Christmastime on a plantation in Virginia. The yearis 1859. The Big House is awash with light and color and elegance. In the slave Quarters nearby, there is no such grandeur for the families who live in cramped quarters with dirt floors.

ACTIVITY: Write a Compare Contrast poem book report.

Example:
If I lived in the Big House
I would fmd many presents under the tree
And sing by the Yule log
And eat roast turkey with trimmings
And go to sleep under a down comforter
But I wouldn't wake up to no tree and no gifts
And sing sad songs
And eat fat and greens
And sleep on a sack on the floor
Because the slaves in the Quarters do that