PB Grandfather's Journey

Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey won the Caldecott Medal in 1994.  I love this book particularly because I identify with the grandfather who, by book's end, always feels homesick for somewhere.  When he is in the United States, he misses Japan.  When he is in Japan, he misses the United States.  I really get that.  After spending much of my adult life moving, I have found that sounds, smells and images can often make me "homesick" for somewhere else I have been.  When I'm in Rhode Island, I miss the mountains.  But, when I've lived in the mountains, I missed the ocean.  When I lived in England, I missed the United States, but watching the Olympic coverage makes me long for England.  Whispering pine trees and rainbows transport me to Germany, an extremely hot day makes me long for the cooling water of Barton Springs in Austin, and a perfectly ripe peach takes me to Georgia.  Yup, I "get" what grandfather is saying.  

I can see using this book as a way of beginning a discussion of immigration even though grandfather is not what we think of when we think of the typical immigrant to the United States.  In the first pages of the story, students would have to infer that grandfather is quite wealthy, and this is something that I would use as a topic of discussion.  He doesn't really come to the United States as the "tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be free" that we think of when we think of immigration at the turn of the twentieth century. He comes as a tourist who settles.  How would that change his perception of America?  How many first generation American immigrants would produce a book that is such a lovely tribute to the beauty of a bygone American era?  No tenement buildings here.    

The Crossing by Gary Paulsen

I have been a fan of Gary Paulsen since Dogsong and Hatchet were first published in the 1980's.  These novels have been beloved, particularly by boys, for the last thirty years.  I have also enjoyed Paulsen's nonfiction books like Guts and Puppies, Dogs and Blue Northers, so I was excited to see he had written the novel The Crossing because I am looking for books about immigration.

El Paso and Juarez, separated by the Rio Grande

 I found Manny's story compelling.  An orphaned Mexican boy living on the Juarez border is trying to cross the Rio Grande to the Promised Land.  Sergeant Locke's story was equally compelling; as Vietnam veteran, Locke drank nightly to keep the ghosts of dead comrades from haunting him.  Separately, I found these two stories plausible; however, as the two merge together, I began to be a little disappointed in the plot.  I just didn't believe it.

I don't want to give away the ending for those who might be interesting but suffice it to say that even though the novel ends on a hopeful note, I'm just not that optimistic.

Japanese-American Internment

Cynthia Kadohata wrote Weedflower to honor her father's experiences in the Poston, Arizona internment camp during World War II.  While most middle school students know about the Holocaust, very few know about the infringements on civil rights that occurred right here in the United States.  Most, if not all, of the Japanese living on the West Coast were moved to camps in places like Manzanar or Poston.  Those Japanese who immigrated to the United States were often held in higher security facilities than those who were second or third generation.
     In the novel Sumiko is a young girl farming with her family in California when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.  Sumiko is separated from her grandfather and sent with the rest of her family to Poston.  The conflict in the novel is created partially by the fact that Poston is run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs since it is part of the Hopi reservation.  While this novel paints an interesting portrait of the era, it is not a story that moves along quickly as the plot is a little thin.  Sumiko learns to make friends in the novel and to come to terms with the events that have challenged her family, but these events are not enough to entice me to give this book my highest recommendation.

Butte Camp looking to the Southwest--National Archives

I liked the book; I found its portrayal of the discrimination faced by the Japanese during the war to be sad and, of course, unfair.  However, as my kids say not a lot of "action."  Still, it would be interesting to read this book or a similar one and compare it to the more recent Patriot Act passed after 9/11 when Americans seemed more than wiling to let the government compromise their civil rights in exchange for a greater sense of security.


The National Archives photos of the War Relocation Camps in Arizona provide a nice primary resource to act as a supplement to reading the novel.  The Library of Congress also has a Japanese American Internment lesson plan including oral histories and photographs.  Some of the photos are by famous photographers Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith shows up on lists of modern, minor classics.  While it doesn’t have the stature of To Kill a Mockingbird or Animal Farm, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has stood the test of time and is still relevant reading for mature young adults.  I have finally picked it up, and I’m very glad that I did, since it spoke to my need to read light fiction on hot summer nights.  You won’t find this book as “light” as I did, as it is a book you will find both in YA and adult sections of the library, but I think you will be happy you picked it up. 

The novel is the story of so many of our ancestors, Irish and German Americans growing up in Brooklyn at the turn of the twentieth century.  While not plot heavy (you won’t find a lot of “action” scenes), you will find a fascinating snapshot of working class America at the end of its age of innocence before the first World War.  The story follows one family as the children grow up through their poverty to attain the American Dream and features strong characterizations of all members of the family.  

I particularly liked this book because my own German Irish ancestors lived in Brooklyn.  My great grandmother came from Ireland with her cousin when she was just 16 years old.  She ended up owning a small grocery store in Brooklyn and met my great grandfather, a German American who worked on the construction of the Empire State Building.  

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is definitely a “must read” for sophisticated readers at some point in their reading lives. 

The Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson

Young Meli blames herself for her brother's disappearance despite the fact that ethnic Albanians disappear all the time at the hands of the Serbians.  It's the 1990's in Kosovo, and the Muslim Albanians find themselves as the targets of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.  In this short, but intense novel, the family finds themselves in a refugee camp and eventually as immigrants to Vermont.  Readers will find themselves looking at themes like the effect of hatred and revenge on our lives as well as topics like the Eastern European political situation post-Cold War and how Muslim-Americans fared after the events of 9/11.  A short, but interesting read that will leave many contemporary tweens and teens asking questions about events that took place before they were born.

Recommended age grades 5-8

New Job, New Slant

I have been offered a job teaching 7th grade Language Arts in a small Catholic school here in RI! So, my reading and my blogging will naturally take on a slightly different slant. I am thinking of the books I read in terms of how I can use them in the classroom. Can I read them out loud on Friday afternoons? can I use them in a book group to meet once a month? can a picture book be used as a way to introduce a lesson? how can this poem augment a unit on that genre?

With this in mind, I just finished two books that would fit very well in a seventh grade classroom for a book group as they both are fairly easy to read, have some "meat" to them for discussion but they don't present any themes that are too racy for this highly transitional age. Sixth and seventh grade are ages where students are beginning to wean themselves from the "children's room," but they aren't mature enough for free and unchaperoned access through the wonderful world of young adult literature. Both Finding Stinko by Michael de Guzman and Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate fit the bill for this age group.

Finding Stinko is about Newboy, born into the foster care system that routinely fails to nurture him beyond the basic necessities, and one day, he simply quits speaking. When he lands into a particularly abusive and hypocritical household, he decides to take his chances on the streets.
He discovers a ventriloquist's doll that he names Stinko who begins to speak for him. He discovers a whole society of children on the streets and some of the issues they might encounter. I enjoyed this book, but I wondered if street life wasn't a bit whitewashed for the audience. The end is very hopeful if unrealistic. I would use it as a jumping off point for asking students to finish Newboy's story.

Home of the Brave tells the story of a young boy newly immigrated to the United States from the Sudan after spending time in refugee camps. Kek's brother and father are killed in the fighting, but his mother is missing. This book is brilliant at showing students how refugees might view the United States. However, students will learn almost nothing about the troubles in the Sudan. Since the Sudan is not a big news item, it would be important to introduce this book along with some information about life and current events there.