SOLC # 16 - Reading - Point of View

          Also blogging with my students at Linda & Jonathan's Class Blog

          Day Sixteen, sliding downward, of the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.                   Tweet at #SOL15

             

             Thanks to Tara, Dana, Anna, Betsy, Beth and Stacey for keeping us going!

Link up with Jen at TeachMentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders. and Sheila at Book Journeys.  Come visit, and tweet at #IMWAYR. Thanks to Jen, Kellee, and Ricki for hosting!

         Interesting that the books I’m choosing to share this week all are strongly about considering point of view, lessons that we all need to learn, again and again.

Things Fall Apart - by Chinua Achebe

          Written as an answer to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Achebe wanted everyone to know that the tribes and the communities of Africa, his country is Nigeria, are peoples of complex societies, caring, loving, intellectual human beings who just happen to be different from western cultures. I recently read this with a group of middle school students who at first were a little uncertain about the story. Every thing was “so” strange, yet as they read more of the story of this character Okonkwo, a man and leader in his village, they began to sympathize with him, and became moved by his story. The story also touches because it shares the parables that people live by, and my students delighted in them, loved trying to apply the same “rules” to our own culture. Here is one example, among many other sayings in the beautiful Ianguage of the book: Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten. 

          I do recommend the book to anyone who wants to read a great story, and reading it with students was a pleasure.

Black Dove, White Raven - written by Elizabeth Wein (published end of March)

              Thanks to Net Galley for the arc - Finally I finished this book, and it is not the writing’s

fault. I just have had too little reading time. I sat down to finish Saturday night, and cried a little at the end. No this is not a spoiler, but Wein’s story got me again. If you loved Code Name Verity, you will love this book, too. It begins in the US south, with single mothers, Rhoda and Delia, single mothers in the years before World War II who are stunt pilots in an airshow. Emilia and Teo, the children watching, see their lives changed in a terrible accident. A bird strike brings down the plane and Teo's mother died immediately, but Em's survives. She determined to raise Teo according to his late mother's wishes-in a place where he won't be discriminated against because of the color of his skin.         

              In this time in America, white women don’t usually adopt black sons, so Rhoda seeks a home that might be safer. Her partner, Delia, had always wanted to go to Ethiopia, so that is where they went, and fell in love with that beautiful country. Sadly, they are also there at the beginning of the Italo-Ethiopian war when eventually Haile Selassie had to go into exile. The author’s note is detailed, Wein writing that some say this was the beginning rumblings of World War II. It’s another thrilling, complex story of people Elizabeth Wein makes one care about. Perhaps that is why it took me a long time to read, because I savored every bit. I hope you will too.

Feathers and Fools - written by Mem Fox and illustrated by Nicholas Wilton

            It’s a picture book with a heart-breaking lesson, another point of view, and frightening. I discovered this at my school library, published in 1999, and I’m sorry I've missed it all these years. Really for older students, a flock of swans and a pride of magnificent peacocks become so fearful of each other because of their differences that they destroy each other. The parable text is brief and clear, but there is hope at the end. The illustrations are framed, full page and powerful color.  

Happy Reading Everyone!