The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano. Reading Journal #10

Margarita Engle uses verse to depict the story of a young boy entrapped in a life of slavery and abuse, yet liberated by his passion for poetry. Engle makes abstract concepts of mercy, agony, and rescue tanglible to the reader through symbolic motifs of material objects such as feathers, chains, and books. Her writing portrays the viscious horrors exerienced by Juan Francisco Manzano synched with the courageous insistence of hope shared through poetry.
My favorite stanzas:

"and these words, strangest of all
strangely easy to understand:
Saber no sabiendo...
To know without knowing...

To know without knowing
a life filled with dreams
heaven unseen
strange faith, strangely real
strangely myseterious fountain of words
source of hope" (Engle, 145)

This novel demonstrates how the element of art functions as a healing source for trauma. Manzano's life is memorialized and readers will leave this text with an increased appreciation and understanding for freedom and language.

Book Talk #2: Up Before Daybreak

Reading Journal #9: Up Before Daybreak: cotton and People in America

Up Before Daybreak by Deborah Hopkinson takes the reader on a journey through the history of cotton in America before the Civil War and after. Hopkinson places great attention on the many effects that the crop had on the people allowing the reader to draw conclusions about the wide range of consequences this crop produced (positive and negative). She includes a discussion of several aspects of American culture and economy that were impacted by by this agricultural development including slavery, racism, poverty, and child labor. Children and adults alike can learn from the clear and striking photgraphs found on almost every turn of the page. Each story is told elegantly and attempts to accurately depict the history of cotton in the United States. The index and further reading sections allow students to easily use this as a reference book to look up specific questions or begin independent research. This book is both intriguing and informative and will teach even the least interested reader something fascinating and representative of American History.

Book Talk: Acceleration

Book Review #2: Persepolis

New York Times Notable book, Persepolis, is a novel of a different kind. Marjane Satrapi carefully and subtly blends serious with satire. She employs her maturity and intelligence through the funnel of a child’s voice and logic. Through memorable graphics and engaging but simple text, Satrapi gives readers an opportunity to learn about freedom on many levels. As she learns about her country and family’s history, she is lead on a search for both factual and philosophical truths. Marj follows a path from blind-faith to doubt to rejection of her beliefs and ideals. The revolution absorbs this little girl and we are able to follow her through her journey and experience her joys and sorrows, universal to all.

Posted on Borders.com

Craft Lesson #2: Nonfiction Literature

Materials: Getting Away With Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe

Discussion: Students will gain an understanding of the purposes and types of nonfiction literature. They will also be able to identify several access features in nonfiction books.

How to Teach It: We would define the term nonfiction as a class and discuss the types of nonfiction including essays, journals, documentaries, scientific papers, biographies, textbooks, etc.I would have the students fill out a Civil Rights KWLL. First listing what they know, what they would like to know, then after reading the text they would write what they learned from the book and then what they learned from outside research (or information from class). I would ask them to look through the book and point out anything that is different from a nonfiction book compared to a fiction novel. They hopefully would mention several access features like the glossary or time line. Then I would show them examples and discuss the purposes of several other access features common to nonfiction literature. In Getting Away With Murder we would find a Table of Contents, Introduction, Chapter Titles, Photographs and labels, Time line, Bibliography, Additional Resources, and Further Reading. To assess their learning and give them practice writing, I might even have them create a page or two of their own nonfiction book (in any of the formats we discussed), including a couple access features. They would research a little about other significant people, places, or events realted to Civil Rights in the United States.

Bibliographic Information of Resource Text:
http://www.homeofbob.com/literature/genre/nonfiction/elements.html

Reading Journal #8 Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case

Chris Crowe states in his introduction: "To understand and appreciate the modern history of the fight for equal rights for African Americans, American teenagers of all races should know the story of Emmett Till and its impact on American society." It is my opinion that Crowe has provided an excellent educational tool in penning this nonfiction story. It's unfortunate that students read increasing less and less nonfiction literature as the pass through the middle and high school grades (excluding textbooks). The vocabulary used and the inclusion of photographs give students the opportunity to have their questions answered and learn in a way that suits them. I think students would greatly benefit from more nonfiction young adult books that can provide them with informative readings about interesting and important topics. I am certain that many students have never heard about the Emmett Till case and those that were aware did not experience it emotionally. This book allows an in-depth observation that draws on the readers emotions and sense of justice.