Sister Anne's Hands by Marybeth Lorbiecki

Is a story about 7 year old Anna's experience having a new African American teacher, Sister Anne, at school.  Through Anna's first experience with someone not the same race as her this book addresses the issue of race during the 1960s. In particular, there is one scene where a racial note is given to sister Anne and she uses that to educate the class about racism in the U.S. However, the story is told in first person from the little girl's perspective so words like racism, inequality, aren't used. Even when Sister Anne teaches them about racism in the U.S., the way she does so is through pictures and having them imagine what it feels like if they couldn't go to the bathroom because of a sign.

Something that struck me about the story was the end, where Anna talks about how after that school year she always liked to draw hands with all different colors. I think this is a realistic portrayal of a child's perspective. An adult answer would've been a statement about diversity yet Anna's focus on hands just shows how seemingly small experiences or details (like Anna's first encounter with Anne and noticing her hands) leave a big impression on them. A strong point of the book is the author's consistency in telling the story through a child's eyes. I wondered if maybe it is based on the author's personal experience from her childhood.

This book would be good for classroom discussion in several ways. It could be used as an introduction to or review of U.S. history in the 1960s and civil rights because of the brief references to events during that timeperiod.  It could also be used to discuss how the teacher reacted to racism by choosing to educate instead of getting fighting back.

Alternate Cinderella text draft

It was a typical day. I was cleaning the house while my step sisters enjoyed making more messes for me to clean up.  As I cleaned I was daydreaming about a fairy godmother or a prince coming to rescue me. That’s when I saw it.

Something shiny was under the bookshelf. I quickly picked it up and put it in my pocket because I didn’t want anyone to see what I had found.  I went back to cleaning. Then when no one was watching me, I peaked inside my pocket.

The shiny object was a key, a small golden key that I had never seen before. How mysterious and exciting! I started imagining that it was a key to a secret underground passage that would lead me out of the house.

I decided to try every keyhole in the house to see if the key fit into any of the doors. I waited until my stepmother and step sisters left to go shopping for their dresses to the ball. When I heard the front door close, I jumped up and started running from door to door trying to find which one the key would open.

Then I got an idea. Maybe the secret door was near the bookshelf where I found the key.  I took out all of the books from the shelves and then pushed the bookshelf to the side. There was a skinny door there and the key fit into the key hole! As I turned the key my heart was beating fast, maybe my daydreams would finally come true.

When I opened the door I saw a small dark tunnel, just like the one I had imagined!  I slowly slid with my back against the wall through the tunnel.  I could see some rays of light at the other end of the tunnel.

As I got closer to the other end I saw that the light was coming through an old wooden door that had lots of cracks in it.  I tried the special key in the door and it fit! As I turned the key my heart was beating even faster than before. This was it! My chance to be finally free!  I pushed the door open and froze.

I was not in a secret garden or a magical land. I was not even outside.  I was in my room, my tiny, smelly, gray room.  The tunnel that I thought would help me escape only led me back to my room.  I crawled into my room, sat on the floor and cried. That key had not helped me it just made me feel worse than before.

I sat there for a long time looking out the old dirty window.  Then a thought came into my mind, it was something I had never thought of before. I don’t need a magic key or a fairy godmother to rescue me.  If I want to escape, I have everything I need right in my room.  

I have a big broom to break the window, rags, and a needle and thread to sew the rags together to make a rope and climb out the window.  Why had I never thought of this before?

I quickly began sewing the rags together to make a long rope. Then I tied the last rag to the leg of my bed.  I hit the window as hard as I could with the broom handle. Finally the window cracked and broke.

Before I jumped through the window, I grabbed the small golden key and put it in my pocket.Even though it wasn’t a magical or secret passage key, it was a special key because it helped me find the courage inside to set myself free.

The End

Hidden Roots by Joseph Bruchac

This story is told through the eyes of 11 year-old Howard or Sonny and it is about his family. Its a coming of age story through which he slowly learns about his family's history and begins to get answers to many questions he's always had. The story builds up until he finally learns the truth about his Native American identity and how his parents have been trying to cover up their identity because of the discrimination they faced in the past. The story incorporates several issues such as domestic violence and racism. In the end it also addresess the history of discrimination toward American Indians, particuarly the practice of eugenics in the U.S.

At the end of the story there is a note from the author explaining the social issues raised in the book as well as how many of the details and characters from the book are derived from his own life.  I think the Bruchac does a good job of conveying difficult issues through the book although I was a bit confused by what the message he was trying to portray.  When I initially read the back of the book I thought that the main issue was domestic violence and that the 'hidden roots' were that habits of violence can sometimes pass down in the family.  As I was reading the book I began to realize that the hidden roots had to do with the family hiding their identity and the father's violence was a byproduct of that.  Eventhough it was intially confusing for me and it might be for children reading it, incorporating several issues in the boook is effective because issues within families are not clear but often complex, interconnected, and hidden.

My main criticism of the book is how it ended, it felt somewhat abrupt.  It ends with Sonny finally learning the whole truth about his roots  which helps to bring the whole family together.  Also Sonny's dad makes a promise that he will stop being angry. The ending is hopeful but it seems sudden and does not sync well with how the author had slowly built up complex issues and emotions throughout the story. For example, domestic violence was kind of pushed to the side once the reasons for Sonny's father's anger were revealed.  Leading up to the ending Bruchac describes some transformation taking place in Sonny's father especially when he has an accident and is physically not able to be abusive anymore. So the author does show how changing violent habits is a process.

 Still, I felt like the ending was trying too  hard to show that once the truth is revealed and all the questions answered then everything is okay.  This may not have been the author's intention but this was how I interpreted it.  So definately when reading this book it is important to follow up with discussion about what may have happend after the closing scene. In addition, to discussing the social issues raised in the book.

A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza

This is a picture book about a little bird named Choco who is trying to find his mother. He goes around asking  various animals if they are his mother and they say no because they don't have certain features he has, like no wings or no round cheeks etc. Eventually he becomes sad and starts to cry. Mrs. Bear comes and finds out why he's crying and asks him if she could be his mother, eventhough she doesn't look anything like him. She takes Choco home to her other children who are all different types of baby animals. And the story ends with line "and Choco is very happy that his new mommy looked just the way she did".

The social issue this book address is adoption.  I like how it conveys an important message in a simple way that is easy both enjoyable for young children to read and easy to understand.  The main message being that Mrs. Bear doesn't have to look the same as Choco to be his mother it just matters that she cares for Choco as a mother would.  I think the clarity of book's message makes it easy and almost natural to start discussion after reading it about  adoption and the general concept of what makes a family.

Something I found interesting is how throughout most of the book is Choco asking around for his mother but when he meets Mrs. Bear, she asks him instead.  I feel like this subtely shows the importance of adoptive parents allowing room for the children to accept them as their parents.  Also I was smiling at the ending because I guessed that her children at home would not bears but other types of animals.

This book was also personally interesting to me because I do not look like my mom in terms of skin and hair color because my mom is Caucasion and my dad is African American.  So I could relate to the book in some ways because of this. I wonder how I would have reacted to this book if I had read it when I was young.  From what I remember though I didn't think/care about the differences in parents race they were just mom and dad.
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Draft of Podcast Script

Introduction:

My name is Yun-A Johnson and I will be critically analyzing and comparing two books: When Africa was Home by Karen L. Williams and The First Part Last by Angela Johnson.  These two books each address a certain social issue by showing it through the experience of one main character.  Yet, how these stories are told, the words used and the words left out, cause one book to perpetuate stereotypes while the other book avoids stereotyping.

Analysis:

When Africa was Home brings up issues of cross-culture experiences and what defines home. This is shown through little Peter’s experience of growing up in Africa and feeling at home there but then having to move away, back to America which his parent’s consider home but he doesn’t.  When Peter goes to the U.S., many things feel strange to him such as how people talk and objects like vacuum cleaners. These are good points for discussion about moving and what makes you feel at home.

However, something I found to be very problematic with this book, is the title which is often a phrase repeated in the book “When Africa was home”.  This illustrates a common mistake made when talking about Africa by referring to the huge continent as if it is one country.  This is a problem because it disregards all the diverse cultures and languages that exist within Africa.  Even among the 74 countries there are sometimes hundreds of different tribes and languages within one country.  Calling Africa home makes it seem that the customs referred to in the book are the same everywhere in Africa which they are not. 

This assumption is not only problematic because it can be misleading but also because it alludes to a general underlying attitude of not caring to know about the individual countries within the continent; just knowing about one culture is enough to get an idea of what Africa is like.  This is not just an attitude toward Africa but is also the reverse is seen sometimes in references to many Asian customs, people, or languages being referred to first as Chinese even though they are not.

While the book does bring up good points about cross-cultural experiences this makes it easier to overlook the two stereotypes discussed.  I was especially disappointed by this book because it had the potential to break stereotypes.  The author, who appears to be a family member of Peter’s, dedicated the book ‘to help him remember his days in Africa’.  The author obviously had more knowledge of the specific African country as shown by the use of Chichewa words throughout the book, but still decides to speak generally of Africa.  It is as if Williams decided to oversimplify so that readers would recognize it which I think is the wrong mentality because books are used to learn.  Also many people do not have the opportunity to travel to the continent so they rely on information from those who have.

In The First Part Last the issue is teen parenthood, and this is shown through Bobby’s experience as a taking care of his baby daughter, Feather, while also trying to finish school, and grow up himself.  Johnson is able to portray these challenges in a very relatable way because the book goes back and forth between the present and the past.  So the reader is able to see all the changes Bobby faced and the decisions he had to make during the pregnancy and after.

The story is written in first person from the perspective of Bobby and because of this the reader has no explicit knowledge about the race or socioeconomic status of the characters in the book. Bobby doesn’t analyze his life in terms of race or class, it is just his life and that is how it is. The focus of the story is all about the emotional experiences of Bobby and his family with sad, stressful, and happy moments. This is very realistic and refreshing because often literature on teen parenthood is discussed in terms of demographics and statistics, not the personal experiences.

Johnson is very clever in writing the book this way because it leaves a lot up to the reader’s imagination which causes readers, including myself, to question their own assumptions about the characters.  One example of this is in the first chapter when the main character is talking about bringing Feather home from the hospital, I just assumed the main character was a girl. So I was surprised to find in the next chapter that it was in fact the teen dad talking.  From the beginning of the book the author is challenging the idea of stereotypes, knowing that most readers assume that a story about teen parenthood will be told from the mother’s perspective.  Since the societal norm seems to be that teen moms are taking care of their babies and the dad’s are often out of the picture.

Another reason the author may have told the story from a teen father’s perspective is to not to exclude boys from topic of teen parenthood and responsibilities associated with it.  It is a good book for discussion about the issue because it illustrates how challenging being a teen parent really is and how dramatically it changes a person’s life.

Conclusion:  (not so sure how to conclude)

The two examples of these books show the ways in which stereotypes are perpetuated or challenged.  Most of this has to do with the positioning and careful attention to what assumptions are being implied.

Reflection on the Hawaiian author visit

I was personally excited to go to this event as soon as I heard the author was an elementary school student. When I was that age, I wanted to be an author and illustrator and I would write stories often but never thought about getting published.  That's why Keko Laylee traveling around and speaking with his peers, could have a big impact. It may encourage children to get more excited about reading and writing because it shows that it is possible for their writing to make an impact beyond just school.
During the book reading, I was impressed by the illustrations on the screen that changed in sync with the words from the story. It's a good example of how new technology can be used to enhance the book reading experience, especially for big crowds. As I was watching the pictures during the reading I wondered why they didn't put up the words from the book as well, so that we could read along with them. Then I realized that my thoughts show socialization from college classes where the norm is  powerpoints with words and reading to follow along with the teacher's words.  A book reading, is all about listening, looking at the pictures, and imagining.  It is a different experience from a lecture and I had forgotten that.

A more general comment about the event is that I very much enjoyed hearing about how the family worked together to create the book.  Even the presentation itself portrayed how it was a family effort with Keko Laylee and his grandfather reading the book while the illustrations, by Keko's dad, were displayed on the screen.  The image of the whole family participating and supporting Keko was very powerful.  It caused me to reflect about my own family and how valuable working on a project with three generations of my family would be. 

Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne

I became interested in this book after reading about it in the article titled "Supporting Critical Conversations in Classrooms".  The book is about a day spent in the park but it is told from the perspective of four different people. A father & daughther and a mother & son. 
The issue of classism appears in the book because the mother/son come from a wealthier family and the father/daughter from a lower income family. One way the author portrays this is through how the characters are dressed and the background settings of the home and neighborhood.  However, classism also appears in the 'voices' of the adult characters.  The mother is quick to judge others in the park using adjectives such as scruffy, frightful, rough-looking which imply that she is looking down on them.  The dad is critical but more about himself and his life and mentions being jobless.  Also class differences can be seen in comparing the language/grammar use of these two characters.

With the children's voices, classism is less apparent although there is definately judgement. The boy is disappointed at first that his playmate is 'unfortunately a girl' and the girl thinks that the boy is 'a wimp' and his mom is a 'silly twit'.  So its really interesting to see how even the children are quick to judge based on first impressions, however their opinions quickly change as they play and have fun together.

What I loved most about the book was how the illustrations enhanced the differences between the perspectives. Often details in the background would give clues about some of the 'unsaid' emotions.  For example, when the mother is speaking about leaving the park with her son there is a picture of a burning tree in the background which could represent the mom's anger/frustration at her son for running off.  The girl's perspective is interesting because her's is the happiest out of the four characters. So when the story is told in her voice the background is bright with color and fun shapes. The emotions shown in the book also connect to classism because the wealthier characters are not the happier ones which implies that happiness has more to do with perspective than money and such.

I think this is a great children's book because it addresses a lot of issues in a fun way.  Its a book that you could read several times and find something new. What I think is most valuable is that it shows how differently people think and experience certain events.  This is a great basis for class discussion to help children begin to understand that not everyone thinks or sees things the same way as they do.