To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Scout Finch, the narrator, is a young girl who lives with her brother, Jem, and her father, Atticus (a lawyer), in Maycomb, Alabama.

At the beginning of the book she tells us how she spends the summer time with Jem and her friend Dill trying to convince, with all sorts of tricks, their mysterious neighbour, Boo Radley, to come out of his place and let them see his face. Boo Radley lives confined in his parents' house for some behaviour problems he showed in the past, and nobody has seen him for years.

We see, or better said, we imagine this character through Scout's mind and thoughts. At the beginning she is pretty scared of him, but, as time goes by, she changes her mind, showing a sort of pity for this unfortunate man, who, maybe, has decided not be seen by his peers, to avoid their hypocrisy and prejudice.

In the meantime Scout describes her surroundings: the people of Maycomb are easy to classify. By social status and behavior.

She also talks about her father, the lawyer Atticus. The only one in town who seems not to respond to small towns implicit laws: he is an absolutely fair man, who teaches his children that before judging anyone they must spend some time in someone's shoes.

Later, the plot focuses on the main story of the book: the event that will bring to the surface what politeness and good manners have been hiding till that moment--racial discrimination.

A Negro is charged with the rape of a white girl, and even if Atticus manages to objectively demonstrate his innocence, the all-white jury convicts him, just because he's black. That was how it worked those times.

The town is divided into two groups: the one which thinks that Negroes are subordinate and must be kept in their 'place', and the smaller group that wants people of any color to be considered human beings with the same rights.

So, while she wants to tell us how Jem got his arm broken at the age of 13, she ends up painting a detailed picture of Deep South American society in the 30's.
Thanks to the first person narrator we feel exactly what she feels: curiosity, fear, sorrow, powerlessness, anger. 

Furthermore, the author gets to completely suck us into this society that looks so far away, but that in the end is still alive nowadays, everywhere.

It's an enlightening book that every child (and adult) should definitely read, to remind ourselves that every day is a good day to try to understand people instead of judging them at first sight or according to what others say of them.

Prejudice will kill the mockingbird.

Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy... but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

More about racial prejudices: The Lions of Little Rock

Classroom activities:

Lesson Plan 1

Lesson Plan 2

Lesson Plan 3

Lesson Plan 4

Lesson Plan 5

  

Lucy dedicates a lot of time and love to thinking about and writing the posts she shares with all of you. Because she believes that a better teaching is the key for a better future. If you find any help, value or joy in this blog, please consider becoming a supporting reader. A donation, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted. 

                                                   

THE LIONS OF LITTLE ROCK by Kristin Levine

Little Rock, Arkansas, 1958. Marlee is a shy and introverted twelve- year-old. She loves maths and prime numbers, but she finds it really hard to talk to anyone except for her family. 

She has got a special relationship with her elder sister, Judy, who pushes her to talk to people, but especially to look for real friends, someone she will have something in common with, and to stop letting herself being bossed around by Sally, her supposed current best friend.

One day, a new girl arrives at her school. Her name is Liz and it seems to be the friend that Judy was hoping that Marlee would find. 

They start a school project together, where Marlee will have to give a speech, right in front of the class, about natives of Arkansas, and Liz manages, not without a huge effort, to convince her to do it, demonstrating that she really cares about her shy friend.

"It's important to face your fears," said Liz. " It makes you a better person."

Things continue improving in Marlee's life till the day Liz, suddenly, disappears from school, apparently without any reason.

In the meantime Little Rock's high school is being kept closed by the local governor to protest against the new Integration Laws and to avoid white students from mixing  with Negroes.

It's President Eisenhower's time and many southern States are struggling to preserve their way of life. It's all about states' rights and segregationists against integrationists.

So, due to this tense situation, Judy is forced to move to her granny's house to be able to go to school, leaving Marlee without her friend nº1.

At least she still has Liz by her side, but the same day of the presentation, Liz doesn't show up.

And it's awfully hard for Marlee to discover why. What happened was that Liz, taking advantage of her light skin and straight hair was signed up by her mum for the school for white people to get a better schooling and life opportunities.

In some way, she had been discovered to be a Negro and therefore, to avoid any persecution for her and her family, she had to disappear.

At that time Little Rock had a Negro neighborhood with its Negro church, cinema etc.

The KKK was generally accepted and black people were harassed despite the new integrationist laws.

Despite this environment, Marlee, after a first moment of feeling betrayed, decides that her friendship with Liz must go on, even secretly. 

This decision will bring very nice moments but also a lot of problems and dangerous situations. 

I'm not telling you anything else about the plot because it's really worth reading the book to find out for yourself what happens.

I enjoyed this book so much!

First of all because historical fiction is one of my favorite genres. It takes you to another historical moment, in a different place, with unknown people and their lifestyle. 

You can live another life and at the same time learn from it as it were your own experience.

The characters are really complex and the first person narrative style is deeply involving. It wakes up the ten year-old inside you.

It's easy to identify yourself with Marlee, blushing with her when she almost falls on her secret love's knees at the football match, or suffering with her when she has to put up with Red's bullying and racism, without been able to do anything to protect Liz.

And you also worry about her secret friendship being reported.

This book will dramatically increase the sense of justice naturally carried in every child. 

Your children, as Marlee, will also learn a good life lesson, explained by the Maths' teacher.

The world is not straightforward, and even if adults tell kids that if they do something good they will get that good result they're expecting, most of the time it's more likely a long complicated equation: people have to break it down into smaller parts to factor it. 

Winning the referendum about integration was the first step, and not the end of the struggle as Marlee had hoped, of a long walk on the path of solving the world's problems.

Good Classroom resources and activities are available on this web pages:

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/desegregation/printable/73231.html

http://lionsoflittlerock.weebly.com/activities.html

Enjoy them!

You might be interested on these books too:

THE EVOLUTION of CALPURNIA TATE by Jacqueline Kelly

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE by Laura Ingalls Wilder

THE ADVENTURES of HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Mark Twain

Writing Tip nº4: THE FAIRY-TALE SALAD

If you've been reading my latest posts about books, you would certainly have  noticed a common theme (imprint?): the fact that some characters of a fairy tale, in some way, land in another one and meet its protagonist, giving birth to new tales or even novels.

It's the case of Hansel and Gretel in Gidwitz's book 'A Tale Dark and Grimm', but also of 'Witch Hazel' who moves from the story of Snow White to Hansel and Gretel.

But he most famous example, I can think of, is certainly the story of the ogre 'Shrek': a worldwide known case of fairy-tale salad.

Chapter twenty of 'The Grammar of Fantasy' by Gianni Rodari talks about this possibility of mixing different fairy tales to create new adventures and new developments of old and well-known stories. 

It's interesting because young readers have to deeply know the characters' inner worlds and the landscapes they move in to do this experiment of literature.

It's a good excuse for an accurate text analysis.

So, let your children think about what could happen if Little Red Riding Hood met Tom Thumb in the wood and if Pinocchio arrived at Granny's house: the Wolf would get every single tooth of his mouth completely destroyed!

WRITING TIP NUMBER 5

WRITING TIP NUMBER 3

WRITING TIP NUMBER 2

WRITING TIP NUMBER 1

PIPPI LONGSTOCKING by Astrid Lindgren

Pippi Longstocking Cover

I suppose that many of us watched Pippi's adventures on TV when we were children and, maybe, some of her brilliant unconventional ideas are still stored in our subconscious. In my personal experience I still dust my parquet - floor skating on a pair of dust cloths, a technique she invented first, I suppose, and, oh yes! it's fun! 

So, for those who have never heard about her, Pippi has been labelled as the naughtiest girl ever, a little 'savage' whose mother died and whose father was washed overboard in a storm at sea. She lives on the outskirt of a Swedish town with a monkey and a horse parked on the porch of Villa Villekulla.

She is the strongest girl on earth and also the most brave of all. She tells lots of lies, although I'm sure Gianni Rodari would have called them creative stories.

Her character was created when Sweden was being transformed, from a poor agricultural country, into a rich and wealthy nation, and the Swedish culture of conformity, moderation, constraint and contentment was definitively modeling the stereotype of "calm, clean, quiet, industrious and modern" Swedish society.

Can you imagine the expression of horror on the editor's face during the reading of Pippi's book? Actually Astrid Lindgren didn't get published on her first try.

The character of Pippi was so outrageous that the publisher rejected her!

What would you think about a kid who dramatically messes up the kitchen, exactly like The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss, to cook pancakes and rolls shortbread on the floor?

And what about school? She's never gone and even when she tries, she really doesn't fit in! She doesn't treat her teacher respectfully, she is noisy, she lies, she draws on the floor and she doesn't participate when she is required to.

Her one-day teacher was actually really lucky when Pippi decided to drop school out after just a few hours.

But on the other hand, she is the best at inventing games to play with her young next-door  neighbors Tommy and Annika. Every afternoon they can be 'thing searchers' or can have coffee and cookies sitting on the branches of a tree, they can go walking in the wood and have any sort of adventures or ghost-hunting in the attic of Villa Villekulla. 

No matter how uneducated she is, she will always be children's favorite heroine!

Take a look at these classroom activities here: 

Pippi - Lesson Plan

Pippi - Study Guide


    


Lucy dedicates a lot of time and love to thinking about and writing the posts she shares with all of you. Because she believes that a better teaching is the key for a better future. If you find any help, value or joy in this blog, please consider becoming a supporting reader. A donation, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted.