**These posts originally appeared on a Historical Fiction for Youth discussion board for my Children's Literature Class**
Title: Stella by Starlight
Author: Sharon M. Draper
Genres and themes: juvenile fiction, historical fiction, regional fiction, southern fiction, female African American protagonist, diverse reads, racism
Stella lives in the beautiful Blue
Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Unfortunately, the beauty of the surrounding
landscape is marred by a burning cross one night when Stella and, her brother,
Jojo stumble across a secret Klan meeting. It’s 1932 during the heart of the
Jim Crow era and little Stella has not been immune to the racism of the era
(she was slapped in the face when she was five years old for accidentally
bumping into the town’s doctor). She and the rest of the children in the
African American section of Bumblebee, NC, attend a separate school from the
white children. Riverside School is a one-room schoolhouse that often receives
“leftovers” such as raggedy books from the fancier, whites-only school,
Mountain View. Healthcare services are also segregated, which Stella
unfortunately found out during a medical emergency.
Despite the harsh social environment,
Stella loves school even though she is not the best, straight-A student. Stella
loves arithmetic but struggles with writing; she sneaks out of the house every
night to practice her writing skills in private (I think this was Stella’s most
impressive quality- the perseverance and discipline to improve a skill she was
not naturally good at). Fortunately, for little Stella, she receives continual encouragement
about her writing from her teacher, Mrs. Grayson, and her parents:
“You are an
amazing thinker- a gemstone hiding inside a rock…What I’m reading here is
thoughtful and beautiful, just like you are.”
“More like tangled,
like my hair” (Draper, 2015, p.101).
At first Stella doesn’t know how to
accept these compliments but after she is given a typewriter to practice her
writing skills, and the bravery to type out her reactions, thoughts, and
feelings to the events going on around her, we see her confidence bloom into
the first steps of a budding journalist: “…words were starting to make sense.
Bright, perfectly formed ideas smoldered in her mind” (Draper, 2015, p.102).
One of the most powerful scenes in
the book occurs in Chapter 22, “Their Declaration of Independence,” when
Stella’s father, Mr. Spencer, and Pastor Patton go into town to register to
vote. The town registrar hurls insults at their faces and subjects them to a
timed literacy test and a poll tax, while he lets white people register with
just a signature and a smile. Mr. Pineville tries further voting suppression
tactics (refusing to “grade” their literacy test immediately) until the men and
Stella stage an impromptu sit-in, complete with singing of gospel spirituals.
The men passed the test but the Klan retaliated with terror tactics at the
Spencer home a few days later.
Throughout the novel we see Stella
progress from a shy girl with a secret (writing at night) to a strong,
confident journalist in-the-making that manages to save three lives (Hazel
Spencer, Paulette Packard, and her mother). Stella is quite an amazing little
girl and an excellent literary role model for the middle grade reading
audience. My only beef with this book is that I wish the author had written a
scene with Dr. Packard’s reaction to Stella saving Paulette from drowning.
Maybe the author didn’t include this scene because some people never overcome
their racist mindset? What do you guys think?
I was curious as to the tune of the traditional
African American gospel songs/spirituals sprinkled throughout the text. Thanks
to technology I found the titles, lyrics, and video performances online:
“Children, Go Where I Send Thee” (p.
51)
“Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” (p. 144)
“Get on Board” (p. 197)
Last week, I attended the
Southeastern Library Association Conference and I visited a session titled,
“Tragedy, Healing, and Understanding: Using Library of Congress Primary Sources
with Children and Teens.” This session was geared mostly for school librarians,
but as a parent whose goal is to teach my child respect inclusion of
others, I will probably use this resource with my son. Since the Library of
Congress site can be overwhelming, the Teaching Civil Rights History with
Primary Resources website was created by various departments at the University
of South Carolina to assist teachers and librarians in finding teaching aids: https://scloccivilrights.com/civil-rights/elementary-school/
Readalikes:
The Other Half of My Heart by
Sundee T. Frazier: (Goodreads
review) “ When Minerva and Keira
King were born, they made headlines: Keira is black like Mama, but Minni is
white like Daddy. Together the family might look like part of a chessboard row,
but they are first and foremost the close-knit Kings. Then Grandmother Johnson calls,
to invite the twins down South to compete for the title of Miss Black Pearl
Preteen of America. Minni dreads the spotlight, but Keira assures her that
together they'll get through their stay with Grandmother Johnson. But when
grandmother's bias against Keira reveals itself, Keira pulls away from her
twin. Minni has always believed that no matter how different she and Keira are,
they share a deep bond of the heart. Now she'll find out the truth.”
New Shoes by Susan Lynn
Meyer: (Goodreads review) “Set in the South during the time of segregation, this
lushly illustrated picture book brings the civil rights era to life for
contemporary readers as two young girls find an inventive way to foil Jim Crow
laws. When her brother's hand-me-down
shoes don't fit, it is time for Ella Mae to get new ones. She is ecstatic, but
when she and her mother arrive at Mr. Johnson's shoe store, her happiness
quickly turns to dejection. Ella Mae is unable to try on the shoes because of
her skin color. Determined to fight back, Ella Mae and her friend Charlotte
work tirelessly to collect and restore old shoes, wiping, washing, and
polishing them to perfection. The girls then have their very own shoe sale,
giving the other African American members of their community a place to buy shoes
where they can be treated fairly and "try on all the shoes they
want."
Citations:
Ballad of America (2012). Get on board. Retrieved from http://www.balladofamerica.com/music/indexes/songs/getonboard/index.htm
Desmond [Username] (2008, January 16)
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen [Video
file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHFveRxXfM4
Draper, S.M. (2015). Stella by starlight. New York: Atheneum
Books for Young Readers.
Frazier, S.T. (2010). The other half of my heart. New York:
Delacorte Books for Young Readers.
Impasse0124 [Username] (2009,
November 28) Children, go where I send
thee [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0y7YN6M0Og
Meyer, S.L. (2015). New shoes. New York: Holiday House.
Author: Gene Luen Yang
Genres and themes: graphic novels, juvenile literature, historical fiction, colonialism, war
The main theme between Boxers and Saints is parallelism. The first and obvious sign of parallelism is
the simultaneous release of both volumes and their corresponding artwork:
Each cover features the protagonist
accompanied by his or her supernatural mentor. Our protagonists are teenagers
who have experienced various kinds of tragedy: Four-Girl/Vibiana is the victim
of domestic violence by her grandfather, uncle, and cousin. Bao watched his
father never fully recover mentally from a physical beating. Both Bao and
Four-Girl are warned about the “foreign devils” by an elder:
“Daughter, we Chinese are not meant
for the foreign devils’ religion. Their beliefs will poison your mind and
destroy your spirit” (Saints, Yang,
2013, p. 74).
[Master Big Belly to Bao]: “Those
devils have no respect for our ways. They blemish our skies with smoke and build
metal railroads across our dragon lines. They incite the land’s anger” (Boxers, Yang, 2013, p. 85).
Four-Girl’s conversion to
Christianity was a slow process; her visits to the local Catholic priest were a
way for her to eat more snacks, avoid her chores, and escape her abusive
family. When she announces her conversion, her family’s violent reaction forces
her to leave the only home she’s ever known. Bao’s “conversion” to the
mercenary lifestyle occurs after watching his fellow countrymen and women suffer
from the greed of the foreigners and their Chinese converts (referred to as
secondary devils). Four-Girl is assisted on her journey of self-discovery
through visions of Joan of Arc; Bao’s warrior journey is encouraged through
rituals and dreams of Chinese opera gods.
While these two volumes and plots
shared many characteristics, an interwoven plot, and tragic endings, there a
few slight differences between the two texts. Saints starts off on a negative tone and the panel colors are
muted, almost sepia tone like vintage photographs. Boxers starts off on a positive note (springtime and spring
festivals) and the all the panels are full color illustrations. (Any thoughts
or theories on why the difference in coloring between the two books?). The
sections in Saints are divided by
Four-Girl’s age while the sections in Boxers
are divided up geographical location and year. I believe that Yang created
and released these two volumes simultaneously to show young readers that there
are two sides to every story- even in war. The Christian missionaries and their
disciples thought they were fulfilling God’s work converting the Chinese to
Christianity and taking care of orphans. The non-Christian Chinese viewed their
converted countrymen as traitors to the glory of China, and thought the
missionaries were greedy, rude, and disgusting. It probably didn’t help that
every time Bao met a foreigner, that foreigner was committing some kind of
anthropological no-no (smashing idols, taking food without asking, practicing
bodily harm on another human being, etc.).
While I was reading Boxers and Saints this week, my 10-yeard old son saw these books and took one
while I was reading it and ended up reading both. He loves to read graphic
novels but my husband and I got a chuckle that I had to wait for my turn to
read a book for my class (Hubby turned to me and said, “I had a feeling this
would happen at some point during this class). My son reads below grade level
so we encourage him to practice reading as much as possible. Thankfully, these
graphic novels aren’t too violent and the few sexual innuendos went over his
head. When he was done, reading them, I asked him what he thought of them:
“They were crazy. Just crazy.”
After my son’s remark I decided to
look for children’s books on the Boxer Rebellion, to supplement the graphic
novel. And I found very little children’s books on this subject. Publishers and
historians- you need to get on to this! A search through the PINES catalog (the
statewide online catalog for public libraries in Georgia) found these titles:
Fifty-five days of terror: the story of the Boxer Rebellion by Burt Hirschfield (published in 1964)
The Boxer Rebellion: anti-foreign terror seizes China, 1900 by Irving Werstein (published in 1971)
Recommended Readalikes:
Persepolis, Volumes 1 &2 by Marjane Satrapi
(From my review on Goodreads): “Chronicles the life of Marjane Satrapi
as she grew up during the political unrest in Iran from the late 1970s through
the late 1990s. It's her autobiography in graphic novel form and it gives
Westerners a rare glimpse into a mysterious country and region. As a little
girl, Marji parrots the political slogans and ideologies she hears from the
grownups around her. As a preteen her eyes slowly open to injustice in the
world as she and the other females in Iran are subject to harsher and harsher
rules regarding dress, opposite-sex relationships, and public etiquette.
Marji's parents send her to Europe for her safety and to continue her
education; although Europe is not dangerous, Marji's ethnicity keeps her from
truly fitting in. She returns to Iran but finds that her home country has
changed dramatically under the leadership of religious fundamentalists.”
Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in
Poetry and Comics –
edited by Chris Duffy (Goodreads synopsis): “As the Great War dragged on and
its catastrophic death toll mounted, a new artistic movement found its feet in
the United Kingdom. The Trench Poets, as they came to be called, were
soldier-poets dispatching their verse from the front lines. Known for its
rejection of war as a romantic or noble enterprise, and its plainspoken
condemnation of the senseless bloodshed of war, Trench Poetry soon became one
of the most significant literary moments of its decade. The marriage of
poetry and comics is a deeply fruitful combination, as evidenced by this
collection. In stark black and white, the words of the Trench Poets find
dramatic expression and reinterpretation through the minds and pens of some of
the greatest cartoonists working today.”
Citations:
Duffy. C.
(editor) (2014). Above the dreamless dead:
World War I in poetry and comics. NewYork: First Second.
Hirschfield,
B. (1964). Fifty-five
days of terror: the story of the Boxer Rebellion. New York: Julian Messner, Inc.
Satrapi,
M. (2000). Persepolis. New York:
Pantheon.
Werstein,
I. (1971). The Boxer
Rebellion: anti-foreign terror seizes China, 1900. London, UK: Franklin Watts.
Yang, G.
L. (2013). Boxers. New York: First
Second.
Yang, G.
L. (2013). Saints. New York: First
Second.
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