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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) |
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| Author: |
Mark Twain |
 Book Review
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| Format: |
Mass Market Paperback |
| ISBN: |
1593080689 |
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Rosa |
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| Author: |
Nikki Giovanni, Bryan Collier (Illustrator) |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
0805071067 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
Book Review
Book Review's Significant Seven
Nikki Giovanni graciously agreed to answer the questions we like to ask every author: the Book Review Significant Seven.
Q: What book has had the most significant impact on your life?
A: No single book. The poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, and Gwendolyn Brooks was an impact, however.
Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?
A: Sula by Toni Morrison, Great American Spirituals, and The Godfather.
Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?
A: "You're the best."
Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.
A: A cup of coffee, my rocking chair, the sun just rising through my left window.... |
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Othello's Children in the New World |
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| Author: |
Josi V. Pimienta-Bey |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0759686157 |
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| Availability: |
Print-on-demand title. Ships within 5-15 days. |
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Warriors Don't Cry (Archway Paperback) [ABRIDGED] |
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| Author: |
Melba Patillo Beals |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
0671899007 |
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Usually ships in 24 hours |
From Publishers Weekly
The author forcefully recalls how, at age 15, she and several other black teenagers were chosen to integrate Little Rock's Central High following the passage of Brown v. Board of Education. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up-Beals, one of the nine black students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, AR, in 1957, tells an incredible story of faith, family love, friendships, and strong personal commitment. Drawing from the diaries she kept, the author easily puts readers in her saddle oxfords as she struggles against those people in both the white and black communities who would have segregation continue. Her prose does not play on the sympathy of... |
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Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria : And Other Conversations about Race |
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| Author: |
Beverly Daniel Tatum |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0465083617 |
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Book Review
Anyone who's been to a high school or college has noted how students of the same race seem to stick together. Beverly Daniel Tatum has noticed it too, and she doesn't think it's so bad. As she explains in this provocative, though not-altogether-convincing book, these students are in the process of establishing and affirming their racial identity. As Tatum sees it, blacks must secure a racial identity free of negative stereotypes. The challenge to whites, on which she expounds, is to give up the privilege that their skin color affords and to work actively to combat injustice in society.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
This insightful exploration of the varieties of Americans' experience with race and racism in everyday... |
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) |
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| Author: |
Mark Twain |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
1593083513 |
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Copper Sun |
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| Author: |
Sharon M. Draper |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
0689821816 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 8 Up–This action-packed, multifaceted, character-rich story describes the shocking realities of the slave trade and plantation life while portraying the perseverance, resourcefulness, and triumph of the human spirit. Amari is a 15-year-old Ashanti girl who is happily anticipating her marriage to Besa. Then, slavers arrive in her village, slaughter her family, and shatter her world. Shackled, frightened, and despondent, she is led to the Cape Coast where she is branded and forced onto a boat of death for the infamous Middle Passage to the Carolinas. There, Percival Derby buys her as a gift for his son's 16th birthday. Trust and friendship develop between Amari and Polly, a white indentured servant, and when their mistress gives birth to a black baby, the teens try to cover up Mrs.... |
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Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman |
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| Author: |
Dorothy Sterling |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
0590436287 |
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Book Description
Born into slavery, young Harriet Tubman knew only hard work and hunger. Escape seemed impossible--certainly dangerous. Yet Harriet did escape North, by the secret route called the Underground Railroad. Harriet didn't forget her people. Again and again she risked her life to lead them on the same secret, dangerous journey.
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Collector's Library) |
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| Author: |
Mark Twain |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0760750912 |
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Book Description
Pocket sized book- Intro:One of those most irrepressible and exuberant characters in the history of literature, Tom Sawyer explodes onto the page in a whirl of bad behavior and incredible adventures. Whether he is heaving clods of earth at his brother, faking a gangrenous toe, or trying to convince the world that he is dead, Tom's infectious energy and good-humor shine through. The Adventures of Tom sawyer is Mark Twain's joyful and nostalgic recollection of tall tales from his own boyhood by the Mississippi some "thirty or forty years ago". It was an instant success on its first publication in 1876, and has continued to delight children of all ages ever since.
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Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools |
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| Author: |
Jonathan Kozol |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0060974990 |
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From Publishers Weekly
Kozol believes that children from poor families are cheated out of a future by grossly underequipped, understaffed and underfunded schools in U.S. inner cities and less affluent suburbs. The schools he visited between 1988 and 1990--in burnt-out Camden, N.J., Washington, D.C., New York's South Bronx, Chicago's South Side, San Antonio, Tex., and East St. Louis, Mo., awash in toxic fumes--were "95 to 99 percent nonwhite." Kozol ( Death at an Early Age ) found that racial segregation has intensified since 1954. Even in the suburbs, he charges, the slotting of minority children into lower "tracks" sets up a differential, two-tier system that diminishes poor children's horizons and aspirations. He lets the pupils and teachers speak for themselves, uncovering "little islands of . . . energy and hope." This important,... |
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The Glory Field |
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| Author: |
Walter Dean Myers |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
0590458981 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
From Publishers Weekly
Spanning nearly 250 years of African American history, this emotionally charged saga of the Lewis family traces an ongoing battle for freedom and equality. Beginning with young Muhammad Bilal's journey from Africa in 1753 and ending with a 1990s family reunion set on the plantation where Muhammad was a slave, this series of resonant stories shows how each generation comes of age by taking a stand against oppression. All through the Civil War, Great Depression and civil rights movement, the family's strength and determination continue unabated. In his typically taut, economic prose, Myers (Somewhere in the Darkness) illuminates shadowy corners of history and reveals the high cost-and the excruciatingly slow process-of justice. The obstacles facing the Lewis family will be remembered as clearly as their triumphs,... |
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Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. |
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| Author: |
Doreen Rappaport |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0786807148 |
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Book Review
In this elegant pictorial biography of Martin Luther King Jr., author Doreen Rappaport combines her spare, lyrical text with King's own words for an effective, age-appropriate portrayal of one of the world's greatest civil rights leaders. From King's youth, when he looked up to his preacher father and vowed one day to "get big words, too," to his death at a garbage workers' strike ("On his second day there, he was shot. He died."), Rappaport imbues the story with reverence. Acclaimed artist Bryan Collier depicts his subject with stunning watercolor and collage illustrations, balancing glorious recreations of stained glass windows with some of the more somber images of peace marchers and the famous bus that pitched Rosa Parks into the civil rights movement. A brief chronology and bibliography provide additional... |
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A Wreath for Emmett Till (Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors (Awards)) |
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| Author: |
Marilyn Nelson, Philippe Lardy (Illustrator) |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
0618397523 |
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Usually ships in 24 hours |
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 9 Up–This memorial to the lynched teen is in the Homeric tradition of poet-as-historian. It is a heroic crown of sonnets in Petrarchan rhyme scheme and, as such, is quite formal not only in form but in language. There are 15 poems in the cycle, the last line of one being the first line of the next, and each of the first lines makes up the entirety of the 15th. This chosen formality brings distance and reflection to readers, but also calls attention to the horrifically ugly events. The language is highly figurative in one sonnet, cruelly graphic in the next. The illustrations echo the representative nature of the poetry, using images from nature and taking advantage of the emotional quality of color. There is an introduction by the author, a page about Emmett Till, and literary... |
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Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood |
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| Author: |
Alexandra Fuller |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0375758992 |
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From Publishers Weekly
A classic is born in this tender, intensely moving and even delightful journey through a white African girl's childhood. Born in England and now living in Wyoming, Fuller was conceived and bred on African soil during the Rhodesian civil war (1971-1979), a world where children over five "learn[ed] how to load an FN rifle magazine, strip and clean all the guns in the house, and ultimately, shoot-to-kill." With a unique and subtle sensitivity to racial issues, Fuller describes her parents' racism and the wartime relationships between blacks and whites through a child's watchful eyes. Curfews and war, mosquitoes, land mines, ambushes and "an abundance of leopards" are the stuff of this childhood. "Dad has to go out into the bush... and find terrorists and fight them"; Mum saves the family from an Egyptian spitting... |
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Numbering All the Bones |
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| Author: |
Ann Rinaldi |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
0786813784 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-8-In the last year of the Civil War, Eulinda, 13, the daughter of a slave and a slave owner, waits for news of her older brother, who ran away to join the Union Army. Neddy carries with him the ruby ring that he stole after their younger brother, Zeke, was framed for the theft, and punished by being sold away. When Eulinda discovers the Andersonville Prison, where Yankee soldiers die daily from starvation and disease, she knows her brother is somewhere inside the walls. After the war ends, she meets up with Clara Barton, and her destiny becomes entwined with giving the soldiers proper burials and ultimately finding the stolen ring. The author's note and bibliographical references provide evidence of sound research to portray the circumstances surrounding the prison where 13,000 Union soldiers died.... |
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The Story of Ruby Bridges |
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| Author: |
Robert Coles |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0439598443 |
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From Publishers Weekly
Ruby Bridges was the sole African American child to attend a New Orleans elementary school after court-ordered desegregation in 1960. Noted research psychiatrist Coles tells how federal marshals escorted the intrepid six-year-old past angry crowds of white protestors thronging the school. Parents of the white students kept them home, and so Ruby "began learning how to read and write in an empty classroom, an empty building." Although there are disappointingly few words from Ruby herself, Coles's use of quotes from her teacher adds to the story's poignancy ("Sometimes I'd look at her and wonder how she did it.... How she went by those mobs and sat here all by herself and yet seemed so relaxed and comfortable"). The story has a rather abrupt ending; the concluding page reprints the prayer that Ruby said daily,... |
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Nightjohn |
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| Author: |
Gary Paulsen |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
0440219361 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
Book Review
Imagine being beaten for learning to read, shackled and whipped for learning a few letters of the alphabet. Now, imagine a man brave enough to risk torture in order to teach others how to read; his name is Nightjohn, and he sneaks into the slave camps at night to teach other slaves how to read and write. Celebrated author Gary Paulsen writes a searing meditation on why the ability to read and write is radical, empowering , and so necessary to our freedom. These skills threaten our oppressors because they allow us to communicate--to learn the real status of our slavery and to seek liberation. In this tightly written, painful, joyous little novel is a key that may unlock the power of reading for even the most reluctant teens.
From Publishers Weekly
Among the most powerful of Paulsen's... |
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Witness |
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| Author: |
Karen Hesse |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0439272009 |
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Book Review
It is 1924, and a small Vermont town finds itself under siege--by the Ku Klux Klan. Using free verse, Newbery Medal-winning author Karen Hesse (Out of the Dust) allows 11 unique and memorable voices to relate the story of the Klan's steady infiltration into the conscience of a small, Prohibition-era community. The Klan's "all-American" philosophy is at first embraced by several of the town's influential men, including Constable Parcelle Johnson and retailer Harvey Pettibone. But Harvey's sensible wife, Viola, and independent restaurant owner Iris Weaver suspect from the beginning that the Klan's arrival heralds trouble. As the only African Americans in town, 12-year old Leonora Sutter and her father try to escape Klan scrutiny, while 6-year-old, city-born Esther Hirsch remains blissfully unaware of the Klan's... |
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Spend the Day in Ancient Egypt : Projects and Activities That Bring the Past to Life (Spend The Day Series) |
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| Author: |
Linda Honan |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
0471290068 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-Honan utilizes craft projects as a means of introducing the culture and lives of ancient Egyptians. A fictionalized family is followed throughout a single day. Separate chapters cover dress, food, music, religion, education, etc., through brief discussions, sidebars on specific facts, and several crafts that are outlined in adequate detail with attention given to the need for adult supervision. Utilitarian black-and-white line drawings appear throughout; they are helpful in clarifying activities. This is a serviceable resource for unit studies when used in conjunction with historical texts. Avery Hart's Pyramids: 50 Hands-On Activities to Experience Ancient Egypt (Williamson, 1997) is an equally useful title.Cynthia M. Sturgis, Ledding Library, Milwaukee, OR Copyright 2000 Reed Business... |
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Remember : The Journey to School Integration (Bccb Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award (Awards)) |
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| Author: |
Toni Morrison |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
061839740X |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-8–This unusual blend of archival photographs, historical background, and fictional narrative brings to life the experiences and emotions of the African-American students who made the tumultuous journey to school integration. Dramatic, mostly full-page, black-and-white photographs make up the bulk of the book. An introduction sets the scene, and factual pages, consisting of several sentences, are scattered throughout. They explain the significance of the events, the trauma of racial conflict, the courage and determination of African Americans and their supporters, and the importance of remembering and understanding. With poignant simplicity and insight, Morrison imagines the thoughts and feelings of some of the people in the pictures. The wrenching, inspiring autobiographical school integration... |
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Show Way |
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| Author: |
Jacqueline Woodson |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0399237496 |
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From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Kindergarten-Grade 5–Soonie's great-grandma was only seven when she was sold away from her parents in Virginia and sent to South Carolina. All she had was a piece of muslin from her mother, two needles, and bright red thread. She was raised by Big Mama, who cared for the plantation children and at night whispered stories of freedom. Big Mama taught great-grandma how to sew messages and directions into quilt patterns, a Show Way. The quilt-making tradition is passed down through successive generations of women in the family. Finally, readers meet the narrator, who grew up to become a writer and tell the stories of many people's Show Ways. A poignant trail at the end of the book shows eight generations of women and the author's baby painted against the background of quilt patterns. Show... |
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