Goin' Someplace Special is a 2001 children's book by Patricia McKissack and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. It is about a young African American girl, Tricia Ann, who goes to the public library by herself during the time of the  Jim Crow Laws in America.  Along the way, Tricia Ann encounters multiple forms of segregation.  The book is quasi-autobiographical in nature in that author Patricia McKissack has indicated that as a young girl growing up during that era of American history, she had encountered various forms of segregation; the library, where her love of writing began, was often times her place of refuge. It is my personal opinion that this book be delivered as a classroom read aloud, with the teacher having spent time prior to delivery both sharpening one's own background knowledge in the civil rights era of American history as well as preparing criticasl thinking questions to use throughout the read aloud.

Using Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat, students learn a simplified method of analyzing a literary work through psychoanalytical criticism. Students identify plot and theme, and then identify characters from the story with their psychological personalities (Id, Ego, and Superego). Students then develop an argument supporting the character identification. Finally, using explicit textual evidence, students write an analytical essay supporting their position.