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.

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.

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.

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.

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.