Code Talker Review by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bruchac, Joseph. Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two. New York: Speak, 2005. ISBN: 978-0142-405963. 

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, 15 year old Ned Begay decides it's his duty to enlist in the Marines to help stop the Axis enemies in World War II. Little did he know he would become a top secret Code Talker. Using his native Navajo language that his white American boarding school teachers always told him was offensive and useless, Begay and hundreds of other Navajo Marines created an unbreakable code that was critical in the defeat of the Japanese. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS 
Joseph Bruchac's novel is - from start to finish - an illuminating work on the difficult and infuriating history between European Americans and Native Americans. Bruchac, who is Abenaki Indian, writes a respectful, authentic, and thoroughly researched novel representing Navajo life in the early 20th Century. Throughout the novel, the protagonist, Ned Begay, a grandfather, is using the oral tradition of his people to share his history with his grandchildren. 

He concentrates not just on the battles but starts at the beginning of his journey when he was sent to an American boarding school at age 5. Native families were told that in order to be successful they needed to send their children to boarding school to learn English and be educated in the ways of European Americans. When Ned arrived at the school he was relieved not to be alone. "Like me, many of them wore family jewelry made of silver, inset with turquoise and agate and jet. Our necklaces and bracelets, belts and hair ornaments, were a sign of how much our families loved us, a way of reminding those who would now be caring for us how precious we were in the eyes of our relatives" (13). The children were dressed in their best. Ned's mother dressed similarly on the day he left for school so that the last memories he would have of her were happy and celebratory (5-6). Bruchac takes great care to describe dress, language, pronunciation, physicality, the importance of the hogan (home), Navajo rituals and the love and care that is felt among Navajo people, even those from different regions. 

These positive portrayals meet the constant abuse and discrimination the Navajo faced from very young ages like waves trying to wear down large rocks on a shore. School was not a safe place. It was violent, regressive, and run with the intention of condemning all Navajo practices. For example, Ned Begay was not born Ned Begay. He was born Kii Yázhí, but at the American Boarding School Navajo children were stripped of their names and given new ones, usually after American presidents. They also stripped all of the children of their fancy clothes and jewelry (which was sold off), and cut off their long Navajo hair. "I could see it from the looks on their faces that losing most of their beautiful hair made those girls feel the same way I felt. Naked and ashamed" (20). 

The Navajo language plays a starring role in this novel both in describing the difficulty of the language to be broken as a code, but also the love Ned has for his native tongue, and that he gets to use it in a pivotal role in American history. Ned is only 16 when he becomes a Marine. His parents, moved by his sense of duty, allow him to enlist early, and because Navajos were not born in hospitals, but at home, they have no birth records for the military to confirm. To keep him safe, Ned wraps himself in the faith of his people. Before he leaves, he attends a Blessingway - a singing ceremony that keeps the recipient safe and out of danger (53-54).  From the Blessingway, Ned is given a bag of corn pollen, and every morning while he is away, he greets the sun, thinks of his homeland (Dinetah), and sprinkles the corn pollen (82). Ned was explicit through the story that this daily ritual and thinking about his family and homeland made him more at peace in times of great anxiety and evil anticipation: "Being a Navajo and keeping to the Navajo way helped me survive" (140). 

Bruchac creates Ned's character to be very honest about the state of the world in which he lives. In addition to being very self-aware of the divide between the Navajo people and white America. He writes Ned as a teenager who is fascinated with many cultures in the world. Ned has deep thoughts about what he has in common with those he fights beside, fights against, and encounters on his journeys through the Pacific. 

Specifically, Ned, who once, as a boy, sent aid to the people of Japan after a catastrophic earthquake, has trouble reconciling his feelings of empathy with the fact that the Japanese are now his enemy. His friend Sam, another Navajo, also sees more than just an enemy when he encounters the Japanese on the battlefield: "When we saw them we realized that our enemies were just human beings" (97). Ned approaches each new relationship with incredible openness throughout the book. At one point, he found deep understanding with one of the Solomon Islanders over a shared love of their homelands, which were changed after invasion (102). 

The author is very specific about acknowledging not just Navajos who served in the war but all of the different Native American tribes that Ned met while he served, including Lakotas, Cheyenne, Cherokees, Choctaws, Zuni (170). By including them in the story, Bruchac recognizes the incredible diversity that exists within the bland label of "Native American." In specific scenes, the author brings characters from these different tribes together. They are able to find that they share similar challenges living among non-tribal people. In Okinawa, Ned and his friends find a goat and cook it. The smell brings men from many tribes to the fire to share in the meal giving them a sense of the old days "before any white man's war" (204). 

While it is true that this book is about World War II, it serves more as an important view into the culture of one particular native tribe. Native people are often looked down upon in white American culture. They are stereotyped as lazy or savage or drunk. While Bruchac's novel represents a time in the past, there are many aspects of the cultural and civil rights issues that the Navajos faced that present-day students can identify with.  Bruchac took years to research and publish Code Talker (223). He was dedicated to illustrating positive and accurate images of Navajo culture. In doing so he seems to support the idea that books "are vehicles that transfer cultural knowledge, awareness, and thought and bear the responsibility of holding the truth of our nation's past" (Smolen and Oswald 2011, 135). 

Code Talker is written primarily about the world of men during World War II. There are few female characters (Ned's mother and sister). Though Bruchac writes about them with much love and positivity, they exist far outside of the realms of a World War II soldier. This is a story about war and the ugliness that men can do. Younger readers will find that Ned, as the narrator, is a relief to children, because from the first page, as Ned talks to his grandchildren, it is understood that he will survive the war and continue his native traditions with his own family. 

There are many positive takeaways from this incredibly crafted story. The most important, I think, is the fact that the Marine Corps kept the Navajo Code Talker program secret from the public until 1969. The move was not just a matter of national security (213). It was reflective of a long history of trying to erase Native people from America's history by not giving them a place in it: "because we were Indians in what was still...a white man's world" (87). 

At the end of the novel, Bruchac lists his acknowledgments, a helpful bibliography, and recommended further reading about the Code Talkers and World War II for students who are interested in continuing their studies. 

4.  AWARDS and REVIEW EXCERPTS
ALA - Best Book for Young Adults, 2006

From Booklist 
"Even when facing complex negative faces within his own country. [Ned] is able to reach into his culture to find answers that work for him in a modern context. Readers who choose the book for the attraction of Navajo Code talking and the heat of the battle will come away with more than they ever expected to find." 

From School Library Journal
"Begay's lifelong journey honors the Navajo and other Native Americans in the military, and fosters respect for their culture." 

5. CONNECTIONS
In the book, Ned talks about many cultural beliefs that Navajos have that make his experience in the Marines easier and harder. Make a list showing things that were easy (e.g. knowledge about plants to survive on in the desert, being in extraordinary physical condition) and things that were difficult (e.g. being near and stepping over dead bodies). How was Ned able use his spirituality and the spirituality of the Navajo people to keep moving forward through battles, the death of friends, homesickness, gunfire, etc.? 

Make another list of the things in YOUR lives that you find challenging to deal with or easy to deal with. What or who do you look to help you get through your life challenges? Are there any parallels you are able to make with Ned even though you are from different backgrounds and live in different time periods? 

Next, get together in a small group or with a partner and share the parts of your list that you are comfortable sharing. Can you make the same parallels with your peers that you made with Ned? 

In addition to the previous exercise in empathy. Consider reading Code Talker alongside your history curriculum on World War II. Have students look through their history chapters. Are there any references to the Code Talkers? If not, ask them why not? If so, how many pages of the chapter include conversations about Native people. This may be a great time to teach students how to use an index, too. 

Other Source: 
Smolen, Lynn Atkinson and Ruth A. Oswald. Multicultural Literature and Response: Affirming Diverse Voices. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2011. 

Niño Wrestles the World Review by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Morales, Yuyi. Niño Wrestles the World. New York: Roaring Book Press, 2013. ISBN 978-1596436046. 

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Young Niño loves lucha libre wrestling: the drama, the moves, the costumes, the characters! At home, he uses his imagination to become a masked man in underwear to take on some of Mexico's biggest cultural characters in his own personal wrestling ring. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Through the use of his incredible imagination, the protagonist Niño, a young Latino boy, enters the world of lucha libre, a type of wrestling popular in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries. Similar to the real-life wrestling heroes, Niño wears a mask to hide his identity as he fights several mythical figures in Mexican culture like: La Momia de Guanajuato, Cabeza Olmeca and La Llorona, and more. A Pura Belpré winner for her illustrations, Yuyi Morales' artwork is colorful and vibrant, which adds to the explosive excitement of the wrestling storyline. Similar to the old Batman television show and comics that used "Pow" and "Wham" in cartoon-like fonts to show action, Morales mimics that comical style with Spanish expressive words like "Slish," "Zok" and "Pachatas!" (p. 8). She switches back and forth between Spanish and English in the text frequently and also changes fonts throughout the book to highlight the rising and falling energy levels, but in the end children are introduced to a Latino child with jet black hair and beautiful brown skin who is a superstar. He is a boy who embodies heroism with his courage and showmanship.

Morales text introduces young children to the elaborate plot lines of lucha libre. She also provides a look into the rich Hispanic history behind Niño's nemeses through short biographies on the end pages of the book. She entices children to cheer on Niño by having him battle his enemies with common toys and treats that many children likely have access to like puzzles, dolls, marbles -- and popsicles. Niño is the champion in the wrestling ring within the safety of his small, toy-covered living room -- until along come Las Hermanitas, who are still in diapers and don't fight fair! He is an appealing character that children ages 3-8 will love to emulate both in play and in Spanish expressions ("Ay Ay Ay Ajúa!").

Adding to the history, Morales leaves a note about the cultural influence, mystery, and popularity of lucha libre in the back of the book.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
Pura Belpré Award Winner, Illustrations
ALSC Notable Children's Book.

From Publisher's Weekly
"Morales takes her theme from Mexican professional wrestling and the resulting story is every bit as fun and as campy as the theatrical fighting it's based on." 

From Booklist
"Morale's illustrations have just enough competing font styles and explosive-looking backgrounds to conjure the feel of an authentic lucha libre poster, and kids with multicultural classmates will recognize (or learn) Niño's many Spanish exclamations." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Consider exploring other picture books by written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales, including: Little Night Nochecita (ISBN: 978-1250073242) and Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book (ISBN: 978-1596433298). 

Have children try to write and illustrate their own books. For younger kids, write down their stories for them and let them color the pages and staple them together. Discuss with them what kind of stories they like to pretend when they play at home. What do their costumes look like? Turn Friday into a creative costume day where everyone wears their dress up to school. (You might want to let them know that they can't come to school in their underwear like Niño, though. That's just for home.) 

Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems About Love Review by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mora, Pat. Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems About Love. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. ISBN: 978-0375843754. 

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
In this young adult-focused collection of poetry about love, Pat Mora covers the whole experience of the emotion, including aspects from romantic love, family love, friend love, infatuation, heartbreak, and death. Each poem recognizes people of different ages, backgrounds, cultures, sexualities, and life experiences, and provides a comprehensive representation of the strong emotional connections that complete us, ruin us, and propel us forward as a species.

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Pat Mora's exploration into the human experience of love is both a tribute to the bliss and complexity of the emotion and also a lyrical instruction manual to understanding the personal destruction it can leave in its wake. What's elegant about this collection is that it takes two different avenues of poetry education and blends them together to give readers a whole picture of her concept. On the left, throughout the book, Pat Mora introduces different kinds of poetry like couplets, sonnets, tankas, letter poems, tercets, etc. These may be literary devices and types of writing that teens are not familiar with. But rather than bogging them down in instruction, she gives them a simple definition and then guides them through the process in her poems. Noticing how she uses the structure of the different poetry in her work is a wonderful way to teach about writing poetry.

Mora's poems are filled with all kinds of diverse life experiences that will likely relate to a young adult audience. For example, in "With Feeling" Mora portrays a young student who is frustrated that the adults in her life are always demanding feelings from her, as if she, as a teen, doesn't feel emotionally overwhelmed all day long. "Where's the feeling?/ My piano teacher growls./ I struggle to contain/ tears, giggles, fears, hate, anger,/ and love, so much love, all have me spinning/ in my purple-green-red-black-yellow private vortex/" (101). Some of Mora's poetry is very emotionally heavy, while others, like "Opposites" is very lighthearted and sweet (136-137).

Mora also uses some of the common themes in Hispanic American literature and some common literary devices of bilingual authors to give substance to the cultural heritage of the characters in her poems. She makes use of interlingualism and code switching in some of her poems going between English and Spanish. Or she offers an entire poem in Spanish and then in English. Her poem "Conversation/Conversación" is a delightfully flirty exchange between one person who is an English speaker, but speaks very basic Spanish and the girl being talked to, who only speaks Spanish (45). Reading the poem is like watching a text message of banter back and forth, hoping for a glorious outcome.

In "Mariachi Fantasy" a character relates to the mariachi performer's emotional expression, when she is unable to show her own while being in proximity of her love interest's girlfriend: "head thrown back,/ singing/ letting all his inside feelings/ rip/ out into the desert/ like I'd like to do" (21).

In addition to young love, Mora explores many themes of family love — particularly devotion to grandparents, which is a powerful part of Hispanic heritage. However, her poem "Sisters" is also a delightful representation of how familial love can make life worth living. She also makes important connections through poetry by having characters and narrators address life's hard questions like, "Who am I?", "Do people see me?", "Am I broken?" and more. These are all vital parts of the adolescent experience related to growing up. Mora doesn't leave any groups out. She works to connect everyone to love's intrinsic and attractive web without sacrificing any authenticity.

4. AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
Eureka! Children's Non-fiction Award, Silver Honor, California Reading Association
Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, American Library Association
America's Commended List, Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

From School Library Journal 
"Peppered with Spanish, the selections define the emotion in countless ways. The quiet lyricism of some lines will prompt many readers to roll them over and over on their tongues."

From Kirkus Reviews
"The poet's voice is multifaceted: tender, humorous, and joyful but also profound... The author employs an extraordinary diversity of poetic forms." 

5. CONNECTIONS
So much of poetry for children is taught only in elementary school by Shel Silverstein's work or in high school by reading canonized literature including Shakespeare's sonnets or Robert Frost. It is not an educational norm - yet - to learn poetry from multicultural authors. Pat Mora's collection of poems about love manages to transcend any kind of boundary someone might attempt to put on it because of her heritage, while she also embraces and elevates multicultural themes, particularly for Spanish speakers in a very real and authentic way. Listening to Ms. Mora read her own poetry and talk about writing can provide great insight and bring more Hispanic students to poetry through representation and inclusion. 

Building upon the knowledge formed from reading Dizzy in Your Eyes, young adults can further their exploration into poetry written by authors of Hispanic heritage through Pat Mora's collection My Own True Name: New and Selected Poems for Young Adults (ISBN: 978-155852921) and Gary Soto's A Fire in My Hands (ISBN: 978-0544104822). 

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Engle, Margarita. The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom. New York: Henry Holt, 2008. ISBN: 978-0805086744. 

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Characters Rosa, Lieutenant Death, José, young Silvia, and other townspeople, and military representatives tell the highly emotional story of Cuba's three waves of war for independence that represent over five decades of violent struggle during the second half of the 19th century in this poetic historical masterpiece by Margarita Engle. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom uses free verse poetry to describe the struggles of the Cuban people during their long war for independence from the Spanish from 1850-1899. The historical fiction story is told by multiple narrators: Rosa, who is a former slave turned nurse/natural healer; Lieutenant Death, a former slave hunter whose life-long pursuit of Rosa consumes him; José, Rosa's husband and protector of her nomadic medical care efforts; and Silvia, a young preteen, who has lost her entire family to the wars, and has escaped the world's first concentration camp to train as a healer with Rosa. There are other insights from characters like writers, community members, and military personnel, but they are not as involved as the four mentioned above.

I listened to this book as an audio text via Overdrive from my public library. From start to finish, Engle's poetry rises and falls with the action. "I cannot save the poet from bullets," Rosa laments, as she looks over the flowers and natural herbs she collects and grows to try and help those who are sick, show signs of infection, or injured. But her flowers and herbs are up against a growing wave of cruelty and despair that is hard to confront. During the war with the Spanish, the first concentration camp in human history is created to detain Cuban peasants and slaves. Rosa identifies the camp as what it is — a prison, as there were no houses or tents, just lots of people herded into one place and kept behind fences with very little food or care.

Young Silvia who is taken to the camp at age 11, after the troops steal what they want from her house and burn it to the ground, is motivated to stay alive to fulfill her grandmother's suggestion that she find Rosa and join her cause, if anything should happen to her family.

As I listened to the audio I wonder will Lt. Death ever catch up with Rosa and what will happen if he is finally able to act on his decades of mounting hatred? When slavery ends in The Surrender Tree in 1886, many years after Rosa and Lt. Death meet for the first time, Lt. Death is confused to see light and dark men fighting as allies, even though they are all people from different regions and socio-economic divisions. Cuban landowners fighting next to their slaves from the Canary Islands, Africa, China, etc. He is despondent that the "art of slave hunting" is lost, and he feels devalued and frustrated by the change in the world. There's a definite reason Rosa calls him Lt. Death, even though she met him when he was only a boy. His survival had always depended on enslaving and making others afraid of him and perpetuating the racial and socio-economic inequalities in Cuba, and he is unapologetic for it.

In contrast, for her whole life as a healer, Rosa stays calm and committed to her values to assist everyone who is injured: Cubans, Spaniards, Americans, etc. She does not discriminate by what side a soldier fights on, the color of their skin, or their socio-economic place in society. Rosa's narration by Yesenia Cabrero is hard to listen to sometimes. It's like she reads too slowly. Her breaks in her lines don't flow as well as they could, but the other voice actors don't have the same difficulties. Their monologues roll of their tongues effortlessly in character. In the audio edition, each actor has to say the name of their character before they read, so the listener understands whose ideas follow. This is sometimes helpful and sometimes jarring to the flow of the text. It is important to know what's going on, but by a third of the way through the book, listeners, even younger audiences, are likely to know which actor represents each character and the identification seems unnecessary and obtrusive, where as in written text, a name at the beginning of a chapter is quickly processed and moved on from.

Engle's story represents many themes common to Hispanic Literature. The concept of strong family and community bonds, the oral tradition of passing stories on from generation to generation, and addressing specific historical and cultural aspects of Cuban and Spanish history are all themes repeated through the book. For example, José protects Rosa's work and moves the medical facilities from cave to hut and back to caves. He looks over her and watches for enemies. Rosa takes in Silvia and raises her after recognizing she has lost everything and everyone to the war. Silvia holds dear her memories of her grandmother and how much her grandmother trusted in Rosa, so Silvia chooses to follow Rosa's lead to make positive changes in her homeland by training as a healer.

Historically, Engle's spoken author's note says that Rosa's character is based on a real person in history—Rosa Bayamesa. Engle also recognizes that Rosa's existence in the war as a doctor is strange, from a political standpoint, not just because of her unwavering care for all people, but because most other medical personnel that were recognized during this time period weren't women -- and they certainly weren't former slaves. Rosa was the first woman to be named Captain of Military Health. (As a side note, Margarita Engle was the first Latina author to be awarded the Newbery Award in 2009.)

In addition, at the beginning of the book, slaves are escaping from their Cuban masters, but it doesn't take long for the relationships between the Cuban landowners and the Spanish invaders to deteriorate causing the landowners to free their slaves and to join up with the independent resistance fighting against the common enemy of foreign invasion. After witnessing this integration among her own countrymen, Rosa is confused when the Americans show up and light men and dark men work in segregated brigades, but, as they die, are buried together. The nonsensical reasons behind segregation repeat over and over in this book.

By the end, Silvia, who has grown to be a young adult and a volunteer nurse of Rosa's, lives up to Rosa's self-sacrificial creed as a caretaker: "The wounded are sacred. We never leave them. When every else flees the battlefield nurses are the ones who rush to carry the wounded to Rosa. I am learning how to stay far too busy for worries about dying."

4. AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
Newbery Medal 
Pura Belpré Award
Claudia Lewis Award
Jane Addams Children's Book Award
ALA Best Books for Young Adults
NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Book

From Booklist 
"The switching perspectives personalize the dramatic political history, including the establishment of the world's first 'reconcentration camps' to hold prisoners, as well as the role of slave owners who freed their slaves and joined the resistance against Spain."

From Audiofile
"Written in free verse, the novel presents a challenge to the narrators, who have to respect the form of the poetry and the flow of the story." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Most American students may not know that the idea for concentration camps came from Cuba's war with Spain. They will likely first associate concentration camps with the Holocaust in World War II. Researching the many "first" in war tactics came from the Cuban fight for independence, including how countries used encampment to detain prisoners either in the name of security (American Japanese internment camps) or in the name of genocide is an important part of understanding and identifying worldwide current and past humanitarian crises. 

In addition, The Surrender Tree can be complemented with another one of Margarita Engle's books, The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano (ISBN 978-0312659288). With America's constantly changing relationship with Cuba over the last five years, knowing more about the history of the people to our south and their culture is critical in understanding how the two countries have related to one another as close neighbors with differing political views. 

Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down Review by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-31607016-4. 

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Four college friends sit at the lunch counter at Woolworth's on Feb. 1, 1960, in Greensboro, NC, and wait to order a doughnut and coffee with cream on the side. But their chance never comes, because in 1960, African Americans were not allowed to eat at the lunch counter with white folks. Their silent protest of segregation in the United States was an important part of the country's Civil Rights Movement, and is told beautifully by Andrea Pinkney (author) and Brian Pinkney (illustrator) who take readers on a journey of the students' non-violent protests that started America's integration process. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS 
Although the story's initial main characters are college friends David, Joseph, Franklin and Ezell, Andrea and Brian Pinkney write and illustrate Sit In as a journey through the timeline of peaceful protest toward the Civil Rights Movement's goal of racial integration in the 1960s. Andrea's flowing free verse and heavy use of metaphors give young readers a firm understanding of the importance of the Civil Rights struggle as the young protestors faced crowds of hateful people resistant to social change. During the most violent part of the book where white people dumped food and hot coffee all over the young African American protestors and treated them as if they were less than human, Brian makes an interesting choice to not give much color tone or determined features to the white aggressors. Instead, he focuses on the peaceful determination of the students. Two of them sat withdrawn from the angry mob, their eyes shut concentrating, and one girl, eyes wide open, with a look of empty determinism, stares straight ahead at the reader -- enduring the pain, hatred, and intimidation for a larger cause (22). 

Not treating African Americans as if they, too, are human was a theme throughout the book. Young children might be surprised or hurt when they learn about the "Whites Only" signs mentioned in the text, which were posted all over communities to tell African Americans where they could not share public spaces or facilities including: bathrooms, pools, parks, and certain sections of the buses. "This was the law's recipe for segregation. Its instructions were easy to follow: Do not combine white people with black people. Segregation was a bitter mix" (5). 

By not integrating, white people were able to "ignore" and "refuse" to serve black citizens in a myriad of ways (6). But by turning the tables on the white rules, the protesters were refusing the status quo that kept them down. 

Another main character in the book who is never visually depicted but is with the protesters and the Civil Rights Movement throughout the text is the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Andrea uses his words as inspiration during important parts of the story urging the protestors to continue to "demonstrate calm dignity" (26). 

Brian's swirling and colorful drawings keep up with the pace of Andrea's poems. The two work together seamlessly to tell the story of one of the most important periods of America's history. To support the accuracy of the story, the author also offers a non-fiction timeline of the Civil Rights Movement and "A Final Helping" of notes about the people the characters were based on in the book. Extra readings and websites pertinent to the subject are listed on the back page, as well. 

4.  REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Booklist 
"Food-related wordplay adds layers to the free verse, as in the lines about the protesters' recipe for integration: 'Combine black with white/ to make sweet justice'... The recipe metaphors are repetitive, but at the core of the exciting narrative are scenes that show the difficulty of facing hatred."

From School Library Journal
"With swirling swabs of color that masterfully intertwine with sometimes thin, sometimes thick lines, Brian Pinkney cleverly centers the action and brings immediacy to the pages." 

5. CONNECTIONS
America's racial divide has deepened since the last presidential election. For African Americans protests in response to police violence against black people, particularly young boys, have had increased attention in last decade due to the internet and 24-hour news coverage. It is impossible to have an understanding of how America got to where it is today in regards to race relations, without understanding what the country was like over 50 years ago. Telling this history is important so that people can continue to understand the struggle and perseverance of African Americans in the United States. 

For elementary school children, the current racial tensions are likely more in their faces than some adults may think. Reading books about the movement, its leaders, and how they were able to make positive change for not just African Americans, but for all minority groups can give voice to children of color in the classroom, and build empathy and understanding for those who were unaware of the struggles other people face in their day-to-day life. 

Consider reading several companion picture books to Sit in like Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of Voting Rights by Jonah Winter (ISBN: 978-0385390286) and The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks: A Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson (ISBN: 978-1481400701). Whether citizens are seniors, like Lillian, or young, like Audrey, standing up for equality for all people is a social imperative. 

Ghost Review by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Reynolds, Jason. Ghost. New York: Atheneum Books, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7. 

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Castle "Ghost" Cranshaw doesn't know why he can run fast, all he knows is that he can, and he doesn't need any fancy clothes to do so. But one day while walking home from school, he catches a group of children his age at track practice and decides to take on the fastest runner there. To everyone's surprise, wearing street high tops and jeans, Castle keeps up with the team's fastest new sprinter. In response, Coach Brody decides to see if he can't help Ghost refine and strengthen his athletic gift by inviting him to join the team. What Ghost discovers is a lot more than how fast his feet can run, he finds a circle of friends he never knew he needed. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In Ghost, Jason Reynolds tells the story of an African American middle schooler Castle "Ghost" Cranshaw, who lives on the poor side of town with his single mother, who works full-time and goes to school. His father is in prison serving time for domestic abuse, and Ghost wanders around his neighborhood playing basketball (sometimes), eating sunflower seeds, and going to school without much direction, interest, or passion. What he does know is that he's a fast runner and he wants to be famous for something that will get him into the record books. When he gets the opportunity to train with a track team in the park, Ghost is unsure how he will fit into the team. Lu, the sprinter, is a definite competitor, but Patina, who is also a sprinter, welcomes him. 

Ghost realizes that being a fast runner in short distances is very different than being a distance athlete, and he learns to respect and understand each of the kids on his team and to see them as whole people, and not just their track events. "I felt like they could see me. Like we were all running the same race at the same speed" (133). The track team also introduces Ghost to a more integrated social experience than the neighborhood where he lives. 

What is more difficult for Ghost to work through is how to meet track team social norms -- knowing his mom can't afford fancy running shoes or track suits. 

Through the love and discipline of Coach Brody, his neighbor, Mr. Charles, and his mom, Ghost learns that it feels good to be seen and recognized for hard work and perseverance. What is even better is having an adult (or three) in your life who see you for who you are trying to become, and always have your back, no matter how many mistakes are made or how big you try to talk. 

Reynolds' shows how for some children, particularly those who have experienced trauma, racial discrimination, and poverty, finding adults who they can consistently count on to show up and care about them as a parent, a mentor, or a role model helps ground them into their lives. Many kids miss these connections at home and at school, where parents and teachers may be seen as disconnected oppressors, often in positions of power. Reynolds does an outstanding job with developing Ghost as the protagonist, recognizing that kids' realities are never perfect, and to deny teens' emotions about the state of their existence is dangerous and negligent. In Ghost's case, it was as if he was treading water for a long time, feeling all by himself, and by learning to run, he learned how to pull himself out of the water. 


4. AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
National Book Award Finalist
YALSA 2017 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults
CSMCL Best Multicultural Book of 2016
2016 Cybils Award Winner, Middle Grade Fiction
The Kirkus Prize, 2016 Nominee, Young Readers
NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children, Winner
Publishers Weekly Best Books 2016, Middle Grade

From Horn Book Magazine 
"Reynolds has created a wonderfully dynamic character in Ghost; his first-person narrative is one with which young readers will readily identify. Conflicting emotions are presented honestly and without judgment."

From Publishers Weekly
"Ghost is a well-meaning, personable narrator whose intense struggles are balanced by a love of world records, sunflower seeds, and his mother." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Ghost is the first of a series of four books Jason Reynolds has committed to writing about the Defenders track team participants. His second, Patina (ISBN: 978-1481450188) was recently released. In addition to this series, Reynolds has several middle grade fiction and young adult books that are reflective of the African American experience. 

As Brave As You Are (ISBN: 978-1481415903) is at the same reading level and maturity of Ghost and Patina, but if your middle schoolers are interested in a story that has all of the heart of Ghost, but a little more teenage grit and angst, have them read Boy in the Black Suit (ISBN: 978-1442459519) or All American Boys (ISBN: 978-1481463348) and have them do an author study on Jason Reynolds. 

Booked Review by Dana Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alexander, Kwame. Booked. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-544-57098-6. 

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Nick Hall loves soccer and is a little sweet on April Farrow in his dance class, but he feels trapped by unfair expectations established by his teacher, his parents (particularly his father), and his social group. All he wants to do is be himself, but bullies, relationships, and his parents' rocky marriage keep getting in his way. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Nick Hall plays on an Under 15 soccer team. When he's on the field he feels more like himself. He has a mission. He understands where to put his feet, how to move the ball, and he values his relationships with his coach and his teammates. Playing soccer is more natural to Nick than breathing, which is good, because he feels like a fish out of water in his every day life, where he tunes out his teacher, Ms. Hardwick, and is forced to read the dictionary his father, the linguistics professor, wrote. Nick relies on his best friend, Cody, his close relationship with his mother, and soccer to get him through. 

Nick feels emotions intensely, and author Kwame Alexander creates a lot of emotional situations in this book for the reader to transcend with Nick. First of all, his parents are having marital problems. His mother, who he has a great relationship with, takes a job in a far away state, and leaves him with his father, which isn't an ideal situation. "When you subtract/ a mother/ from the equation/ what remains is negative" (59). 

Alexander writes the whole book in free verse poetry, which allows readers to tear through it at a lightning pace, without missing any of the emotional highs and lows. Reluctant readers may love how quickly they can finish the book, but they'll also love that Alexander's main character also hates reading, which is unfortunate, because he definitely inherited his father's love of words. But if he had a choice, Nick would rather make the choice to learn words on his own than be forced to read the dictionary every day. 

Alexander's writing about the contemporary, early teenage experience is very authentic. Unlike his prior work in The Crossover, he is less explicit about the race of the protagonist in this book. Sure, Nick listens to rap music, but that isn't a definite signifier of any definite cultural background. The silhouetted image on the cover allows for readers to insert their own concept of who that child may be and what they look like into the story. As a teen, Nick deals with almost universal young adult issues like bullies, discomfort around girls, racism, and inattention in the classroom. Alexander also writes Nick as a warm person, who loves the school librarian, Mac, and his quirky t-shirts and mysterious dragonfly box. The most realistic aspect of Alexander's story is how Nick frames his own version of reality versus the plane of reality his parents live on in the adult world. 

Nick identifies this generational disconnect in a fiery rage when he is bullied in the street and gets his bike stolen and his father's reply is "why'd you let them take it?" (140) His father was so disconnected to the reality of Nick's life that he was unable to identify his son was in need of support and assistance -- even after Nick arrived home late with a bleeding lip, and missing a bike. To Nick, his father's inability to empathize and understand was just as hurtful and controlling as the physical and emotional violence he endured on the street. It is also representative of a lot of struggles in connecting that teens and parents have during a developmental time when teenagers are trying to work their way out of the nest at home. 

As a whole, Booked defies the idea that misguided and wrong idea that books written by authors of different cultures and races are not for all people. Booked is easily accessible, well composed, and never strays from its commitment to portraying an authentic teen voice. 

4. AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS

National Book Award Long List
Kirkus Best of 2016
2017 - ILA-CBC-Children's Choice List

From Horn Book Magazine 
"Alexander understands reluctant readers deeply, and here hands them a protagonist who is himself a smart, reading-averse kid who just wants to enjoy the words that interest him on his own terms."

From Publishers Weekly
"Emotionally resonant and with a pace like a player on a breakaway." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Booked is a the second free verse book regarding boys and sports that Kwame Alexander has written. His first, The Crossover, won numerous awards, including a Newbery Honor.  You can read my review of The Crossover in this blog from earlier in the year. Although the two boys are different characters and play different sports, classes could read the books in tandem and compare and contrast the adolescent/coming of age stories of Nick from Booked and Josh from The Crossover. 

Both books read like a journal or a diary. Have students give writing free verse a try. How fast can they write, not in terms of actual speed in writing, but can they make their word choices flow as freely as Alexander's? Soccer and basketball may not be their areas of interest, but positive influences can come from many areas in a person's life. Let students choose their passion and try to write about their experiences each day for 2-4 weeks. Then have the class work on creating their own books, with a silhouetted picture that illustrates their identified passion, so it mimics the art on the front of Alexander's books.