Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor, is a story about Cassie Logan and her family. Living in the south during the Great Depression was not a good time for African Americans. It was hard to find work, which is apparent in this story by her father having to leave and work on the railroad in Louisiana; and it was lucky if you had work at all. A large portion of the African American families in this story are sharecroppers, so they work the land for someone who literally owns them. They are still slaves in a sense, since they never see a penny of the money that they earn. This story takes place over a school year where Cassie and her brothers, Stacey, Christopher John and Little Man grow up a lot emotionally. They have to deal with the bus splashing them every day on the way to school, and the realization that the white bus drivers and children (except for Jeremy) do not care about them at all. They also have to deal with their mother getting fired from her job since she teaches accurate portrayals of history, of which the school board does not approve. I think that the biggest event in the story however is then T.J. robs the store over in Strawberry and as readers we get to see the brutal mentality of the “white man” towards the “black man” over nothing. These children have to grow up quickly to protect themselves from the times around them, and the year that we view in this story shows an immense amount of growing up.

This novel in my opinion is a great piece of literature. This is a story that has been passed down by Taylor’s own family, and she felt the need to share it with others. The novel is set in the 1930’s in the midst of the Great Depression in rural Mississippi. In this novel, the focus to me seemed to be the unfair treatment of African Americans by some of the white population in their town and surrounding areas. I think that this aspect of the story made it a true quality piece of literature. Cassie, the main character was naïve in a variety of ways to the world outside her house, especially when it came to dealing with children her own age, and not realizing why a white girl was considered better than her. I liked how Taylor included the white population, such as Mr. Jamison and his family in the book. This shows the perspective that not everyone thought that African Americans should be oppressed, and that they should be treated fairly. So in this way I think that the novel has been quite authentic, and culturally accurate because it encompassed all perspectives. This novel has won both the Newbery Award for excellence in children’s literature, and the Coretta Scott King award for excellence in African American literature by an insider author.

Book Information: Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Scholastic Inc, 1976.
ISBN:0-590-98207-9

Miracle's Boys

Miracle’s Boys by Jaqueline Woodson is a true story of brotherhood. This is a novel about three brothers Ty’ree, Charlie, and Lafayette who have lost both their mother (who died in her sleep from insulin shock as a result of diabetes) and their father when they were much younger when he was attempting to save a woman who fell through thin ice. We find out later in the book that Ty’ree was there to witness his fathers death, and the youngest brother Lafayette was the one who found his mother dead in bed. After Ty’ree admits this to Lafayette that he saw his father die, they became a lot closer. These two were also a lot closer because Charlie was not at home. He was sent away to a juvenile delinquent center. Charlie is the stereotyped “thug” of sorts, and was beat up by a gang, and his trouble on the streets sent him away. There is conflict between the brothers as well since Charlie blames Lafayette for not catching his mother before she died. This book overall is a coming of age story of three brothers who have to learn to live without their mother, and learn how to take care of themselves as well as one another.

I enjoyed this story, but did not love it. It took me a while to get into it, and I was not able to relate to it. However, this novel has gotten critical acclaim, won the Coretta Scott King award, and was even turned into a T.V. movie. This novel defiantly qualifies as a piece of diverse literature. The boys mother is Puerto Rican while their father is African American. Therefore the brothers come from two different backgrounds. However, there is not much discussion in the novel about how this affects them. We do occasionally see other people’s reactions to them when they go out, but other than that, the focus of the book is their lives, their history according to them. Even though Woodson portrayed a negative stereotype in the story (Charlie), she also made Ty’ree a positive role model. Ty’ree was extremely smart and would have gone to college, but had to stay home, get a job, and take care of his family when his mother died. His dream is to work for NASA, and plans on continuing those dreams ones Lafayette grows up. However, the character Charlie is a stereotypical troublesome African American teen. He gets in trouble by joining a gang, because he feels that it is his family. We hear so many times that this is why young adolescents get involved with gangs, so that they can feel as if they belong. This is why he gets sent to a juvenile delinquent center. However, when he gets out, he has changed a bit, and tries to be a positive member of his family. I think it’s important that she included both in the story, so that she is more representative of a group than just one stereotype.

Book Information: Woodson, Jaqueline . Miracle's Boys. Puffin Books, 2000.
ISBN: 0-698-11916-9

Boy Meets Boy

I just finished reading the novel Boy Meets Boy. It is an interesting story in where may of the characters within the high school and town are gay, or transvestites, and it is considered completely normal. Outside of the town however, it's not so perfect. This story, and the Utopian has made me think about whether or not this situation is possible in our lifetimes? Sure there are communities that are gay accepting (think of cities like San Francisco) but there are always those people who are closed minded, and will not accept homosexual lifestyles no matter what. Even Tony's parents were more progressive than some people that we find in our society today.
Another interesting thing that I thought about after I finished reading the novel was that this story is overall just a love story. All of the aspects of a teenage love affair were there. In my mind this should just go to show to everyone who is against gay relationships that they are just like their relationship that they have with their significant other. They should be able to see that if you were to substitute one of the two main characters in the book into a female, that it would be like any other. I think that this novel would be a great book to open people with closed minds. It would make them see that we are all the same, no matter what sexual preference we have

Confessions of a Closet Catholic

I felt extremely close to Jussy's character in the book Confessions of a Catholic. In high school I dated a boy who was half Catholic and half Jewsih. Growing up a methodist my entire life, I had only been exposed to the Christian religion. Even though my boyfriend's family did not practice either religions, except for the holidays, I always had a fun time when the did celebrate the Jewish holidays. There is so much tradition that I was able to see with the Seder before passover. The stories told, the food that represents different aspects, and the family feel that is associated with it. I had never felt that sense of family and tradition for a religious holiday before. I had often thought that if we ended up tsaying together, that I would want our children to be raised with awareness of their Jewish heritage. So, in that way, I related to Justine's character because I had questions and was intruiged by a religion that I was not brought up in. The other way, was that I in the past week I lost my grandmother. She had fallen, become weak, and a month later passed away. The times in the book when Jussy's mother came over to Mac's house to tell her the news, or show up at school, those were very real times for me. In the end, I didn't have a revelation, and start going back to Sunday services, but I have to say that there is a spiritual connection there that there wasn't before. I think that if someone is going through a death, even though it is hard to read at the time, you will be able to become closer to Jussy's character, and really understand where Littman is coming from when she writes this novel.

Project Mulberry Thoughts

We recently read the book Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park and I really enjoyed this book. There were many different aspects that were looked at, and I was waiting to see whether or not the person in our group writing their paper this week focused on the aspect of race in the book, and they didn't. There is an interesting aspect that I found in the book that dealt with racism from a minorities standpoint. In my opinion, when we think about racism, it is usually a white person who has a prejudice towards another person of race, religion, etc... However, we see racism in this case coming from Julia's mother. Her obvious uncomfortable state around Mr. Dixon who is allowing the children to use the leaves off of his mulberry tree. Julia can't believe this about her mother, but it is explained to us that as a child, in Korea, during the Korean war young children were witnesses of black soldiers, and so their only experiences with people of this race were negative. Especially since Julia's family lives in a very caucasian town, her mother is not used to a race differentiation. Julia tries to figure out how to explain to her mother that he is a nice man and that he is just helping them out, but her mother still does not trust him. A few chapters later, he is trying to be nice and send home peppers with Julia. He also calls her Chinese. I know that this is a stereotype that often occurs with Asian people, that they all get lumped together even though their cultures, traditions and religions are all quite different. Julia's character struggles through this throughout the novel, and in the end still can't decide how she feels about her mother's views. I thought it was good how Park had Julia's character struggle with these questions. I think that it is representative of children's views and questions about their parents views if they are growing up in a prejudiced household. I also like that Park did not answer the question at the end. Not only does it leave the reader questioning the text at the end of the novel, but it also leaves the reader questioning themselves.

Naomi's Growth in Becoming Naomi Leon

I just finished reading the book Becoming Naomi Leon. I was intruiged to read this book since in our last children's literature course we read one of the authors other books, Esperanza Rising. I have to say that this is one of my favorite books that I have read in a long time. There is one thing that stuck out to me after I started writing my questioning the text paper, so I figured that I would write a blog about my thoughts. We are able to see Naomi's struggle throughout the book with wanting her mother back in her life. Until she finds out that Skyla is wanting her to move to Las Vegas to basically babysit her boyfriends daughter, Naomi was enthralled with her mother. I noticed that throughout the novel, Naomi was never very secure with how she looked. She always commented about how she stuck out from others. This theme became apparent to me when they actually travel to Mexico and she tells us that the clothes really make the person, and the fact that she had on an embroidered blous and other articles of clothing that she finally felt like she was Mexican. She finally felt as if she fit in. She was able to be successful at the turnip carving competition, and feel good about herself. I thought thatit was interesting that after this trip to Mexico, her self confidence goes up. We hear throughout the story that she is always soft spoken and that no one can ever hear her, but this changes. We see her thoughts of remaning silent about all of the things that Skyla has planned for her, but in the end, in court, she decides that she has to say something or no one is going to say anything. She stands up for herself, her brother owen, and her great grandmother. Because Naomi found out who she was and where she came from, she was able to say something. I thought that this was an interesting growth throughout the novel and wanted it to be brought to the forefront. I think that this is an important novel that brings up issues of different family situations, and real world contexts that happen in our lives today.

My Educational Philosophy

I have never wanted to be anything else besides a teacher. (except for the brief broadway and acting stage that most young girls go through) I wanted to become a teacher after I finished fourth grade. My fourth grade teacher was an amazing woman (her name was Sue Bright) and I knew after that year, that teaching is what I want to do. Over the years I have seen individual teachers reach out and affect certain students. There are some children that can't be reached, but the extra attention, and the caring of a good teacher can change that. This is why I am teaching. I am teaching so that I can positively affect the children who come in and out of my life, and let them know that they can be whatever they want to be. This class pertains to my professional goals 100%. I have always loved children's literature, but this class has really opened my eyes. I would like to think that I have a decently diversified classroom library, but looking back at my books, I have mostly just African American literature. I need to step up and start getting different kinds of diverse lit. Literature however is a great medium in a classroom so that we will be able to learn about different cultures. It exposes children in a fun way, through reading over more traditional learning in the classroom. I think that multicultural education should be involved in every classroom. It is important for children to learn about other cultures when they are young so that they are more accepting to them in the future. It is interesting to see this now, because I am in an all caucasian classroom and have not seen much multicultural learning. These children grow up seeing only one thing, and I don't think thats right. Since I love childrens books, I think that diverse literature will be prominent in my classroom library as well as the lessons that I teach in the future. The only concern I have is the previous notions put into childrens heads about certain cultures in our midst. I hope that I am able to catch them at a young enough age that they will grow up to be accepting of everyone. I have to realize that everyone comes from their own unique background, and that I will not be able to reach every single student. However, I would like to think that I can touch a good percentage of them. I hope that my students by the time they leave my classroom will have more world knowledge than when they left. I feel as if I will be able to do this as long as I continue to put into effect critical pedagogy and critical literacy.