For this assignment I chose to review the book Shades of Black by Sandra Pinkney and illustrated by Myles Pinkney. This book was published in January of 2006 by Cartwheel Books. This book teaches young children about the differences in culture, and how there is not one stereotype to being black. Black men and woman can be several shades, have several eye colors, ect., and still love their self. This book teaches children to recognize differences amongst other people, and not exclude them because they are different. This story is a great multicultural literature choice for children aged 3-10, pointing out physical challenges in an honest and positive way. This book gives very clear descriptions of ethnic customs and clothing throughout the book
The book opens with a squad of soldiers running a tactical control point just outside of a village called Yusufiyah. They are approached when a man Abu Muhammad had found his cousins family brutally murdered not too far off. Sgt. Tony Yribe and 3 others went to go investigate it. Although it was a terrible scene Sgt. Yribe had just assumed that it was like most other situations in Iraq in that the family was a victim of Iraqis attacking other Iraqis. The one thing that bothered him was that there was a shotgun shell and Iraqis do not normally use shotguns.
My verbal visual essay is based on the novel The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. The aspect of the novel I decided to focus on is the protagonist, Amniata Diallo.
Values are one of the most important traits handed down from parent to child. Parents often pass lessons on regardless of whether they intend to do so, subconsciously acting as the conductor of a current that flows through their children and into generations beyond. This is the case with Ruth, James McBride’s mother and the subject of his memoir The Color of Water: Despite her disgust with Tateh’s treatment of his children, Ruth carries his values into parenthood, whether or not she aims to do so.
All the colors of the earth by Sheila Hamanaka: This book teaches that children come in all the colors of the earth. This book celebrates diversity through the image of children. It compares different colors of the skin to the earth and the things that surround it. The book uses the phrase of comparing the skin color to tinkling pink of tiny seashells by the rumbling sea. Children come with hair that flows like water. Although it teaches how different people are it ends with everything they have in common which is love. Love is amber, ivory, ginger and
Chapter 2 of “Bind Spot” corresponds with the topic of “Shades of Truth”. The chapter was about the difference of lies, which people give to each other. White lies are known to be the most innocent lie; it is a common lie to prevent hurting others. A example of a White Lie would be saying that you remember a person even though you have never seen them before. Blue Lies are lies that seem true, however, they are not. For example, a wrestler confirms his coach that he did not eat the night before, even though, the wrestler did actually ate meals. Red lies are lies that become second nature. It makes us survive longer. For example, someone pointing a gun to you saying, “Do you know this person?” You respond with denial, however, you actually do know the person but denied it because you wanted to survive.
Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life ofAminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life.She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.
It is no secret that America is a country that was built on racist ideas and practices, but it is denied as if it were. When the white men signed the Declaration of Independence stating that “All men are created equal”, the majority of those men went back to their homes where they were slave owners. As the Constitution was signed, even some of those men still owned slaves. So how could all men be equal under the law, if the men who created the laws didn’t practice it?
It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of income. Aminata’s father taught Aminata to write small words in the dirt when she was small. Throughout the rest of the novel, Aminata carries this love for learning new things to the places that she travels and it inspires her to accept the opportunities given to her to learn how to write, read maps, and perform accounting duties. Early in the novel Aminata meets Chekura and they establish a strong relationship. Eventually they get married but they are separated numerous times after. Aminata continuously remembers and holds onto her times with Chekura amidst all of her troubles. CHILDREN. The only reason why Aminata Diallo does not die during her journey into and out of slavery is because she believes strongly in her parents, husband and children; therefore proving that people survive hardships only when they have relationships in which to believe.
Have you ever not been yourself? Did you ever have to change who you are to be accepted by others? The two fictional characters, Sarah and Delgado, had to deny their heritage to be accepted by the world around them. The short story "The Pink Hat" by Caroline Bond Day, and the poem "Depression Days" by Pat Mora, prove the importance of being yourself, and respecting your heritage. The authors of both literary works form an important theme of not hiding your true identity.
Senick, Gerard J., and Hedblad, Alan. Children’s Literature Review: Excerpts from Reviews, and Commentary on Books for Children and Young People (Volumes 14, 34, 35). Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1995..
Throughout history women were taught that they needed to learn how to sing, play a piano, keep up with the latest current events, socialize, etc. in order to maintain their status as a woman. However, they were only taught to learn these various things on a minimal level in order to entertain a crowd, make simple conversation, and appear wealthy and educated. This was especially this case in Iran in the 1930’s. Women were/still are pressured to embody a modest personality and style. Women were especially not expected to be poets and/or film directors. Regardless of the societal standards Forugh Farrokhzad was held to, she had an influential career as a poet thus becoming a bold female voice that was able to express what it meant to be a feminist
Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig touches upon points in her life focus on her internal and external struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder and anorexia as they affected her and her circle of relatives through her adolescents and young adulthood. Traig's descriptions of junior high food issues, family embarrassment, and faculty clique politics elicit her main idea to readers sharing this frame of reference. She even illustrates her early theory of obsessive-compulsive disorder in terms anybody can recognize: She compares it to television witches Jeannie, Samantha, and Sabrina, whose tics and twitches "could resolve any problem."
The book I chose to read for my unit 5 book is Black Like Me written by John Howard Griffin. He plays an important role as the author and the protagonist in the book. The timing of the book takes place in 1950-1960.His story is that he is a journalist and chooses to write an article about racism especially in the south. Griffin ends up going to a dermatologist and dying his skin black with medication so he could see how negroes were treated. Once he goes down to the south he is broken and revealed to all the discrimination african americans get for the skin color they have.
Duvall, M. J., & Nerad, J. C. (2007). "Suddenly and Shockingly Black": The Atavistic Child in Turn-into-the-Twentieth-Century American Fiction. African American Review , 51-66.
Jasper Fforde’s novel, Shades of Grey, transports the reader hundreds of years into the future where the world is an alarmingly different place. The novel, set in Chromatacia, is centred on a society in which continuous stability is the primary concern. The novel is set approximately 500 years into the future, after the ‘something that happened’. In the novel, it is never revealed what this event was, however it is portrayed as a disastrous event. This is reiterated by the naming of the past as ‘the previous’. Shortly after this ‘something that happened’ there was an ‘Epiphany’ and the beginning of the New Order. This language implies that the new society was aimed to be free from problems, and be solely happy, however the irony in this is that Chromatacia is in fact a dystopia.