FRED KOREMATSU SPEAKS UP

I love being a CYBILS judge, because I always learn new things. This year, for example, I learned about Toyasoburo (Fred) Korematsu, an American hero who I am ashamed to admit had never even heard of. The book, FRED KOREMATSU SPEAKS UP made it to the CYBILS nonfiction finalists. I hope it wins!

Toyasoburo Korematsu, born in 1919, was the third son of Japanese immigrants, who had moved to the United States in 1905. His first grade teacher could not get her tongue around his first name, and so Toyasoburo became Fred. When Korematsu was 23, all persons of Japanese heritage were ordered into internment camps. Fred refused to go, and was arrested and thrown into jail. While he was imprisoned, Korematsu was visited by the ACLU, who asked him to allow his case to become the test case to challenge the constitutionality of the government’s imprisonment of Japanese Americans. The case ultimately went all the way to the Supreme Court. Korematsu lost, but forty years later, new evidence was uncovered and Korematsu was pardoned. 

In addition to a compelling story of a horrific injustice, an interesting aspect of this nominee is the format. The book alternates between sections presented almost as a novel in verse, followed by other sections that read like a more traditional nonfiction text with photographs, propaganda cartoons, and timelines. A fascinating presentation of a true American hero. 

WHITE WATER- Michael S. Bandy and Richard Stein

It's been over a month since I last blogged. I've returned to the classroom after more than a decade of literacy coaching, administration, etc. and life is more than a little overwhelming. Finally decided I am going to write a few quick sentences and that will have to be enough.

This weekend I was out shopping for more BABYMOUSE books. Found those, but also found WHITE WATER, which I have added to my Civil Rights basket. The book is based on author Michael S. Bandy's experiences growing up in the South during the Jim Crow era. One hot day, he and his grandmother ride the bus to town. When they get there, Michael is thirsty, and takes a drink from the public fountain. The water is brown and warm and nasty, and Michael takes only a quick drink. When the white child next to him takes a much longer drink from the "Whites Only" fountain, Michael is sure that it's because the water in that fountain is much colder and better tasting. He becomes obsessed with taking a drink out of the whites only fountain.

I'm planning on reading this book in a string with SISTER ANNE'S HANDS and SIT IN.

THE BEATITUDES: FROM SLAVERY TO CIVIL RIGHTS by Carole Boston Weatherford

I am a Christian. A Jesus-loving, Bible reading, hard-praying Christian. I don't talk about it a lot on my blog, well, because this blog is not about my Christianity, it's about books, mostly children's books. And I don't like children's books, in fact I intensely dislike children's books, that are preachy or sappy or moralistic or cutesy, which is how I would describe many Christian children's books. This morning, though, I read a book that I have to review, and that I want to give to all of my Christian friends, and my pastor. Because it's one that every Christian should read. But it's also a book I'd love to give to the fifth grade and sixth grade social studies teachers at my school. Or my high school son's African American literature or history teachers. Or actually just about anyone who loves books or American history or children or Jesus.

THE BEATITUDES: FROM SLAVERY TO CIVIL RIGHTS by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Tim Ladwig, follows the history of Blacks in America through some key events in American history: the Middle Passage of slaves from Africa, the founding of the Black A.M.E. churches, the US Colored Troops who fought to end slavery during the Civil War, the building of Negro Colleges, Marian Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial , Rosa Parks, Emmett Till, the Freedom Riders, Martin Luther King, Jr. Ruby Bridges, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Barack Obama. The story is narrated, however, by God. Listen to the first page:

"I am the Lord your God.
I was with the Africans who were torn
from the Motherland and cramped in holds of ships
on the Middle Passage from Africa to the Americas.
I heard them chant: Kum ba ya, kum ba ya."

Or the last page:

"I was with your ancestors and I will be with your offspring,
standing on the side of justice.
Even now, I am with the downtrodden
and with those who seek uplift.
I am holy water in the stream of humanity.
Drink, bathe, and be free."

The book begins with the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12), and then a one page explanation of the role of black religious organizations in the Civil Rights movement. Each two-page spread features a single person or event from the time line in glorious, glorious detailed water color illustrations (I can't even explain how illustrator Tim Ladwig uses light/dark and shadow but it's extraordinary-- he has jumped into my top five favorite illustrators with this book!). Marching across the bottom of each page, incorporated into the illustration, is a beatitude. End notes give a one paragraph biography of each person included in the book.

This is an EXTRAORDINARY book, definitely one that anyone who loves books or American history or children or Jesus will want to own.

BUSING BREWSTER- Richard Michelson

Earlier this week, I got together with one of my all time favorite literacy all stars (and one of my most bestest friends), Laura Benson. We had a lovely dinner and then wandered next door to Tattered Cover. We ended up in the Children's Department, where we found a whole crop of terrific new literacy-related picture books that would be just perfect for the first day of school. I'll be blogging about a few over the next few days…

BUSING BREWSTER is a terrific picture book for both little and big kids.Brewster is entering first grade. All summer he envisions himself attending first grade with Miss Evelyn ("you'll read over my dead body!". Late that summer, however, his mama informs him he will, instead, be bused to Central, whose student population is mostly Anglo. Mama is excited because the new school has both a pool and a library…

The first day, Brewster and Bryan are met at the bus by a crowd of jeering sign waving, stick throwing adults. Later that day, after another incident, they end up in a kind of in-school suspension in the library with another child, who Bryan calls Freckle-Face. A kind librarian (who should probably be on Mary Lee and Franki's list of cool teachers) brings the boys together around books. R.G. Roth's geometric illustrations, done in shades of brown, gold, orange, and black, are absolutely perfect.

A great "Did that really happen?" kind of book. I know this book would evoke tremendous conversations not only about integration, but also about respect, friendship, and how we treat each other. I can envision myself using it with books like SISTER ANNE'S HANDS, THE OTHER SIDE, and SIT-IN. Can't wait to share this one with kids on Thursday!

SIT-IN: HOW FOUR FRIENDS STOOD UP BY SITTING DOWN- Andrea and Brian Pinkney

Someday, I will teach a high school history class. I won't teach it using the boring, tedious, fact-packed history text that my sons are forced to plow through. Instead, I will teach history using children's literature. And when I do, Andrea and Brian Pinkney's newest book, SIT-IN: HOW FOUR FRIENDS STOOD UP BY SITTING DOWN, will definitely be at the center of our unit on the Civil Rights Movement.

On February 1, 1960, four college students- David Leinall Richmond, Joseph Alfred McNeil, Franklin Eugene McCain, and Ezell A. Blair, Jr. took their seats at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, Tennessee. They didn't need menus. Their order was simple. A doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side. Woolworth's was busy so the friends waited. Patiently. Silently. Without a fuss. They were the only black kids at the counter. They didn't get served that day, or the next, or the day after that. But each day, more students showed up, and soon there were lunch counter protests in Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and many other southern states. Life was not easy at the lunch counter- the sitters had coffee poured down their backs, milkshakes flung in their faces, and pepper thrown in their eyes. Even so, they perservered, and on July 2, 1964, Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.

The book is beautifully designed. Andrea Davis Pinkney somehow manages to weave a cooking/recipe metaphor throughout the book, with words that are so carefully chosen, they almost pass for a poem. Short quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr., done in bold and colorful block letters, are interspersed throughout the text. The back of the book includes a timeline of the Civil Rights movement, as well as a more detailed account of the lunch counter sit-ins.

A must have for anyone who wants kids to understand this very important event in Civil Rights history!

ARE WE REALLY AS FAR ALONG AS WE THINK WE ARE?

WARNING: This post may be offensive to some people. It doesn't represent the views of anyone but me.

It's the eve of MLK Day. I know we are supposed to celebrate the accomplishments of this great man, but I think it's also a time we should take stock. I'm not quite sure we are quite as far down the road as we think we are. Here are three quick stories:

Every Sunday, our newspaper, has a feature they call "Student Athletes." The paper recognizes two kids, one boy and one girl, who are outstanding athletes, and also have outstanding grades. I read this feature every week and I think it's great that the paper honors kids in this way. However, 95% or more, of the kids that they honor are Anglo kids. I can't help but believe that there are other kids-- African American, Hispanic, Asian, etc., who also meet the qualifications. I wonder why they aren't honored. Then there's the Constitutional Law team at the boys' very diverse high school. Although well over half of the student body is non-Anglo, the Con Law team is 95% white. And I wonder, are we really as far along as we think we are?

My sons attend a high school that has open campus at lunch. This means that every day, at 11:30, approximately two thousand starving teenagers leave the school grounds and descend on a two block strip of restaurants, convenience stores, etc. On Friday, my son, an athletic, handsome (ok, I'm biased, but he really is cute) African American teen and his best friend, who is Hispanic, were stopped by a man with a video camera, who asked if he could interview the boys. His questions, or at least the ones my sons could remember, were all about teen fathers*. He asked the boys how they would feel if they found out that they were going to be dads. My son said he would be surprised and that he knew he would be in big trouble with his mom.

I gotta tell you that these questions offend and concern me more than a little. First, although my preferred method of birth control is definitely abstinence until marriage, I'm not so naive as to believe that my boys feel the same way. We do talk about safe sex and pregnancy prevention on a regular basis. My boys also know that in the event that they got a girl pregnant, they would be responsible for providing for the child emotionally and financially for the next 21 years. Mostly, I want to know why this man, whoever he was, picked my kid out of all the kids at East. Did he talk to kids of all different races, or did he assume that because my son was black, he was sexually active and also irresponsible? And where is that film going to show up? I'm not excited about having my son's face smeared across You Tube as the face of teen fatherhood. And I wonder, are we really as far along as we think we are?

One more story. This weekend I got some really disturbing news. On Friday, January 8, a family that we know, lost their house and all of their possessions in a fire. We are not super close to this family, but my boys have played football with them, their dad is a terrific coach and athletic trainer (my younger son says, "All Coach E has to do is touch whatever is hurt and it feels better) and we've spent countless hours together at practice fields and games. Their middle son is a nationally titled Junior Olympic boxer. I found out about the fire yesterday, and only then because another coach posted a request for clothes and shoes on his Facebook page. To the best of my knowledge, this fire has not been on any news channel, or in the newspaper. We see human interest stories like this all the time, and I wonder why this family's story has not shown up. Is it because the family is not Anglo? Is it because they live in a lower working class neighborhood? And I wonder, are we really as far along as we think we are?

Maybe tomorrow, a day when we stop to honor an important American, we all need to stop and think about whether we are really as far along as we think we are.

A FRIENDSHIP FOR TODAY- Patricia McKissack

The year is 1955. The Supreme Court has ruled against segregation and twelve-year-old Rosemary Patterson is about to start sixth grade at T. Thomas Robertson Elementary School. Rosemary's best friend, James Jonson Stenson (or JJ for short) is supposed to attend with her, but then he gets polio, and ends up spending the year in a rehab hospital instead. Rosemary is the only black girl in her class, and she must face the stares and unkindesses  of many of her peers. 

Things are not so great at home either- Rosemary's mom and dad are fighting a lot, eventually, her father moves out, and her parents divorce. Rosemary's main source of solace is a Rags, a half-dead stray cat she finds run over on the railroad tracks and nurses back to health. 

Gradually, Rosemary becomes friends with Grace, a white girl whose very southern father is not at all in favor of integration. It is an unlikely friendship, formed by two girls who desperately need someone to hang onto. 

In a note at the end of the book, McKissack tells readers that although the book fiction, it is loosely based on events from her own life. She really was the only African American girl in her elementary school. Her mom and dad break up. And the book is dedicated to her cat, Rags, that kept her going through this very difficult time.

This is not the best book I have read on this time period, but it's definitely a good story and a relatively fast read. I could see putting it in a text set with books like YANKEE GIRL, NEW BOY, and WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM. 

NEW BOY- JULIAN HOUSTON

I vaguely remember reading CATCHER IN THE RYE when I was in high school, but I didn't remember much about it, so when Z had to read it for freshman English, I read along with him. As we plowed through CATCHER IN THE RYE BREAD (K's title), I could not help but wonder whether it is really necessary for every single high school student in America to read this "classic." What is my son, growing up in a middle class, single parent midwest home supposed to learn from Holden Caufield, a privileged white boy attending boarding school on the East Coast fifty years ago? Are there not other coming of age novels that might be more representative of the typical high school kids' experience? At the very least, would it not be worthwhile to read several different coming of age novels, or sections of novels, with the goal of comparing different parts of the country or world, different time periods, and different socioeconomic groups?

This week, I read a novel, that I think could replace, or at least complement CATCHER IN THE RYE. NEW BOY is the story of Rob Garrett, an African American teenager growing up in Virginia in the late 50's or early 1960's. As the book opens, Rob's parents, a dentist and school teacher, are dropping him off at Draper, an exclusive boarding school in Connecticut. Rob will be the first black student to attend Draper and his Aunt Gwen advises him that he would "do well to keep to himself until he sees what he is dealing with." Rob heeds her advice and has a successful, albeit lonely, year at Draper.

Predictably, issues of race do come up in this book. Over Thanksgiving vacation, Rob visits an elderly aunt in Harlem. He gets a ride from the train station with a classmate whose black chauffeur is visibly angry at Rob's more privileged status. He also visits an African American book store, and has a chance encounter with Malcolm X. Julian Houston embeds a great deal of history into these portions of the book, some reviewers have felt that there was "too much information," to coin my sons' favorite phrase. I enjoyed Houston's insights and didn't feel like the history was overwhelming at all.

The climax of the book deals directly with the Civil Rights movement. Throughout the book, Rob maintains contact with several high school friends from home. The friends are very involved in Civil Rights activities, and stage a sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter. These chapters, along with voting chapters from SECRET LIFE OF BEES would be terrific read alouds in any middle school or high school history class.

Unpredictably, Rob is not the main target of prejudice at the boarding school. At a meeting for new students, Rob meets Vinnie, an Italian-American student from New York. The boys at Draper tease Vinnie mercilessly- making fun of his Italian heritage and his acne-ridden face. Finally they ostracize him so totally that he is forced to move out of the dormitory. The headmaster and teachers at the school do nothing, mostly because Vinnie does not come from the old money families at the school. I can only imagine the rich discussions that might arise from closer examinations of this character.

NEW BOY is a great story. It offers much in the way of coming of age and historical fiction. I'm going to share it with my son's English teacher next week...

ACROSS THE ALLEY

How did I miss this one?????  ACROSS THE ALLEY is not a new picture book, it was actually published in 2006, but I'd never heard of it until this week, when the librarian at school showed it to me. Now that I've read it, I can't believe that I have not heard more about it, because it's a really special book. 

Willie is a ten-year-old African American boy whose father played baseball in the Negro Leagues. Abe is a Jewish boy, about the same age. His grandfather was a concert violinist in the "old country." Willie's father wants him to be a professional baseball player, likewise, Abe's grandfather dreams that he will  be a famous musician. 

Because of the beliefs of that time, the boys are not allowed to play together during the day; but at night, across the alley, that all changes. Willie teaches Abe how to throw the baseball, and Abe teaches Willie to play the violin. When Abe's grandfather finally learns that it's not his grandson, but rather Willie, playing such beautiful music, he invites the him to play at synagogue. Similarly, Abe is invited to play in the baseball game that afternoon. 

E.B. Lewis, who illustrated THE OTHER SIDE by Jacqueline Woodson, also did the artwork for this book. And like THE OTHER SIDE, the illustrations are so, so beautiful. 

I'm putting this book in a basket with SISTER ANNE'S HANDS, THE OTHER SIDE by Jacqueline Woodson, AND WE ARE THE SHIP by Kadir Nelson. I can't wait to share it with kids. 

YANKEE GIRL BY MARY ANN RODMAN

The summer before sixth grade, Alice Ann Moxley and her family move from Chicago to Mississippi. It is 1964, the schools are about to be integrated, and Alice Ann's father is an FBI agent who has been assigned to protect black people who are registering to vote. Alice finds herself thrust into the midst of the civil rights movement when Valerie Taylor, a black girl, joins Alice's class as only one of two black students in the entire school. Alice is forced to choose between having friends, and sticking up for Valerie, who is the brunt of horrific discrimination and cruelty for the entire year.

This is a terrific story about growing up in the south, in the midst of the Civil Rights movement. Each chapter begins with a headline from the Jackson Daily Journal. I know intermediate grade kids or middle schoolers would learn tons of history and have great discussions. They could talk not only about history, but also about life issues like integrity, and bravery, and peer pressure. The book would be a terrific read aloud, or a great literature circle. It would be a perfect companion read to WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM or WEDNESDAY WARS.

The only offsetting thing about the book is the cover art. While I definitely believe that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, I also think I would have a really tough time selling this book to boys, or even a lot of girls. The cover looks like something straight out of the 1950's, with two girls, one white and one black, standing back to back under a tree. I probably would not have picked the book up if a friend had not recommended it to me. I wonder why they didn't do something a little more modern and hip, because I definitely think this book is a winner and deserves to be far more widely read than I think it will be, with this cover. I spoke with the author at CCIRA and she agrees with me entirely.

At any rate, this is a great read, perfect for Black History Month, or a Civil Rights unit, or Coming of Age unit. Ignore the cover and dive right in for a terrific read.