LSSL 5361

Book Review

Culture #2

Book #1

Yoon, N. (2016). The sun is also a star. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN 9780385683685

a) The Sun is also a Star tells the story of 17-year-old Jamaican-American Natasha who leaves her family’s home to help her find a way to evade deportation.  The reason for the deportation because her father, after being stopped for a DUI, informed authorities that he and his family were in America illegally.  While speaking to a U.S. Customs and Immigration Service agent; she is directed to meet with an immigration attorney.   At the same time, this was happening; Korean-American Daniel is getting ready to go to an interview with a Yale University.  Daniel decides to take a subway to get ready; where the subway conductor urges his passengers to find GOD, like he just did.  Daniel decides that he will look for signs of God.  During his search for signs; he and Natasha meet for the first time at a record store where they instantly hit it off.  The two are total opposites on their beliefs; where Natasha is more focused on reason, science and logic; and Daniel is more passionate, creative and faithful.  The day goes by, the two spend every moment together.  The learn more about each other and at the same time they begin to positively change each other’s lives.  Daniel decides that it is O.K not to do what his parents want him to do; while Natasha want to find some passion in her life.  By the end of the day they realize that they have fallen in love.  At the end of the day; Natasha calls USCIS to leave thanks and Daniel ends up at his Yale University interview; coincidentally with the Immigration Attorney that Natasha was directed to meet.   Unfortunately, Natasha and her family end up being deported back to Jamaica.  Daniel and Natasha try to keep in touch in hopes of their romance blossoming; but distance hinders this and their love falls apart.  Years later; they accidentally meet and recognize each other.  

b) The Sun is also a Star is a Young Adult novel written by Nicola Yoon.  The book is a contemporary, romance-fiction novel that deals with various questions and issues.   The story looks closely at questions about love, fate, and God. It also tackles race relations and prejudices among ethnic groups that are non-white.  The book is written where the two main protagonists narrate each chapter; with a third person narrator scattered (believed to be God) in between.

c) The following review can be found at https://www.hbook.com/2016/11/choosing-books/review-of-the-week/review-of-the-sun-is-also-a-star/

New York City high school senior Natasha believes in science and rationality. An undocumented immigrant from Jamaica, she and her family are facing immediate deportation thanks to her father’s DUI arrest. Daniel believes in destiny and poetry. Burdened with his Korean-immigrant parents’ expectations, he is appeasing them by applying to Yale, where he will study to become a doctor. But when Natasha’s and Daniel’s paths cross unexpectedly, and repeatedly, over the course of a day, Daniel is convinced: he is experiencing “love at second sight…the feeling when you meet someone that you’re going to fall in love with them.” Soon, it’s a twelve-hour race against the clock: can Daniel get Natasha to fall in love with him before their time together ends? Can Natasha get the help of an immigration lawyer to stay her deportation? And what will happen if she really does have to leave the country that night? The teens’ alternating first-person narrations are fresh and compelling, and interspersed throughout are relevant third-person omniscient musings on various histories, from the past and future histories of some of the book’s secondary characters to the chemical history of love to a quantum theory of multiverses. Fans of Eleanor & Park (rev. 5/13) and The Fault in Our Stars (rev. 3/12) are destined to fall for Daniel and Natasha as quickly as they fall for each other.

From the November/December 2016 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

d) Readers also enjoyed Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven; The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli; Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett; The Names They Gave Us by Emma Mills; and The Twelve Days of Dask and Lily by Rachel Cohn

Book #2

Tate, D., & Christie, R. G. (2012).It jes happened: When Bill Traylor started to draw. New York: Lee & Low Books. ISBN 9781600602603

a) The book tells the story of 85 year old man by the name of Bill Traylor. Bill’s life is examined through the book and the memories he kept deep inside.  The memories shared began when Bill was a slave before the civil war; working the land owned by the Traylor family; to when they were freed after the civil war and decided to stay on the land and share in the profits with their previous owners. We are witness to his life which at age 81 he decided to move to Montgomery where he was able to find a job; but due to his ailments was forced to quit.  His life took a turn for the worse in that he could not get a job to help pay the bills; which caused him to become homeless His life was full of memories; which he used to draw his pictures at 85.  Bill made friends with a young artist by the name of Charles Shannon who supported Bill’s painting by providing him with art supplies.  With the help of Mr. Shannon; Bill’s art work would end up being displayed in galleries. 

b) The picture book is full of pictures that evoke the times during Bill’s life in which he lived as a slave, a family man, and his time in the city.  The pictures help tell the story of the struggles African American men went through before and after the civil war.  The book is marvelously written and illustrated and is one that its readers will find enjoyment and learn a thing or two.  

c) The following review can be found at https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-60060-260-3

In 1939 Montgomery, Ala., 85-year-old former slave Bill Traylor began to draw. In understated prose, Tate imagines the wellspring of memories that might have contributed to Traylor’s outpouring of art so late in life: jumping in the Alabama River as a child, witnessing the Civil War and its aftermath, and caring for animals on the farm where he lived after emancipation: “Bill saved up these memories deep inside.” After the death of his wife, Traylor moved into Montgomery, where, homeless, he began drawing on sidewalks and assorted objects. Soon after, an artist named Charles Shannon took an interest in his work, arranging for an exhibit of Traylor’s work. Christie’s acrylic and gouache illustrations nod toward Traylor’s own style, with bold color blocks and naïf figures, in this thoughtful reflection on the nature of creative inspiration and a man who “has come to be regarded as one of the most important self-taught American folk artists.” 

d) Readers would also like A Splash of Red: The life and art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant; Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton by Don Tate; and Radiant Child: The Story of young artist Jean-Michael Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe

Book #3

Arkhurst, J. C. (1992).The adventures of spider / West African folktales. New York: Little, Brown Young Company. ISBN 9780673817631

a) If you are a fan of spiders; you will want to read this book.  This book tells the you why spiders are the way they are.  Through West African folktales we are able to learn why spiders live in ceilings, are found in dark corners, how they became bald and why they have thin waists.  The reason for thin waste was because Spider was being greedy and wanted to feast on food from two different villages.  But because he was greedy his plan to eat at both festivals back fired and end up becoming thin.  There is also a great story about spider helping the fisherman.  Spider was hoping to be able to eat the fish with little work; but the fisherman ended up out-smarting spider who did all the work and was rewarded very minimally. 

b) The story is an origin story about a spider.  The folktales are rooted in West African folktales.  The reader gets a sense of how these stories are past from generation to generation.  But one of the problems that I see is the reader might have trouble understanding the translations; because they do not seem to follow the rules of the English language. 

c) The following review can be found at: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/it-jes-happened-don-tate/1110792134?ean=9781600602603

The Adventures Of Spider: West African Folktales as retold by Joyce Cooper Arkhurst and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney is a wonderful book of folktales that bring the culture and values of Africa to the reader in a simple yet charming fashion. The collection includes 6 folktales that star Spider, a lazy, yet clever, spider that is always searching for the next easy meal. The stories are told in a simple language that is easy enough for young children to understand but contains powerful messages of community, integrity, and wit. I would recommend this book as a read aloud in 2nd grade through 4th grade classrooms. One lesson that could be derived from the collection is to focus on the culture, specifically the cultural values, of the West African people. These stories are an excellent example of the presence of the culture of the people. Each tale is rich with examples of how West Africans value hard work, community, and integrity. Another lesson could be used in the younger classrooms is to discuss the use of personification. Spider is an actual spider, yet displays many human characteristics and actions in each story. The students could point out examples of how the spider is acting like a person in each story. – Adam Jaison

d) Readers would also enjoy Anansi: The Trickster Spider by Lynne Garner; Firefly Mountain by Patricia Thomas and The Memory String by Eve Bunting

Book #4

Thomas, A. (2017).The Hate U Give. Balzer & Bray/Harperteen. ISBN 9780062498533

a) The book tells the story of 16 year old Starr Carter.  Starr lives in a poor African American neighborhood; but is able to attend a fancy prep school.  While attending a party,  Starr gets a ride home from a childhood friend; when they are stopped by the police.  The police officers force Starr’s friend, Khalil to get out of the car and end up shooting him dead.  The murder of a black male teenager makes national headlines; with the media painting Khalil as a thug, drug dealer, and gang banger.  Needless to say Starr’s neighborhood becomes a war zone with protests happening trying to get the police to investigate the crime.  Starr is thrust in to the national media’s attention when she tries to clear up her friends’ reputation and bring light as to what really happened that fateful night.

b) The story told is one that speaks volumes to the kids.  It is one that most will find relatable to what has been occurring the past couple of years; with police officers shooting and killing innocent young black men.  The story also is similar in that young teen agers must stand up for their rights and begin to create a movement; similar to the teenagers from Parkland High School in Parkland Florida.  Most readers will become emotional especially with end results of the book.

c) The following review can be found at https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/03/the-hate-u-give-angie-thomas-review/521079/

“They finally put a sheet over Khalil. He can’t breathe under it. I can’t breathe.”
The last words of Eric Garner, adopted and amplified by the Black Lives Matter movement, echo again in the early pages of Angie Thomas’s young-adult novel The Hate U Give. By the time she’s 16, Starr Carter, the protagonist of the book, has lost two of her childhood friends to gun violence: one by a gang drive-by, and one by a cop.
As the sole witness to her friend Khalil’s fatal shooting by a police officer, Starr is overwhelmed by the pressure of testifying before a grand jury and the responsibility of speaking out in Khalil’s memory. The incident also means that the carefully built-up boundary between Starr’s two worlds begins to crumble. For years, she has spent her weekdays at a private, majority-white school, where she explains, “I’m cool by default because I’m one of the only black kids there.” Back at home, she lives with her father “Big Mav,” a former gang-member who wants to make their crime-ridden neighborhood a better place, and her mother Lisa, who wants to move away in order to keep her family safe.  Now in its third consecutive week at number one on The New York Times bestseller list for young-adult novels, Thomas’s debut novel offers an incisive and engrossing perspective of the life of a black teenage girl as Starr’s two worlds converge over questions of police brutality, justice, and activism.

This question of appearance versus reality recurs throughout The Hate U Give. Starr, familiar with perceptions of her neighborhood, community, and herself, code-switches to adapt to her environment and others’ expectations. After the shooting, a new narrative—one that paints Khalil as a drug dealer threatening a cop—surfaces, but an emboldened Starr challenges this simplistic framing of her friend. The novel goes on to raise cogent and credible counter-arguments to the flattening narratives often presented by authorities and echoed by many media outlets in shooting cases involving young black males.  As a book written for teens, The Hate U Give reminds readers of just how often racialized violence is carried out against that age group (Michael Brown was 18 when he was killed; Trayvon Martin was 17; and not-yet teen Tamir Rice was 12). And it illustrates how young people of color who might speak out to defend their late friends are unfairly criticized, as happened to Rachel Jeantel when she testified against her friend Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman. Thomas’s novel keenly understands the dangers of defaulting to the cop/vigilante versus “thug” framing device: The deceased get put on trial, rather than their killers.

d) Readers will also enjoy One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus; Turtles All the Way Down by John Green; and This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp