Bud, Not Buddy (Newbery Medal Winner, 2000)

Amazon.com

"It's funny how ideas are, in a lot of ways they're just like seeds. Both of them start real, real small and then... woop, zoop, sloop... before you can say Jack Robinson, they've gone and grown a lot bigger than you ever thought they could." So figures scrappy 10-year-old philosopher Bud--"not Buddy"--Caldwell, an orphan on the run from abusive foster homes and Hoovervilles in 1930s Michigan. And the idea that's planted itself in his head is that Herman E. Calloway, standup-bass player for the Dusky Devastators of the Depression, is his father.

Guided only by a flier for one of Calloway's shows--a small, blue poster that had mysteriously upset his mother shortly before she died--Bud sets off to track down his supposed dad, a man he's never laid eyes on. And, being 10, Bud-not-Buddy gets into all sorts of trouble along the way, barely escaping a monster-infested woodshed, stealing a vampire's car, and even getting tricked into "busting slob with a real live girl." Christopher Paul Curtis, author of The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963, once again exhibits his skill for capturing the language and feel of an era and creates an authentic, touching, often hilarious voice in little Bud. (Ages 8 to 12) --Paul Hughes

Product Description

It's 1936 Flint, Michigan. Times may be hard, and 10-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy, but Bud's got a few things going for him: 1. He has his own suitcase full of special things; 2. He's the author of 'Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself"; 3. His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: posters of Herman E. Calloway and his band of renown, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression. Bud is sure those posters will lead him to his father. Once he decides to hit the road, nothing can stop him, not hunger, not fear, not would-be vampires, not even Herman E. Calloway himself. Ages 9-12. Paperback - 256 pages.

Customer Reviews:

Bud, Not Buddy.......2007-10-08

Bud Not Buddy Review
Bud Not Buddy is a great book! I would greatly recommend it to any reader. In the book, Bud Not Buddy lives in an orphanage home in Flint Michigan. The orphanage pays people to take care of him and some other people in the orphanage. Then Bud Not Buddy runs away from the orphanage and wanders around, soon meeting one of his friends from the orphanage. His friend and him get separated boarding a train and then Bud Not Buddy thinks he knows who his father is. Bud Not Buddy then sets off on a journey across Michigan to find his father. With a few extra people helping him along the way, Bud Not Buddy travels across Michigan to the Grand Rapids. If you want to know the end, read the book.

Truely Teachable.......2007-09-30

A great book to use for Middle School students in Language Arts or Social Studies Classes!!!

This was a heart wrenching story of a boy who is searching for a father he never knew. He is in a home for boys during the depression era at the beginning of the story, and you learn a lot about the culture at that time.

I found the back of the book most interesting where there is a section about the author's own family history and where the inspiration for some of the characters came from to write this wonderful story.

An enjoyable read for all!

Bud, Not Buddy.......2007-09-16

My 10 year old grandson read this book last year in school.. When Al Roker recommended it for his summer reading club, Carson was sure his cousins would enjoy it.

Sweet book..........2007-08-14

about a boy on the run to find his father. Bud brings a boyish attitude to his struggle in life after his mother dies. The book is sweet and has a great ending.

Bud is my Buddy.......2007-07-05

I liked this book because it was exciting, sad, and happy at different times. This book takes place during the Depression in Flint, Michigan with 10 year old Bud looking for his father after his mom dies. There is a happy ending, but not before Bud has many troubles.

Average customer rating:

Not angry... Just historically honest
Descriptive, emotional, engaging
Wasn't reasonable or logical or comprehensible
Prompt Service
Remarkable, Unforgettable, Invaluable, Candid, Daring, Astounding...

Coming of Age in Mississippi
Anne Moody
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0440314887
Release Date: 1992-01-04

Book Description

Written without a trace of sentimentality or apology, this is an unforgettable personal story -- the truth as a remarkable young woman named Anne Moody lived it. To read her book is to know what it is to have grown up black in Mississippi in the forties an fifties -- and to have survived with pride and courage intact.

In this now classic autobiography, she details the sights, smells, and suffering of growing up in a racist society and candidily reveals the soul of a black girl who had the courage to challenge it. The result is a touchstone work: an accurate, authoritative portrait of black family life in the rural South and a moving account of a woman's indomitable heart.

Customer Reviews:

Not angry... Just historically honest.......2007-07-10

Though I read this book many years ago, I had to strongly disagree with part of the editor's initial characterization of this book as being "angry". Powerful, painful and anxiety producing, yes. Angry, no.

I personally came away with the lasting impression of a very honest and heart-felt description of the events and struggles that shaped Ann Moody's life, and her active participation in the Civil Rights Movement. She describes beautifully the fears and pains felt by communities during tragic events such as the murder of the young Emmett Till, and injects the intensity felt by the leaders of the Movement, including MLK Jr., as they constantly tried to dodge authorities.

I strongly believe, and echo other reviewer's opinions, that every High School and young college student should be required to read this book.

Descriptive, emotional, engaging.......2007-03-20

Thus a civil rights advocate was born.

I read this book seven years ago, on a whim, because I was wanting to understand why Southerners were especially proud of their heritage when there was so much suffering among its own people, especially its blacks.

Ann Moddy lived a life that most whites would be ashamed of, but that many blacks endured. This is a part of American history that mainstreem history books seldom cover in any detail and leave to the "Black Studies" department.

Moody lived her life struggling for identity, struggling for change, struggling for advancement. She made something of herself and has never looked back. (I read somewhere that she doesn't like to talk about her growing-up years and has lived a life of seclusion.). She can only be admired for what she has made of herself.

Moody never once expresses hurt. All she wanted was justice for all. She left Mississippi with more than a tinge of anger.

This book should be required reading for all social studies classes. It is engrossing without being sentimental or overly emotional (and it certainly is not "girly" at all.) For anyone, regardless of color, gender or legal status, this should be a must-read.

Wasn't reasonable or logical or comprehensible.......2007-03-05

I quit early on and here's why.
Anne's mother leaves her 6 month old infant and Anne (who is "almost 4") in the hands of her (anne's mother) 8 y/o brother, then later her 12y/o brother, for 12+ hours every day. According to Anne they never took care of them and in fact took off as soon as her parents were out of sight.
Who's feeding the 6 month old for those 12+ hours? They were living on a farm with lots of other black families. Surely the women had some kind of communal child care system going. Where's the wet nurse? I don't believe it.

Same happens with the next infant. Mom's never home. All male babysitters. One male adult would take all three kids (ages 5, 2.5 and a little over a year old) HUNTING with him in the swamps! I don't believe it. I don't believe Anne Moody.

How is it that Anne goes to school at age 5 but her mom's 8 y/o and 12y/o brothers don't?
In Anne Moody's story the boys and some men stayed home and babysat while the girls go to school/work. Now I always thought it was just the opposite. Girls usually stayed home and tended to their younger siblings, cleaned, cooked etc., while the boys if they didn't go to school, worked along side the men.

How is it that little 5 y/o Anne walks 2 miles up and 2 miles back to school everyday all by herself. Just try and picture that in your mind. A tiny little threadbare 5 y/o girl all alone walking 4 miles a day in the rain, humid heat or cold. Then hiding in the schools outhouse for as long as she can because she doesn't like school or the teacher! I don't see it. I don't believe it. Four miles is nothing for a healthy adult/teen/kid but a 5 y/o "baby"? I don't think they'd have the mind to do it nor the legs.

How is it that when Anne is 6 and back at school, her mom just leaves the 3.5 y/o and 1.5 y/o all by themselves, all day at the house, no babysitter? I don't believe it. Was Anne's mother mentally retarded? They're living in town at this time. What about the neighbors, friends or church? Women have always gotten together to help care for the children?

The story just wasn't adding up so I quit. Sorry.

I also don't believe the memoirs of Augusten Burroughs "Running with Scissors" etc. and Mary Karr "The Liars' Club".

Prompt Service.......2007-02-28

I do not have any complaints about Amazon.com service. I got my book on time and in the conditions stated on the site. I am very satisfied. The book is a great addition for my library and it is very helpful for my classes in college.

Remarkable, Unforgettable, Invaluable, Candid, Daring, Astounding..........2007-01-29

This book is one of the the best books to help you to REALLY understand the Civil Rights Movement and what it meant to be black in the south during that era. Anne Moody lets the reader into her life in a remarkable way and helps her audience comprehend what the south was like (not only for the black population, but for black women as well) and why Civil Rights workers, like herself, put up with so much for their cause. It is very hard for me to put into words what a great book this is-it will open your eyes to history even if you don't like history or reading I guarantee you will LOVE this book! Definitely a MUST READ.

Other books that compliment this book well, if you're interested in the subject are: Passing, Quicksand, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

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A Gentle Read
Waiting For A Memory...
They call you again and again

Geronimo
Joseph Bruchac
Manufacturer: Scholastic Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0439353602

Book Description

"He held up his right hand to show how his third finger was bent back from being struck by a bullet. Then he thumped his palm against his chest, his shoulder, his thigh, touching places where bullets and knives had pierced his flesh...where scars showed how hard it was to kill Geronimo..." After years of standing against the U.S. government, the great warrior and spiritual leader Geronimo's life is coming to an end, as his grandson visits him where he is imprisoned, in Fort Sill, OK in 1908.

Customer Reviews:

A Gentle Read.......2007-09-21

Okay, call me easy to please. I loved this book. I love historical fiction anyway. I loved the chapter headings which were excerpts from historical documents. I loved the point of view --grandchildren tend to love their grandparents unconditionally. The feeling of the great respect that the author has for Geronimo comes through loud and clear. How can reading about a people being forced into exile be boring? It was heartbreaking. For me, there was a sense of relief once Geronimo was reunited with some of his wives and children. The telling of this story taught me a few of the more obscure facts of the "Indian Wars" such as the fact that Chiricahua Apaches "prisoners of war" were encouraged to join the Army but upon their honorable discharges, they weren't allowed back into the prisoner of war camps (relocation centers such as Mount Vernon, Alabama) because as former soldiers, they were no longer prisoners of war and then unable rejoin their families. The book was a tender view of a man the world likes to see in anything but a tender way.

Five Stars.

Waiting For A Memory..........2006-08-01

Geronimo was a legendary figure in American culture, and during the last half of his lifetime, a tourist attraction wherever he went. And while Joseph Bruchac's novel GERONIMO describes this vividly, he also paints a portrait of a real man. Told through the eyes of "Little Foot" or "Willie" this fictional grandchild of Geronimo is responsible for passing on his legacy through the stories he shares.

"Remember That is what I now do. I tell the story as best I can. With each line of my tale I will place a kernel of corn on the ground. Then, when I am done, that corn will be there for you to pick up. Eat it and this story may stay with you as it has stayed with me. Do not fall asleep, or the story may be broken, as were our lives. Listen" (5).

While it doesn't follow strictly chronological guidelines, the main story takes place between 1883 and 1908. The heart of the story is the imprisonment of the Apache Indians--yes, I know there is a more descriptive, more accurate name, and their exile from their land in Arizona. They were deported by train, under guard, to camps and forts in Alabamba and Florida. The train carrying Geronimo became a tourist attraction at every stop along the way, and a money-making venture.

"'They are waiting for a memory,' Wratten said to me as we passed slowly by yet another great crowd of waving, shouting people. 'They want to be able to tell their children they saw Geronimo.'" (78)

The memories they make for themselves in their new homes were anything but pleasant. Full of hard work, sadness, depression, and disease--their camps were prone to malaria--they were often separated from their families...wives from husbands, and children from parents. Many children were sent to a school in Pennsylvania where many became sick with tuberculosis and died.

Woven into the stories of hardships and broken promises, are stories of the past both pleasant and bittersweet. Their days of peace and contentment, and their days of battle fighting the Mexicans and Americans.

Beautifully written, I hope this book finds its audience because it is a truly memorable book.

They call you again and again.......2006-03-15

By and large, you shouldn't start a review of a book by saying that you, the reviewer, are an idiot. Just the same, I am an idiot. Why am I an idiot? Because I'm fairly certain that I've been walking around as a full-fledged children's librarian, all my credentials in place, while thinking that Joseph Bruchac was Michael Dorris. This is a pretty good litmus test of idiocy. Just now, JUST now, I went to Amazon.com to confirm that Bruchac had written, "Sees Behind Trees". Imagine my shock when I discovered that for years now I've been giving credit to the wrong danged guy. Now I did read and enjoy Bruchac's, "A Boy Called Slow" years and years ago, but that does little to offset my embarrassment. In any case, I've read a Bruchac book now and I've come away with it with mixed feelings. Telling the tale of the great Geronimo's life through the eyes of a fictional grandson, Bruchac has meticulously researched and lovingly drawn a portrait of this impressive figure. His book is full of factual information and heartbreaking detail and life. Unfortunately, the first half makes for a very dry read. If kids can get through it and proceed on to the second, they'll find themselves more than adequately rewarded by the tale's end. A great but mixed read.

Little Foot was adopted as a kind of grandson to the great warrior Geronimo when his parents were killed in a Mexican raid many years ago. Over time he has stood by his Apache people, finally standing down to the American army when Geronimo surrenders with the feeling that they should fight no more. En masse the Apaches are taken from their homes in Arizona and sent by train to Florida as prisoners of war. Through Little Foot's eyes we see the history and betrayal of the Apache people. Their inordinate trust in a white government bent on their destruction. How they watched as their children were sent far far away to the infamous Carlisle Indian School (and subsequently killed by the school's diseases). Finally, we view Geronimo's life in Fort Sill, Oklahoma and his constant yearning to return home. Jumping backwards and forwards in time, readers get a well-rounded view of Geronimo's life and a better understanding of the circumstances surrounding the lies people told (and still tell) about him.

The book is an excellent antidote to such ill-prepared Native American titles as, "My Heart Is On the Ground" and its ilk. With Bruchac you are in safe hands. Well-researched and fairly bursting with an overabundance of factual information, the story is fiction but it reads like fact. The author knows enough to write some humor, even in the bleakest of moments, into the tale. Better still, you really do come to care for Geronimo and Little Foot. Even the magical realism, which is a bit off-putting in such a realistic novel, is handled with grace. Now there are problems with this book, but they aren't simple mistakes. I dare say Bruchac never puts a word out of place or a sentence out of alignment. What he says is always the best way OF saying something. Unfortunately, I didn't think it all needed to be said. Put in plain English, the book bored me sometimes. We're watching a story that begins when Geronimo and his people step onto a train that is taking them far far from their home. It ends when his grandson returns to his tribe and Geronimo at long last. In between, however, Bruchac has a hard time with continuity. That's facetious of me to say. Of course he knows exactly what he's doing. It just doesn't happen to work. What the book does, right from the beginning, is engage in constant shifts between the present, the past, and the future (if you deem the train time "the present"). Not only is this confusing but it draws out a story that could be more fascinating than it's presented. The train details are great. The stories of Geronimo's life are great. But when you get to page 174 and the characters are STILL on the train, you begin to worry that the action will remain permanently bogged down. It doesn't, of course. Halfway through the book it picks up and makes for a great read. It's just that first half that's the difficult slog.

Also, it's very difficult to care for a book when after every happy moment you have to deal with a chapter that closes with a variation on, "What they did ended up sending us all on this endless train journey toward the dawn, a journey that would have no destination for many of us other than disease, despair, and death". Even when it looks like things are perking up or that the Apache might have a little happiness in store, that hope is swiftly crushed with lines like, "I did not know how wrong I was". Obviously this isn't a happy-go-lucky tale and Bruchac DOES balance his woe with as much cheer as he can honestly muster. Though some Indians were sent to Florida in trains without even so much as bathroom facilities (a fact Little Foot is careful to mention), Bruchac mentions this and then gives his own characters slightly better fare. There are funny stories here and amusing anecdotes and jokes. I just wish a little more care could have been taken with the countless bleak chapter closing sentences.

But in the end the book rises above such flaws. I would certainly not hand it to any reluctant readers and you should not purchase this title under the mistaken apprehension that it's a non-fiction biography. Bruchac notes right there on the cover that it's a novel. It's often painful, often heartbreaking, and always interesting. It takes an especially skilled author to bring together a story based on real life that has as great a sense of closure as "Geronimo". Bruchac is so skilled. And then some.

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I T CAME TO PASS
Repetition Galore
Warriors Don't Cry
"With All Deliberate Speed . . ."
Very good book

Warriors Don't Cry (Archway Paperback)
Melba Patillo Beals
Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0671899007

Book Description

You've gotta learn to defend yourself. Never let your enemy know what you are feeling.
-- The soldier assigned to protect Melba

Please, God, let me learn how to stop being a warrior. Sometimes I just need to be a girl.
-- Melba's diary, on her sixteenth birthday

In 1957 Melba Pattillo turned sixteen. That was also the year she became a warrior on the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board Education, she was one of nine teenagers chosen to integrate Little Rock's Central High School. This is her remarkable story.

You will listen to the cruel taunts of her schoolmates and their parents. You will run with her from the threat of a lynch mob's rope. You will share her terror as she dodges lighted sticks of dynamite, and her pain as she washes away the acid sprayed into her eyes. But most of all you will share Melba's dignity and courage as she refuses to back down.

Customer Reviews:

I T CAME TO PASS.......2007-08-13

sO MUCH OUR RACE OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN THROUGH , AND THE BOOK TELLS A LOT OF THE TRIUMPHS WE WENT THROUGH, AND STILL SOME OF THOSE THINGS STILL ARE GOING ON TODAy. So the title it came to pass is the right title because god said in his word nothing but the rightous.

Repetition Galore.......2007-07-05

Melba Pattillo Beals' "Warriors Don't Cry" was amateur at best. While the purpose of the memoir is inspiring, Beals just appeared to be a broken record.

Upon reading other reviews, I thought this memoir was going to be heartbreaking and inspiring. Yet as I began to read, a pattern developed. The book dragged on and on yet there seemed to be no progression. I found myself void of emotion throughout the whole recount. Needless to say, this was a disappointment, and extremely poorly written.

Warriors Don't Cry.......2007-06-27

We are coming up on the 50th anniversary of the integration of Central High in Little Rock. This book is written by one of the courageous students who braved a racist mob to claim the equality and justice we are all promised in a democracy. The photographs of one student, Elizabeth Eckford, facing the abusive and threatening crowds became iconic, part of history and public memory. What is not as well known is what life was like for the nine students inside the school everyday. Everyday they were threatened, physically attacked, suffered abusive language and attitudes from the white, segregationist students. The author, Melba Patillo Beals, is an extraordinary writer, storyteller and she is blazingly honest. As a way of celebrating July 4th, read this book and give it to every young person over the age of 10 that you know.

"With All Deliberate Speed . . .".......2007-05-15

Melba Joy Pattillo Beals was at the heart of a vortex of history as one of the "Little Rock Nine" who integrated Arkansas' preeminent public school in 1957. In the wake of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, "Brown v. Board of Education," schools throughout the United States were ordered to integrate "with all deliberate speed."

Violent opposition to the integration of Central High led to the garrisoning of Little Rock by the 101st Airborne Division, the first (and thus far only) active-engagement use of Federal troops in the South since Reconstruction.

Ms. Beals (now a journalist) has a journalist's eye as she recalls her experiences at Central High that year. Drawing on her memories and on the copious and detailed diaries she kept, Ms. Beals puts us right into her well-shined saddle shoes, and right into the halls of Central.

At first glance, Melba Pattillo would have seemed to be the wrong sort of person to be on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. At fifteen, she was a girl given to romantic daydreams, a girl seemingly perfectly content to listen to Buddy Holly on the radio while cuddling with her stuffed animal collection amidst her flouncy white comforter and matching pillows.

But deep inside, Melba Pattillo had a core of steel. Her mother held an advanced degree in Education, and her gentle, stern, and unyielding Grandmother India had an unshakeable faith both in God, and in Melba, a faith which she transmitted almost by osmosis to her granddaughter---"God's warriors don't cry, child."

If other members of Melba's family and community did not share these ideas, ideals, and values, at least they all understood that this remarkable young lady (and her eight fellow classmates) was doing something that needed to be done, something that portended a sea change in the world.

But for all the fine rhetoric, life at Central was a hell of crowded corridors, shadowy stairwells, and constant terror. From day one, avowed segregationists in the school, in the community, and in the government (including Governor Orval Faubus) tried to break the back of the integration by means foul and fouler. Adult members of Little Rock's White Citizens Council educated their charges at Central in the ways and means of torture.

Anyone stunned by the constant reports of current-day "violence in our schools" will be shattered by Ms. Beals' seemingly endless recitation of the horrors inflicted upon the Little Rock Nine in the halls of Central High. Being cursed at, spat upon, and called a "N****r" was nothing much; open threats with weapons, violent beatings and stompings, stabbings, scaldings with near-boiling hot water, dousings with unspeakable liquids, strangulations, attempts at immolation, and acid sprays in the eyes were commonplace. These were not just hurtful acts. They were often life-threatening, and the passivity (or even gleeful acquiescence) of most of the CHS school officials in the face of such ongoing abuse of these children put in their care is enough to enrage the reader.

The lack of direct adult interest in what the Little Rock Nine were going through is paralyzing to consider. Little was done to protect them, even by their supporters. The 101st was pulled out of Little Rock in a deal brokered by Beltway Bandits, and what was actually happening to the Little Rock Nine was abstract to the politicians. The price these nine black teens paid for our freedom is beyond valuation.

And if the constancy of the violence portrayed in the telling of the tale somewhat blunts the reader's emotions after a time, it is harder to feel blunted when Melba Beals talks about the wrenching changes that went on within herself. Her fame (or notoriety among segregationists) meant that her home became a fortress-prison from which she could rarely escape. Drive-by shootings and bomb threats kept most of the lifelong friends she had made among "our people" (as she calls the blacks in her community) far away, and she was not invited to parties and outings. Holidays passed without the usual gaggle of friends and relations. The sad retelling of her unattended Sweet Sixteen Party is a heartbreaking moment in time, and her sorrow still reaches across the years to touch the reader.

But there are the finer moments as well: Every day spent at Central is at the end a day of victory; her meetings with remarkable men such as Thurgood Marshall are treasured moments in her life; her gratitude to the brave men of the 101st Airborne and the task they undertook to uphold the law of the land just so a girl could go to school where she chose, is inspiring; her first few tentative friendships with some white Central High students gives us cause for hope. Melba Pattillo traded her childhood for adulthood too soon, and her innocence for a hard-honed survival instinct by force.

We live in a far different society today, and in part that is due to Melba Beals. We can thank whatever Spirit moves us that she was given the talent to write this incredible memoir. This is an essential read.

Very good book.......2007-03-30

I loved this book. It was very sad to hear about all the hardships that the 9 students had to endure to integrate Central High. I think it made them better people and I feel sorry that they had to go through those things. The description used by Melba Pattillo Beals was excellent and very useful when you were trying to get a feel for how they felt. You almost felt as if you were there with them and were going through the same things. I would definetly recommend this book to other readers. I would avise that the reader be a little bit older so that they can understand the things that the blacks were going through. Other than being a harsh book because of the things that needed to be describe it was an amazing book.

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Internment
A Strong Portrayal of Life for Japanese Immigrants during WWII
Excellent for kids and adults!
WeedFlower Student Review
Great Second Novel

Weedflower
Cynthia Kadohata
Manufacturer: Atheneum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0689865740

Book Description

Twelve-year-old Sumiko feels her life has been made up of two parts: before Pearl Harbor and after it. The good part and the bad part. Raised on a flower farm in California, Sumiko is used to being the only Japanese girl in her class. Even when the other kids tease her, she always has had her flowers and family to go home to.

That all changes after the horrific events of Pearl Harbor. Other Americans start to suspect that all Japanese people are spies for the emperor, even if, like Sumiko, they were born in the United States! As suspicions grow, Sumiko and her family find themselves being shipped to an internment camp in one of the hottest deserts in the United States. The vivid color of her previous life is gone forever, and now dust storms regularly choke the sky and seep into every crack of the military barrack that is her new "home."

Sumiko soon discovers that the camp is on an Indian reservation and that the Japanese are as unwanted there as they'd been at home. But then she meets a young Mohave boy who might just become her first real friend...if he can ever stop being angry about the fact that the internment camp is on his tribe's land.

With searing insight and clarity, Newbery Medal-winning author Cynthia Kadohata explores an important and painful topic through the eyes of a young girl who yearns to belong. Weedflower is the story of the rewards and challenges of a friendship across the racial divide, as well as the based-on-real-life story of how the meeting of Japanese Americans and Native Americans changed the future of both.

Customer Reviews:

Internment.......2007-07-10

I really liked Weedflower, as it as very descriptive about lfe for Japanese-Americans bfore and after Pearl Harbor. It would be nice if Cynthia Kaohata wrote a sequel, too.

-Emma D. (for a school project)

A Strong Portrayal of Life for Japanese Immigrants during WWII.......2007-02-19

Weedflower is told from the perspective of Sumiko, a young girl born to a Japanese immigrant family in the U.S. during World War II. Weedflower chronicles the treatment of Sumiko's family, as the older men not born in the U.S. are shipped off to a virtual prison, and the rest of the family is sent to a detention camp in the desert. Their property, not to mention their dignity, are stripped away because of fear caused by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Sumiko, however, maintains hope through her passion for growing flowers.

This book is written in a simple, easily accessible style, but tells an important story. Although set in the 1940's, Weedflower carries implications for today, in how we treat people of Muslim descent. The story is a window into what it's like for people to be mis-treated, at the hands of their own country, simply because of their ethnicity. It shows how unfair and greedy people, including the government, can be (as when the Japanese were forced to sell their possessions for pennies on the dollar). It also illustrated what can happen to people when their rights, and their ability to strive for success, are taken away. Some of the children run wild, and steal things. Some of the young men give up hope, and lie around all day. Here is an example of the boredom and hopelessness of the camp overtaking Sumiko:

"Sumiko felt the ultimate boredom closing in on her. The ultimate boredom wasn't dread of the next year or of what the government might do next; it was dread of your own mind, dread of the next day, the next hour, the next minute. You could lose your mind at any time. Like one morning, for no good reason, Sumiko actually stomped on a butterfly that landed in the dust. After she moved her foot, she saw the squished bitterly and wondered what had come over her. She hadn't thought about it beforehand, but had just suddenly stomped on the poor butterfly. She figured maybe she'd had a sudden attack of the ultimate boredom, and then when she'd seen the dead butterfly she snapped out of it."

There are examples of non-Japanese Americans who do the right thing, too. A young woman volunteers to teach the Japanese kids at the internment camp, despite difficult surroundings. A woman takes time to write to the Japanese woman whose house she is now living, to let the Japanese woman know that the other woman is taking good care of her dog. The Japanese woman sobs with happiness. Christmas presents are donated to the detention camp for the kids. The examples stand out, like the flowers that the Japanese grow from the dusty ground of their camp.

The characterization in Weedflower is quite strong. Many of the characters, especially Sumiko, her friend Frank, and her cousin Bull, feel real. Their characters are mostly revealed through action, rather than being described. This is especially true of Bull, Sumiko's quiet, strong cousin, who intervenes when he see the opportunity, to keep things running smoothly.

A scene that I think will resonate with kids occurs early in the book, before the family is sent to a detention camp. Sumiko, the only Japanese girl in her class at school, is excited to be invited to her first birthday party. She dresses up, and her uncle spends precious money for her to buy a present. However, when the parents at the party learn that she's Japanese, they quietly and politely ask her to leave. Here is what Sumiko thought afterward:

"Like anyone, Sumiko had known momentarily embarrassing moments, but right now she felt so overwhelmingly humiliated that it was as if nothing in her life would ever be the same again, as if everything she did -- disbudding flowers, heating the water, cooking rice -- would be different from now on. In the future, she wouldn't be Sumiko who was disbudding flowers, she would be Humiliated Sumiko disbudding flowers. She wouldn't be Sumiko heating water and cooking rice, she would be Humiliated Sumiko heating water and cooking rice. And right at this moment she wasn't just Sumiko sitting along on the bench, she was Humiliated Sumiko."

Overall, I think that Weedflower is strong on theme and character, and a detailed portrayal of life among Japanese immigrants during World War II. It's an enjoyable read, but it doesn't have a strong "what happens next?" sort of plot. I think that it's a book that adults will like, and that some kids will enjoy, but that others may find a bit slow-paced.

This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on February 17, 2007.

Excellent for kids and adults!.......2007-01-16

I "read" this book on CDs in the car and loved it. Ordered it for my grandkids, 8 and 10, and for friends of Japanese descent! Highly recommended as an important bit of history most Americans know little about!

WeedFlower Student Review.......2006-12-07

We don't agree that Weedflower deserve four and a half stars. We all agree giving Weedflower 3 stars. We recommend this book to people who want know what happen to the Japanese during World War 2. We didn't like the beginning of the book because it started with 1, 2, and 3. This book grabs our attention because it gave a lot of information but we won't gibe it 5 starts because we did it like the ending we did it know what happen to Frank or Sumiko but we till like the book.

Great Second Novel.......2006-08-01

Cynthia Kadohata's first novel, Kira-Kira, was an impressive book. And Weedflower is equally impressive. This time the novel is set in the Southwest before and during World War II. Sumiko is a typically happy twelve-year old. While she feels awkward that she's the only Japanese-American in her class at school, she has not yet felt the harsh stings of discrimination...until a vicious birthday party. Soon after, I believe the same weekend, Pearl Harbor is bombed. Her normal life vanishes, no more school...no more social life...only fear and anxiety as they wait to see what will become of them all.

It is a very heart-felt story of one girl's experiences in a Japanese-American internment camp. Definitely recommend it to everyone!

A Land Remembered, Vol. 1 (Student Edition)

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A Must Read Book for any age.
Early Florida Saga

A Land Remembered, Vol. 1 (Student Edition)
Patrick Smith
Manufacturer: Pineapple Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1561642231

Product Description

Florida's favorite historical novel, now available in a student edition. Broken into two volumes to facilitate classroom use. Adult language/situations made suitable for ages nine and up. Volume One covers the first generation of MacIveys to arrive in Florida and Zech's coming of age in the Florida country.

Customer Reviews:

A Must Read Book for any age........2007-05-03

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I could not put it down. This book should be required reading in all Florida schools.

Early Florida Saga.......2006-10-15

It's easy to see why almost every reviewer gave this book 5 stars. The story follows the MacIvey family from 1863 through three generations to the present. As they scratch out a hardscrabble living, the reader follows their experiences during the Civil War, and through Florida's pioneer days.
Immerse yourself in their struggle to build a home, drive cattle to market, start orchards, deal with rustlers, wild animals, life and death in Central Florida.
You learn so much about Florida's early landscape and the damage done by settlement, as well as the effect on the Native Americans. Some of the homespun life reminds me of Rawling's classic, The Yearling. I highly recommend it, not just for Floridians, but for everyone to know more about their country's development in this unique region. The story is compelling.

Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment

Average customer rating:

still holds up
Manzanar - Japanese - California Desert
Chavez, Carlos, and Elsie's Reviews
Internment Camp
japanese

Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston , and James D. Houston
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0553272586
Release Date: 1983-03-01

Book Description

Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when her family was uprooted from their home and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp--with 10,000 other Japanese Americans. Along with searchlight towers and armed guards, Manzanar ludicrously featured cheerleaders, Boy Scouts, sock hops, baton twirling lessons and a dance band called the Jive Bombers who would play any popular song except the nation's #1 hit: "Don't Fence Me In."

Farewell to Manzanar is the true story of one spirited Japanese-American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced detention . . . and of a native-born American child who discovered what it was like to grow up behind barbed wire in the United States.

Download Description

The U.S. government's internment of 120,000 Asian Americans in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 is a thorny era that many Americans have chosen to ignore. Farewell to Manzanar is a factual narrative by Jeanne Toyo Wakatsuki and James D. Houston that follows Jeanne, her family, and 30,000 other Asian Americans along a three-decade-long journey of silent denial and racial degradation.

Customer Reviews:

still holds up.......2007-09-28

i read this book when i was about 11 and purchased it for my 12 yr old son last month. he loved it as much as i did. loves to read, loves world war ii history and had no idea that the u s had holding camps for u s citizens of japanese descent. started a diolog with his g'pa, s f born and bred, about japanese americans he'd known as a child who were imprisoned. should be required reading for all

Manzanar - Japanese - California Desert.......2007-06-12

This is the greatest film depicting life in the Manzanar camp in the California desert. It should teach us all about prejudice and where it brings us.

Chavez, Carlos, and Elsie's Reviews.......2007-05-30

Farewell to Manzanar is a novel about a girl and her family going into an internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
This book is very well written. It explains the struggles that many Japanese people went through during World War Two and Pearl Harbor during the early 1940s. This books states how it was like to be Japanese inside an interment camp and the uncertainty of what was going to happen the next day. This book is based on one main thing, oppression. It is a novel based on oppression because there is negative power being used by the government for only one specific social group or race, which in this case are Japanese people. The main characters in this book are the father who is taken away from his family by the government and his family, who is not sure when he is coming back. The mother is a strong, independent woman during the novel and Kiyo, who is the little brother, is always trying to make someone laugh. Finally there is Martha, who is the girl telling the family's story.

Overall, I think this is a good book to read because you get to see what Japanese Americans' experiences were like in internments camps and what it felt like to not know what was going on or coming next. -by Carlos

Martha remembers lots of things, but this one she will never forget. She remembers it was December and there had to be about 20-25 boats bombed in Pearl Harbor. Her dad is taken away from her house, because the U.S wants to get information from all Japanese Americans to check and see if they are responsible for Pearl Harbor.

In my opinion, this girl suffered more than anyone I know, because she loses everything. She loses her dad, her family, and also her house. There is nothing left for her. I've never seen my dad, but I would hate to have seen him then lose him. Her family is taken to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp. She is with them, but not living the way she wants to. She is with her brother and mother in the camp. She loses her house, because the U.S thinks she is potentially responsible for Pearl Harbor, or has something to do with it. Overall, I think this book is very good because it gives you very good details on how a little girl experiences a traumatic event at a young age. -by Chavez

A Farewell to Manzanar is a very well written book. It is about a little Japanese girl and what her family had to go through during three years in the Japanese interment camp, Manzanar. There are things she loses like her dad, her house, and her personal belongings. While she is in the interment camp, she goes to school. She has to get permission from parents to spend time with their children while in the camp. Her dad gets taken because the FBI finds evidence that the father has been giving Japan fuel and oil. They are wrong, but just like that, take him away.

Its really interesting reading what the little Japanese girl has to go through in the interment camp. She stands strong even though her dad is taken away. Even though she suffers, she still keeps on strong. It's a good example that even though things might seem hard, there is always a solution for everything. -by Elsie

Internment Camp.......2007-04-23

Jeanne is only seven years old and living in California when Pearl Harbor is attacked. Her parents were from Japan but had been living in the United States for most of their lives. Jeanne and her eight older siblings had all been born in this country and raised as English-speaking Americans. Jeanne's father is now a fisherman who owns two of his own fishing boats. Their family is moderately successful.

All of their success and security ends when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. All of a sudden, people begin looking at Japanes Americans, who are not allowed to become citizens, as the enemy. The American government is terrified that people of Japanese background will pass secrets to the Japanese who are attacking us, so the government takes rights away from anyone who has Japanese blood.

Jeanne's family is considered a particular danger, because they live on the west coast and they fish. They are no longer allowed to fish. Their boats are confiscated. They are then sent to Manzanar, a relocation camp further inland, where thousands of Japanese Americans are sent to live in a fenced-in area until the war is over.

When they first arrive at Manzanar, things are pretty bad. The barracks have been hastily constructed and do not do much to keep out the cold or the dust swirling all around. They are not large enough for families to live comfortably. The food that is served is almost inedible, because the people planning the meals have no concept of what Japanese people eat. Worst of all, though, is the knowledge of the people living there that their government doesn't trust them.

Jeanne and her family are forced to live at this camp for years. This book is an honest look at what the camp was like and what effect it had on Jeanne's family to be stationed there.

I liked that Jeanne doesn't portray her family as perfect. They have as many problems as any other family, and her father is especially flawed. Before I read this book I didn't know much about the Japanese camps, so it was interesting for me to get to know a whole new aspect of the war that isn't discussed as much as the things happening overseas.

This was one person's story, which is both a strength and a weakness. It offers a first-hand account of day to day life, but it lacks in well-rounded historical information. I would like to have know what the government's reasoning was, and how the authorities justified keeping these people locked up for so long.

japanese.......2007-04-19

when i read this book i cried because the americans were fighting against the germans who were doing horific things to the jews and the americans do that to american citizens who are japanese. i'm japanese but an american citizen.

Dragon's Gate (Golden Mountain Chronicles, 1867)

Average customer rating:

Discovery and Adventure in the Dragon's Gate
worst book i have ever read!
Nourhan's Review
Dragon's Gate - An Image of Poetry
Dragon Gate - A Clash of Cultures

Dragon's Gate (Golden Mountain Chronicles, 1867)
Laurence Yep
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0064404897
Release Date: 2001-01-23

Book Description

In 1867, Otter travels from Three Willows Village in China to California -- the Land of the Golden Mountain. There he will join his father and uncle.

In spite of the presence of family, Otter is a stranger among the other Chinese in this new land. And where he expected to see a land of goldfields, he sees only vast, cold whiteness. But Otter's dream is to learn all he can, take the technology back to the Middle Kingdom, and free China from the Manchu invaders.

Otter and the others board a machine that will change his life -- a train for which he would open the Dragon's Gate.

Customer Reviews:

Discovery and Adventure in the Dragon's Gate.......2007-10-10

The Chinese culture has always been fascinated by dragons. They have many sculptures, drawings and stories about dragons. The book Dragon Keeper is no exception. It is about a slave girl who befriends a dragon and goes out on a quest to get to a mystical place called Ocean.

The story starts with a lowly slave girl living on a mountain in the far borders of the Han Empire (which was the ruling force back then in China.) The girl lives with the Imperial Dragon Keeper, her master, Lan. It was Lan's job to take care of the imperial dragons, but he got lazy and the slave girl took his job and took care of the beasts. Then, when one of the two last dragons die, the girl feels remorse and starts to take better care of the last one. Then, one day, the girl is forced to escape with the dragon, when an evil dragon hunter finds her and the dragon out.

During the long journey to Ocean, the girl learns her name, befriends people (who turn into her enemies), and fights villains. The book was very enjoyable because of its excitement when you didn't know what was going to happen next. The riddles sometimes go unsolved in the book, which I really didn't like, but if you do solve them it makes you want to read it more. Over all, the book was pretty good, and if you like dragons or the Chinese culture, you should get the book. Dragon Keeper had many mysteries and surprises around every corner, so stay close to the dragons, but keep away from the tigers.

worst book i have ever read!.......2006-11-28

This book is officialy the most boring and worst book that i have ever read. I didnt find any part of this book exciting or good. The whole thing was boring. I had to read this book for school with a group of 5 or 6 other people. Every single person in the group hated the book. I hated this book.

Nourhan's Review.......2006-04-30

Dragon's Gate is a truly enlightening book that I have had the pleasure of reading. Both the plot and the excellently mastered figurative language in this novel make it a great book to read. Laurence Yep has beyond the doubt mastered the art of personification, transforming inanimate objects into living and breathing things. Although figurative language is a valuable asset to any story, it alone cannot alone create a page turner. That's where an elaborately planned out storyline based on non-fictional information and events that occurred in history play a major role. This gives a flavor of reality to the story making it all the more enjoyable.

Laurence Yep begins off his novel by sweeping the reader away into the exotic orients of a land known as the Middle Kingdom (now known as China). We look through the eyes of a wealthy young man with what some may consider a dark past. An outcast at his own home, Otter truly seeks acceptance and struggles to find his own identity in a world built on racial discrimination. We follow Otter through the darkest and brightest of days and gradually grow close to this novel's protagonist as we find that we can relate to him in many different ways. This is the main reason I that I (personally) found this novel so compelling.

I would recommend this book to readers with exceptional reading skills (grade 6 and up) in order to really appreciate the excellent figurative language used in the story. I would also recommend this book to people who are unfamiliar to the abuse and mistreatment that the Chinese faced while building the transcontinental railroad. I think this book is great the way it is and would not change a single word in it for I think everybody would enjoy it the way it is.

Dragon's Gate - An Image of Poetry.......2006-04-30

Dragon's Gate is a very well written book that includes varying sensations that range from love to hate and from frustration to pride. Through this book you become conscious of many things that you would have disregarded if this book were not written. This book gives you a clear understanding of the hardships and discrimination faced by Chinese workers whilst building the railroad. The author, Laurence Yep's use of figurative language is what I like most about this book. He makes inanimate objects come alive through personification. At one point in the story, he calls the cold a living thing and has it snatch the warmth from one of his characters' bodies. Yep compares different things in an almost poetic manner. He compares the wooden bunks on a ship to coffins and another line from the book is: `...I saw him like a black shadow within the swirling snow.' I also like the way Yep uses Chinese superstitions in his book. These Chinese sayings make it easier for you (the reader) to connect with the characters in the book, as they are Chinese.
| would recommend this book to people between the ages of 10 and 16. I believe that people older than 16 will find this book really boring because this book is written at a Middle School level. Children under the age of 10 however will not be able to understand the depth of the book and they may not understand the concept of discrimination - a concept which is crucial for the text. In my opinion, the book is great just as it is and any changes may ruin the book.

Dragon Gate - A Clash of Cultures.......2006-04-30

Dragon Gate is a heartbreaking story about a young Chinese boy's life America. Otter had to move to America after he got into some trouble in China, and worked on the railroad during the industrial revolution. This compelling story is about the hardships, clash of cultures, and discrimination that Otter had to deal with. It is a deeply moving story that I enjoyed immensely. It is a story that many people can relate to, which is why I encourage that it should be read. The themes and lessons in this book are very poignant, and relate to everyone on some level. The Characters are very life like and seem almost like real people, and you start to see a little of yourself in Otter. You can't help but put yourself in the characters shoes, and imagine what you would have done in their place. The words and descriptions pull you into the story and make you feel as if you were there; going through every thing Otter was going through.

I would recommend this book to anyone above middle school level and to teenagers especially. Older readers can identify more with the feelings of change, loss, and not fitting in that Otter goes through. At one point in our lives we all have an idol that we try to emulate, and sometimes when that idol does not live up to are high standards we feel let down and betrayed. Otter goes through these feelings with his Uncle Foxfire, and the story makes you realize that our idols are only people and that we should allow them to make mistakes. Even though the book seems simple it is the hidden messages in it that make it such a good read. The story teaches us the lesson of forgiveness, of standing up for what you believe in, but it also enlightens us that it is okay to be scared and make mistakes along the way.

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Sarny
Sarny
Sarny: A Life Remembered by Gary Paulsen
jake is the man
nightjohn

Sarny
Gary Paulsen
Manufacturer: Laurel Leaf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0440219736
Release Date: 1999-08-10

Amazon.com

The Civil War is over, and Sarny has been released from the shackles of slavery. She's free, but what does that mean? This sequel to Gary Paulsen's acclaimed novel, Nightjohn, follows Sarny as she searches for her children after the war. Hope comes from surprising places, and soon Sarny finds herself in New Orleans, working, teaching, and building her life anew. Though the war is over, hatred and danger lurk around every corner, threatening her efforts to teach others to read. In Sarny, Paulsen creates a character that sparkles with heart and courage. His descriptions of her first days of freedom--her first lavender-scented bath, the sweet taste of canned peaches on bread--drip with immediacy. Sarny's story is so rich, so engaging that it's hard to say good-bye to her when the book is over. Readers will find themselves on the edges of their seats, asking, "... and then what happened, Mr. Paulsen?"

Book Description

So many readers have written and asked: What happened to Sarny, the young slave girl who learned to read in Nightjohn? Extraordinary things happened to her, from the moment she fled the plantation in the last days of the Civil War, suddenly a free woman in search of her sold-away children, until she found them and began a new life. Sarny's story gives a panoramic view of America in a time of trial, tragedy, and hoped-for change, until her last days in the 1930s.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Sarny.......2005-01-12

Sarny is about a black women during Civil War and she was freed by some soldiers fighting for freedom.'' It was like BOOM! POW! BASH! CRASH! KAPOW! BLAMO!!!!! Oh Yeah. They won isn't that great? Her children were taken and she went to find them. She helped soldiers who were dying, and she finds her children. This is a historical fiction book and it is by Gary Paulsen.

Sarny.......2004-04-02

We really enjoyed this book. It was very emotional in some parts and very funny. It gives people the chance to see what it was like to be a slave and to change dramatically in one day. We give this book 4 stars out of 5.

Sarny: A Life Remembered by Gary Paulsen.......2004-03-13

Sarny takes place in the South. It occurs right after the Civil War. Sarny is a slave whom just been freed because the North won. She sets off in a desperate search for her sold children. There were two of them and they had just barely became toddlers when they were hurriedly sold to a slave trader. Their names were Delie and Tyler.
Finding herself free in a Northern filled South, Sarny is accompanied by another former slave as they trudge their tenseful journey. She meets many new friends and even finds true love in places she had never even imagined.
As many friends as she makes, there were still quite a few people who threatened her and became a nuisance. These people still thought blacks should be slaves. They treated Sarny in the worst ways without even touching her...
Although Paul revolves the book around Sarny and her experiences with life during and after the Civil War, he skillfully mixes in a bit of history. Paul shows the hardships of both races-black and white alike-during that fateful era. This heartrending story will keep you laughing to stitches one moment, and have tears streaming down your cheeks the next. This book would be recommended to all ages-from children to adults.
In my opinion, I enjoyed the book very much. I was fascinated how a remarkable story. While I was reading could see through Sarny's eyes and experience the miserable times to the cheerful times. Through Paulson's figurative writing, I could feet the pain of the whippings on my shoulders. I could smell the smoke of fire dying down to embers, and feel the misery and joy jumble as one like needles lightly pricking my heart.
I have been fortunate enough to read Nightjohn-the story of Sarny as a young child. Sarny: A Life Remembered. This enchanting sequel enraptured me with the feelings and thoughts of Sarny-I was blown away by Sarny's determinedness and her spunk. Paulson intigued me by threading the story seamlessly and making me cling to the pages, eager to read on.
However, in the story, Nightjohn, Sarny was a child who just wanted to learn. Now, she is a grown woman with responsibilities whose top priority is her children. In Nightjohn, Sarny didn't want to lose the language of writing; in Sarny: A Life Remembered, she did not want to lose her children. In Nightjohn, learning the alphabet was the most important thing that was happening to her and in the book, Sarny:, the only thing in the world that she cared about was her two little toddlers. In a short period of time, Sarny's life changed completely and unexpectedly.
Overall, Sarny: A Life Remembered was a superb book. I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys and interesting story that can make you laugh and cry at once. This is the best family book and should be told over and over again. I would absolutely rate Gary Paulsen's Sarny: A Life Remembered as a five star book!

jake is the man.......2003-11-24

This book is a must read because it has a ll the good thing a book should have. it gives an good view on how it was to be a slave during the cilvil war and if you want to read a good book this is the one.

nightjohn.......2003-11-24

I really believe the book sarny was very well written and it really portrayed how slavery really was and how bad things were for the slaves. It really mad me open my eyes and see just how good I have it. I used to just think that the slaves would just have to work really hard and long days,and at the end of the day they would be able to rest and eat a good meal, but that is the complete oposite of how things really were. Life for the slaves was horrible and theres just no words to say that would describe how bad they had it and just how bad they were treated. I fill that everyone should read this book because it is definitly an eye opener.

A Wreath for Emmett Till (Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors (Awards))

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Form Over Content
Beautiful Poem
Ambitious but highly disapointing
From Sisters Nineties Literary Group Book Review Editor
Richie's Picks: A WREATH FOR EMMETT TILL

A Wreath for Emmett Till (Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors (Awards))
Marilyn Nelson
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0618397523

Book Description

In 1955, people all over the United States knew that Emmett Louis Till was a fourteen-year-old African American boy lynched for supposedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The brutality of his murder, the open-casket funeral, and the acquittal of the men tried for the crime drew wide media attention. Award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson reminds us of the boy whose fate helped spark the civil rights movement. This martyr's wreath, woven from a little-known but sophisticated form of poetry, challenges us to speak out against modern-day injustices, to "speak what we see."

Customer Reviews:

Form Over Content.......2006-09-27

A fellow teacher is doing a unit on African-American lit and the Civil Rights Movement as a lead-in to Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird". "A Wreath for Emmett Till" was one of the books she shared with the class. I have perused it myself, still unsure whether I should actually purchase it or not. Two things other reviewers have mentioned that I too find appealing about the book are: 1)The sheer complexity of constructing a heroic crown of sonnets and 2)the historical backdrop of the events described. Unfortunately, these aspects have very little to do with the content of the poems themselves. Most of the information about Till is contained in the preface and afterword, not in the poems themselves. Likewise, others reviewers, like I, praise Nelson for giving a tour-de-force in making a heroic crown of sonnets (and her commentaries about the sonnets were enlightening), but to be honest, the poems themselves were not particularly outstanding. I would buy the book more as an example of the structure and form of poetry rather than as an example of good poetry (If that makes sense).

Beautiful Poem.......2006-05-31

This book is in the form of a Heroic Sonnet is a brilliantly written book. It is about giving a wreath to Emmett Till, a young child who was lynched after whistling at a white woman. Till, who normally lived in Chicago, was spending the time at his uncle for the summer. After whistling at a white woman, Briant, Milan and a third person kidnapped Emmett Till. Soon after the kidapping, they lynched him. Later in the Trial, Briant and Milan were found not guilty, though later, it was proven they were guilty. This book was brilliantly written into a heroic sonnet, each of the first lines stating: R.I.P. EMMETT L. TILL. It got me emotionally connected, displeased by the racism people had back then (i.e. allowing Briant and Millan the right to be not guilty just because Till was Black). This book was brilliantly written through the use of similies. It allowed you to invision the racism back then. The only comment I have against it is the World Trade Center reference, mentioning 9/11 hadn't happened yet. Other than that, A Wreath for Emmet Till by Marilyn Nelsen was an excellent work of poetry.

Ambitious but highly disapointing.......2006-04-27

This ambitious poetry book is based on a little known poetic style known as a crown of sonnets, used historically to honor great kings. In this unique book, author Marilyn Nelson tries to apply it to an ordinary kid named Emmett Till whose name became household when he was brutally lynched, and outrage over his murder fueled the early flames of the black civil rights movement.

Nelson is admirable to tackle such a brutal and tough subject matter, however admiration is not enough to cover the fact that her poems are often hard to follow due to the ridged style, in addition to being tangential and lacking in any strong dramatic or emotional punch. She writes about Till's murder as she would weave it into a floral wreath, and sometimes that leaves the reader bored and wondering why we should even care about Nelson's pretty flowers. Her stated goal is to write about Till but he rarely makes an actual appearance in these poems, and her attempt to tie his murder into a larger history of lynching is poorly executed. At one point she ties Till's murder to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, which comes out extremely contrived and tacked on, since the events, issues, emotions, and circumstances are completely different. She expands considerable ink wishing he had never been killed, which although very admirable, doesn't give her much space to explore the national impact of his death or the good that grew out of his tragedy. In addition, her lengthy and complex notes at the end of the book are absolutely necessary to understand her many intellectual allusions and symbols. I could not imagine giving this book to anyone under 16 and having them get it at all - I'm finishing my undergrad in two weeks and I was overwhelmed. While the poems pick up pathos towards the end, it really is not enough to save the whole set.

The illustrations by Philippe Lardy are nice but unremarkable, and given the poignant and brutal subject matter they are severely disappointing. Many of them are simplistic and pretty paintings of flowers and birds that fit the wreath theme but entirely loose the tragedy and power of Till's death. Like Nelson's poems, you need the complex notes at the back of the book to understand the many symbols in the oft-abstract illustrations. Emmett Till himself is only shown once, and the artist attempts to make him look like an EveryChild (even to the point of giving him no real facial expressions) which makes him look generic and dull. The art shines best when it is the most simple, such as when it is a textured background for the text itself, with simple shapes instead of complex allegories. When the best thing you can say about the illustrations is that they make nice and non-imposing backgrounds, you know the art is in trouble.

A Wreath for Emmett Till asks the reader to "bear witness to the atrocity" and take responsibility for this murder in our collective memory, but otherwise is not a call to any action or awareness. Unfortunately what sticks in the memory is a book that falls short of its lofty goals.

From Sisters Nineties Literary Group Book Review Editor.......2005-08-18

A Wreath for Emmett Till is my first encounter with Marilyn Nelson; a bittersweet introduction. As a member of the Sisters~Nineties Literary Group, this book fascinates me as it is a beautiful example of poetic mastery. When our editor gives us a writing assignment for our publication, I grumble and protest, then I revel in the experience; delighting in the success of learning about the world of poetry and all its various forms. The "sankofet," created by Debra Morrowloving Sisters~Nineties founder, comes to mind as I read this book.*

Ms. Nelson's rhyme scheme is a fourteen-line sonnet on each page linking the previous poem with the next as the last line of the previous poem is the first line of the next poem on the following page. In the world of poetry, this is known as a "crown of sonnets."

Although written for children, I had to read the book twice to "feel" the horrible images that this book so beautifully captures. References to flower, plants, and trees are symbolic and make up the "wreath" for Emmett.
Please read this book and share the experience with your children. The incident is described as the motivating force of the Civil Rights Movement. It is also a wake-up call to all those who continue to live a life of apathy and denial when it comes to standing up for the legacy of the African American struggle.

*Sankofet is a poetic form of three stanzas, each with seven lines. The fourth line of each stanza is the same. The last word of each stanza is the first word of the subsequent verse, and the last line of a Sankofet is the first line in the poem. The format of the Sankofet emulates the call-and-response motif of Afrikan musical tradition with the repetition of the fourth lines. The connecting words at the beginning and end of the stanzas represent the Afrikan cycle of life concept.

Richie's Picks: A WREATH FOR EMMETT TILL.......2005-05-22

I cannot recall if back in 1968 my eighth-grade American history teacher Mrs. Auryansen taught us about the death of Emmett Till. But one of the things I loved most about that year of studying with an enthusiastic teacher who often made American history come alive for me was the series of quarterly independent projects we had to plan and complete. Each marking period we would have to do an American history-related visual piece as well as a written piece and an oral piece.

"BY the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other, the Gray."
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other, the Gray."

That's the first of the seven verses of "The Blue and The Gray" by Francis Miles Finch (1827-1907). I memorized and proudly recited those seven verses to my American history class, and that memory has stuck with me.

Having just celebrated my personal half-century mark, I'm all for turning around and returning to eighth-grade. And if I could do so, this is what I would memorize this time around for one of my oral pieces:

"Pierced by the screams of a shortened childhood,
my heartwood has been scarred for fifty years
by what I heard, with hundreds of green ears.
That jackal laughter. Two hundred years I stood
listening to small struggles to find food,
to the songs of creature life, which disappears
and comes again, to the music of the spheres.
Two hundred years of deaths I understood.
Then slaughter axed one quiet summer night,
shivering the deep silence of the stars.
A running boy, five men in close pursuit.
One dark, five pale faces in the moonlight.
Noise, silence, back-slaps. One match, five cigars.
Emmett Till's name still catches in the throat."

That is one of the fifteen sonnets that comprises A WREATH FOR EMMETT TILL by Marilyn Nelson. After reading the book to myself and then reading it aloud to Shari, my thoughts kept wandering off yesterday to brainstorming how I might somehow set up an event down in the City on Sunday, August 28th--fifty years to the day since Emmett was kidnapped--in which someone who would both have known the Civil Rights movement and whose presence could attract a major audience (a Danny Glover or a Bill Russell or someone else of that stature) would read this powerful series of poems aloud to a crowd to commemorate the anniversary of the brutal death of Emmett Till, a death which horrified the world and made clear what had gone on for so long.

I can imagine having a choir and soloist perform at such an event, but definitely not a bunch of droning speakers whose verbosity might take away from the carefully chosen words of Marilyn Nelson's heroic crown of sonnets about Emmett Till. As Marilyn explains in her preface (HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS POEM):

"A crown of sonnets is a sequence of interlinked sonnets in which the last line of one becomes the first line, sometimes slightly altered, of the next. A heroic crown of sonnets is a sequence of fifteen interlocking sonnets, in which the last one is made up of the first lines of the preceeding fourteen."

Thus, it's like a literary crossword puzzle. Get one word wrong and it simply doesn't fit together. Get all the words exactly right and you've got something worthy of public performances by famous personalities and recitations by today's and tomorrow's American history students.

Marilyn Nelson got it right.

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