The Jolly Mon by Jimmy and Savannah Buffett

I feel that the Caribbean is an overlooked culture in the classroom. I took a course on consuming Caribbean literature and was overwhelmed by the amount of information I had never encountered until this college course. The text that I read in this course were not exactly middle school appropriate in language or content; however, I fell that by starting out small with a text like The Jolly Mon, I may be able to spark an interest in students to learn more about the Caribbean history and culture.

Summary Courtesy of http://www.epinions.com/review/The_Jolly_Mon_by_Jimmy_Buffett_and_by_Savannah_Buffett_and_illustrated_by_Lambert_Davis_and_by_Savannah_Jane_Buffett/content_137721777796

The story is about a man who lives on an island and plays his magical guitar to woo fish up onto shore. The man is a very jolly and carefree fellow who is always friendly and helpful to everyone he meets. He is liked by all of the island people. Jolly Mon ends up travelling all around the Caribbean, singing his beautiful songs to all of the island people everywhere. Somewhere along his travels he gets attacked by pirates, who take his ship. He gets rescued by a dolphin, who takes him up into the sky. Now all of the island people everywhere look to the sky to find their way by the Jolly Mon.

Buffet, Jimmy and Savannah Jane Buffett. (1988). The Jolly Mon. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 29 pp. ISBN: 0-15-240530-5.

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

This novel gives students a chance to read a modern novel that deals with interracial relationships. Everyone wants to believe that the world is racism free and tolerant of interracial couples. This book shows that isn't the case. The author herself calls this novel a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. I think it would be a good book to pair with Shakespeare's classic. It could be offered as a supplementary read to help make the story of Romeo and Juliet more current and comprehensible to students.

Edited summary from http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/ya.shtml

If You Come Softly is about Jeremiah who is fifteen and black and Ellie who is fifteen and white. They meet at a private school and fall in love and then have to deal with how society treats them because they’re an interracial couple. It was inspired by a poem by Audre Lorde that begins:

If you come softly
as the wind within the trees
you may hear what I hear
see what sorrow sees.

This story is a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. The enemies to Jeremiah and Ellie’s love are racism, police brutality and people’s general stupidity.

Woodson, Jacqueline. (1998). If You Come Softly. New York: Putnam’s. 192 pp. ISBN: 0-69-811862-6.

Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco

I think this book would be a good read-aloud to introduce racial inequality that continued to exist following the abolition of slavery. It is a strong representation of African American strength and heroism during the Civil War as well as the friendships that formed between whites and blacks. This wonderfully illustrated picture book can also show students that important themes and strong stories can be found outside of a novel genre.

Edited Summary Courtesy of http://www.epinions.com/review/Pink_and_Say_by_Patricia_Polacco/content_176087535236 

Paying tribute to an unheralded hero is what Patricia Polacco’s book Pink and Say is all about. It is a stark reminder that most heroes never make the limelight and their heroics may be seen by only one or two or none at all. Pink and Say is a heart-wrenching picture book that tells a difficult tale, a true story from the Civil War. It is a story that is part of Polacco’s family’s oral history. She is the great-great granddaughter of Sheldon Russell Curtis, known as Say in the book. The story opens with 15-year-old Say lying wounded on a Georgia battlefield. He is rescued by Pinkus Aylee, called Pink, who drags Say to Pink’s mother’s home where the two of them are able to recover from their wounds. Pink, also around 15 years old, fought with the Colored Division of the Union Army, fighting against what he called the “sickness” of slavery. In their respite from the war, Say is nurtured by the courage of Pink and the love of his mother, Moe Moe Bay. Say draws courage from Pink and Moe Moe—courage enough to admit that he had been deserting when he was shot—and agrees to return with Pink to his unit. Before they can get away, the story of friendship and hope turns violent and tragic.

Polacco, Patricia. (1994). Pink and Say. New York: Philomel Books. 48 pp. ISBN: 0-399-22671-7.

Who Will Tell My Brother? by Marlene Carvell

This book will show students the prejudice and racism that still exists in today’s society, in this specific case against Native Americans. The fact that the book is written in free verse is a unique contribution to the book and how it can be used in the classroom. Aside from the story exposing racism and promoting racial tolerance, the book can also be used to help students in the realm of poetry. It can help students in comprehending poetry’s meaning, recognizing symbolism and poetic devices, or even writing their own poetry.     

Edited summary from http://blackteensread2.blogspot.com/2009/11/male-monday-who-will-tell-my-brother.html

Who Will Tell My Brother? is a novel written in free-verse that tells the story of Evan Hill, a teenager who decides to carry on his older brother’s fight to have his high school’s offensive Indian chief mascot changed. The free-verse narrative showcases the intense feelings and effects of alienation, determination, humiliation and ignorance. Poetry and free-verse are very deep and can help paint a picture as to what a person is like. The reader learns that Evan is an artist, half-Mohawk on his father’s side, intelligent, articulate, brave, persevering and honest. Despite the taunting and violence from his classmates and the resentment from the school board, Evan continues to push for the cause he believes in. This story remains a valuable lesson to today's society.

Carvell, Marlene. (2004). Who Will Tell My Brother? New York: Hyperion Paperbacks for Children. 160 pp. ISBN: 0-78-681657-0.

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

            This book is a representation of all races, ethnicities, and religions coming together for a common goal. It promotes equality among people of different background that I feel is an important trait to instill in middle school students. The novel is a quick read, a factor that appeals to most middle school students; however, it contains several important and impactful messages about family, tolerance, community and life. The novel’s structure in having each new chapter come from a different character’s perspective contributes to this theme of community but it also introduces and shows students to the different ways that a novel can be written.

Summary courtesy of  http://www.edb.utexas.edu/resources/booksR4teens/book_reviews/book_reviews.php?book_id=96

Fleischman, Paul. (1997). Seedfolks. New York: Joanna Cotler Books. 102 pp. ISBN: 0-06-447297-8.

Seedfolks is a carefully crafted, elegantly written novel about a community garden that springs up on a trash-laden, rat-infested vacant lot. Each of the thirteen chapters is devoted to a particular character and his/her situation. We learn about the changes in the garden as seen through their eyes. As the book progresses, each person weaves themselves into the garden's life-- making improvements, getting to know others, sharing their time. The volunteers interaction has a carry-over effect outside the garden; they begin to know other's names and become real people to one another. At the end they have a "Harvest Celebration". They are celebrating more than a bunch of plants--they have become part of each other's lives. Fleischman, in sixty nine pages, created a tightly-written novel.  Even though it's a quick read, the story stays with you long after you have put the book down.  Fleischman creates amazingly realistic characters that speak to universal audiences and make his novel a delight to read.

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

This is a wonderful book to have middle school students read when studying the Holocaust. I had the chance to watch the movie in eighth grade when my class studied the Holocaust. I also learned that a teacher at Oakland shows the movie following the class reading of Maus: A Survivor's Tale. The book provides a more in-depth look at Jewish customs, religious practices, and the Yiddish language than the movie. This story also integrates modern with the past by having the main character from the 20th century experience the horrors of the Holocaust in the 1940s. Essentially as teachers, we want the students to have that similar type of experience so they can understand the Holocaust and I feel that this text is able to provide that.

Summary Courtesy of http://www.shvoong.com/books/259906-devil-arithmetic/

The Devil's Arithmetic is a heartbreaking story about the Holocaust that really helps you relate to the horror that the Jewish people and many others went through at that awful time. It is about a Jewish girl named Hannah that cannot appreciate her religion and the life she has. She finds herself back in the 1940's after she opens a door to the past, her and her relatives enduring the torture of the Nazis. Aristotle once said, "Evil draws men together." In the Holocaust, as the Nazi's cruelty pulled the Germans and Jews apart, it drew the Jewish people together. The Devil's Arithmetic is factual and emotionally wrenching as it shows you how things worked in death camps. Hannah, the main character, is in denial in the beginning, but starts to get lost in her new self and lose her old memory as well. She is wise beyond her years, an old wisewoman trapped in a young girl's body. Hannah becomes selfless, and then makes the largest sacrifice possible for a young girl she hardly knows.

Yolen, Jane. (1990). Devil’s Arithmetic. New York: Puffin Books. 176 pp. ISBN: 0-14-034535-3.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

I think this book would be wonderful to read before or after Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Both novels deal with racial inequality in the South during the 1930s and each is from the perspective of a coming-of-age girl. Cassie, the protagonist of Taylor's novel, is African American while Lee's main character Scout is white. I think it would be interesting to see the racial inequalities that exist in both stories yet how the two different protagonists bring different experiences and background to the situations. However, the book is perfectly capable of standing alone in a middle school English curriculum. It is a compelling story that shows students the racism and violence African Americans endured during the 1930s.

Edited Summary Courtesy of http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/roll-thunder-hear-my-cry
Nightriders, arson, lynching--in the course of one turbulent year, 9-year-old Cassie Logan's family is traumatized by inequality and racism in their small Mississippi town. Yet the novel effectively conveys, even in the midst of violence and hatred, the importance of family loyalty, as well as pride in the face of adversity.  It's this loyalty, love, and intense pride that enable the Logans to endure in the racist culture of 1930s Mississippi. ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY is the best kind of historical fiction, in which powerful lessons from the past are encased in such an absorbing story with such compelling characters that children don't feel like they're "studying" history at all.

Taylor, Mildred D. (1976). Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. New York: Puffin Books. 276 pp. ISBN: 0-590-98207-9.

Choosing Up Sides by John H. Ritter

The novel introduces students to themes of standing up for what is right even if it means going against familial expectations and authority. Like the protagonist Luke in the novel, middle school students are struggling with their identity and finding out who they really are. Students will be able to relate to Luke on that level. The element of strict, oppressive religion is also included in this novel. There is a tendency when thinking about religious intolerance to view it as those outside the religion being intolerant of those practicing faith. In the case of this novel, the reader gets the opposite perspective of a man of religion being intolerant of those outside or against his beliefs. I feel it is important for students to see this different, often unseen perspective.

Summary Courtesy of http://www.flipkart.com/choosing-up-sides-john-ritter-book-0613284445

13-year-old Luke Bledsoe is a left-hander in a right-handed world. Moved from town to town, he's spent his life feeling like an outsider. Then, by chance, he steps on a baseball field and discovers he can pitch. But Luke's father, Reverend Bledsoe, believes that the left side is the side of Satan, and the baseball field is the Devil's playground. Luke has spent his whole life trying to please his father. Will he choose to give up the game he's come to love -- or turn his back on his family?

Ritter, John H. (1998). Choosing Up Sides. New York: Puffin Books. 166 pp. ISBN: 0-698-11840-5.

The Rough-Face Girl by Martin Rafe

The Rough-Face Girl is the Native American version of Cinderella. This picture book is a good representation of similar stories existing cross culturally and would be good opener to a unit on Native American literature. It also has the important moral of beauty existing on the inside rather than the outside. Middle school students struggle with issues of body image and self-esteem so I think this is an important message to get across to them.

Summary Courtesy of http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/280313.The_Rough_Face_Girl

In an Algonquin village by the shores of Lake Ontario, many young women have tried to win the affections of the powerful Invisible Being who lives with his sister in a great wigwam near the forest. Then came Rough-Face Girl, scarred from working by the fire. Can she succeed where her beautiful, cruel sisters have failed?

Rafe, Martin. (1992). The Rough-Face Girl. New York: Putnam’s Sons. 32 pp.  ISBN: 0-399-21859-9.

Daniel's Story by Carol Matas

This novel offers students a fictional, first-person account of the Holocaust. It spans the Jewish journey from ghettos to concentration camps to extermination camps. Its historical accuracy compounded with the main character Daniel’s personal experiences and growth makes for an informative and interesting read. Some of Daniel’s changes, emotions, and relationships are ones that middle school students can relate to. It is important for students to learn the history of the Holocaust but this book allows for them to relate to it on a personal level.

Summary Courtesy of http://www.enotes.com/daniels-story-qn

Daniel's Story is the tale of the horrific odyssey of a Jewish family, an odyssey which begins in Frankfurt, Germany in 1933 and concludes in Lodz, Poland in 1945. The narrator, Daniel, both a German and a Jew, is but six years of age when his family's story begins, and he is a very weary eighteen when it concludes. Through Daniel's eyes, readers experience the rising anti-semitism in Germany, a growing hatred which culminates in the Nazis' establishment and gruesome use of the death camps.

Matas, Carol. (1993). Daniel’s Story. New York: Scholastic Paperbacks. 144 pp. ISBN: 0-59-0465885.

Farewell To Manzanar by James D. Houston and Jeanna Wakatsuki Houston

            This nonfiction account gives the true depiction of the mistreatment of the Japanese Americans living in the United States during WWII. Similar to Warriors Don’t Cry, this book offers a glimpse into American history, making it a good read for both an English and history class. I feel a common misconception that could be held by students in middle school is that America’s history with racial discrimination is only black and white. This book proves otherwise, giving a look at the shameful past of Americans confining and controlling fellow American citizens.

Summary courtesy of http://www.edb.utexas.edu/resources/booksR4teens/book_reviews/book_reviews.php?book_id=32

            This memoir, based on Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's experience, explores her trials of living in a Japanese internment camp. The young girl tries to make the best of the situation but sees the pain and suffering that her parents must experience in order to survive. Her father was taken away for a year before he is returned to his family. He does not discuss what happened to him, and he begins to drink to try to forget. After they are freed and permitted to go home, she explains the prejudice she experiences while trying to readjust to life in an American high school. While getting involved in school, she abandons her Japanese heritage, a decision she later regrets making.

Houston, James D. and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. (1995). Farewell to Manzanar. Fernie: Laurel Leat. 177 pp. ISBN: 0-913-37404-0.

Warriors Don't Cry by Mario Patillo Beals

I fe       I feel that this book will give students a good understanding of integration and racism in the United States during the 1950s. I also think it is important for students to be introduced to non-fiction/autobiographical pieces of literature and this book could serve that specific purpose. This book would work well in an English class as well as a history class. For English, the book can be paired with fictional accounts of racial segregation and tensions that existed in the 1950s. It would allow the students to compare the fiction to what actually happened. In a history class, it would be an enjoyable supplement to lessons about Brown vs. Board of Education, racial segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement.
                                Summary courtesy of  www.enotes.com

Beals, a journalist, says that only in 1994, nearly forty years later, can she write her story without bitterness. Reared in a middle-class, church-going family that valued education, Melba Pattillo loved Elvis, Johnny Mathis, clothes, and the Hit Parade. She volunteered to test the Supreme Court integration ruling, not out of political conviction, but on a rebellious teenager’s whim. Along with her eight companions, she lost her adolescent innocence when she was threatened with lynching, spit upon, and physically abused by white students, their parents, and the mob that gathered daily outside the high school. The harassment continued with telephone threats and gunshots at her home.

Ultimately President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to compel Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to obey federal law. The violent hatred unleashed by the citizens of Little Rock against the “niggers” has been recorded by news cameras. Less well known is the campaign of terror directed against the black community of Little Rock that led to the loss of jobs, businesses, and homes.

Beals reports the graphic details that make her story come alive. She notes that some white people did offer support, while some in the black community discouraged resistance to the status quo. Beyond the violence, the teenagers were devastated by their isolation from their peers and deprived of a normal school experience. Beal’s story is a forceful and healing record of history that shows how far Americans have come in forty years—and how much more remains to be done. 

Beals, Mario Patillo. (1994). Warriors Don’t Cry. New York: Pocket Books. 312 pp. ISBN: 0-67-186638-9.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

I feel that if my goal as a teacher was to get my students to love reading, this is the book I would start them off with. The book is a captivating, edge-of-your-seat read that I feel would draw in all different types of students. It also gives students a view of different socioeconomic classes coexisting in the classroom and in life, both real situations that they could or are experiencing in their personal lives.

Summary courtesy of http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/2310/When-You-Reach-Me

By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it's safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know whom to avoid, like the crazy guy on the corner. But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda's mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then Miranda finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper: 
           I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.
           I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.

The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows all about her, including things that have not even happened yet. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death. Until the final note makes her think she's too late.

Stead, Rebecca. (2009). When You Reach Me. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. 197 pp. ISBN: 978-0-385-73742-5.

First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung

This novel offers students a look at the genocide that took place in Cambodia. Unlike the Holocaust, the genocide in Cambodia is not as well known by middle school students. This gives the students a chance to learn about other genocides that have gone in the world’s history. It can also be used to introduce students to the memoir genre.

Summary Courtesy of http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?isbn13=9780060856267&displayType=readingGuide

First They Killed My Father is a heart-wrenching and often difficult historical autobiography that recounts the brutality of war with vivid detail. A story of political oppression in Cambodia, it is all the more striking and intense as it is told from the perspective of a child, one who is thrust into situations that she doesn't understand, as she is only five years old when the terror begins. Loung Ung made many difficult journeys during her Cambodian youth, starting with being evacuated from her hometown of Phnom Penh. More meaningful were the journeys of self, which led her from a life as the child of a large and privileged family to that of an orphan and work camp laborer. From the deaths of her parents and sisters, we get a glimpse of the power that family relationships have in our lives. From the loss of economic status, the ways in which our social class can define our days is drawn in sharper relief. From her growing knowledge of the regime that has caused her to suffer, we learn of the vast gulf that often exists between a government's intentions and its actions, between words and deeds.

Ung, Loung. (2000). First They Killed My Father. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 238 pp. ISBN: 0-06-093138-8.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This book is a classic piece of literature that has withstood the test of time, finding its way into every student’s literary education. The themes of racism and loss of childhood innocence combined with humor and terror create a wonderful book that middle school and high school students love. This book offers a wonderful opportunity to study the Great Depression, racial segregation and the pre-Civil Rights era. It also introduces students to the theme of standing up for what is right even it means standing alone. It would be interesting to take this book – along with others on this blog – and study the history of racism in the United States. The class could read Pink and Say (Civil War), To Kill a Mockingbird (1930s), Warriors Don’t Cry (1950s), and If You Come Softly (present). This type of unit could really show the changes – or even lack of change – in racial interactions and oppression throughout United States history.  

        Lee, Harper. (1960). To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books.  281 pp. ISBN: 0446310786. 

Courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird#Plot_summary

The story takes place during three years of the Great Depression in the fictional "tired old town" of Maycomb, Alabama. The narrator, six-year-old Scout Finch, lives with her older brother Jem and their widowed father Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt for the summer. The three children are terrified of, and fascinated by, their neighbor, the reclusive "Boo" Radley. The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo and, for many years, few have seen him. The children feed each other's imagination with rumors about his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden, and they fantasize about how to get him out of his house. Following two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find that someone is leaving them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Several times, the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, never appears in person.
Atticus is appointed by the court to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Although many of Maycomb's citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability. Other children taunt Jem and Scout for Atticus' actions, calling him a "nigger-lover". Scout is tempted to stand up for her father's honor by fighting, even though he has told her not to. For his part, Atticus faces a group of men intent on lynching Tom. This danger is averted when Scout, Jem, and Dill shame the mob into dispersing by forcing them to view the situation from Atticus' and Tom's points of view.
Because Atticus does not want them to be present at Tom Robinson's trial, Scout, Jem, and Dill watch in secret from the colored balcony. Atticus establishes that the accusers—Mayella and her father, Bob Ewell, the town drunk—are lying. It also becomes clear that the friendless Mayella was making sexual advances towards Tom and her father caught her in the act. Despite significant evidence of Tom's innocence, the jury convicts him. Jem's faith in justice is badly shaken, as is Atticus', when a hopeless Tom is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison.
Humiliated by the trial, Bob Ewell vows revenge. He spits in Atticus' face on the street, tries to break into the presiding judge's house, and menaces Tom Robinson's widow. Finally, he attacks the defenseless Jem and Scout as they walk home from the school Halloween pageant. Jem's arm is broken in the struggle, but amid the confusion, someone comes to the children's rescue. After being carried home, Jem realizes the mysterious man who helped them is Boo Radley.
Maycomb's sheriff arrives and discovers that Bob Ewell has been killed in the struggle. The sheriff argues with Atticus about the prudence and ethics of holding Jem or Boo responsible. Atticus eventually accepts the sheriff's story that Ewell simply fell on his own knife. Boo asks Scout to walk him home, and after she says goodbye to him at his front door, he disappears again. While standing on the Radley porch, Scout imagines life from Boo's perspective and regrets that they never repaid him for the gifts he had given them.