The NCTE Adolescent Literacy Policy Research Brief defines multicultural literacy as “seeing, thinking, reading, writing, listening, and discussing in ways that critically confront and bridge social, cultural, and personal differences. It goes beyond a ‘tourist’ view of cultures and encourages engagement with cultural issues.” For the blog this week, I want you to consider how the young adult book you read performs in that way.
For example, Paper Daughter by Jeanette Ingold allows readers to experience the Chinese Exclusion Era, a time when oppressive policies contributed to family separation, loss, and redefinition; a time when some families were formed on paper only; a time when choices prevented families from maintaining long traditions and fulfilling cultural responsibilities, thereby setting up a future shaded by doubt and guilt. The experience is not trivialized nor romanticized, but treated with respect and honesty. While I may not have lived then, I can still travel this untouchable and unspoken territory with characters on a journey for normalcy and acceptance. Some, like Fai-yi, find places to open opportunity despite great loss; others, like Sucheng, lose their last ties to reality and never find a way past the abiding dissatisfaction that cages them.
With all of its layers, the book invites us to recognize that identity isn’t a solo proposition; our parents, grandparents, and other cultural influences all shape us into who we are. Because actions and attitudes from past generations affect us, we reflect people we never even knew. No one has just one identity; that I am Chinese is only one layer of self—besides its roots in race and ethnicity, culture comes from class, language, exceptionality, age, religion, gender, and geography. Those nine factors determine our way of thinking, feeling, believing, and behaving. The influence of traits, though, is not fixed or permanent; culture is a fluid, negotiable, and dynamic quality.
Another literary piece that felicitously captures this dynamic quality, these identity transitions, and the multiple influences that shape us is the poem “What For” by Garrett Hongo.
For my Multicultural novel I chose to read "Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind" by Suzanne Fisher Staples. I have personally never read any kind of multicultural fiction before so I was kind of worried at how this week would go for me . . . as it turns out, I LOVED Staples' novel and encourage everyone to read it. The story is told from Shabanu's POV, an 11 year old girl living with her family in the Pakistan/Afghanistan region. They raise camels and must travel across the scorching desert to find water whenever they run out at a particular location. They travel to carnivals to sell their camels and we are able to see one such event in the middle of the story. Shabanu has an older sister, Phulan who is 13. They are polar opposites; Shabanu helps their father work, care for the animals, collect firewood etc. while Phulan cares for the home with their mother and aunt.
ReplyDeleteThis novel opened my eyes to this culture that I had no idea about and it stunned me! The work that Shabanu and her family must do in order to have a cup of water at the end of the day is extraordinary. Both girls have been set up in arranged marriages to men of great wealth and an admirable amount of land. Shabanu struggles with this notion the most throughout the novel because she wants to continue helping her mother and father like she is and does not want to leave her life in the desert with her animals that she has helped raise since she was around four years old.
I had a hard time reading the parts in the novel when the girls were told to be quiet and do as they were told. When Shabanu makes it clear that she does not want to be married off, her father looks her in the eyes and yells at her to quiet and that he does not care because it will be done no matter what. I can't imagine my father telling me that or putting me in that kind of position.
I could go on and on for PAGES on this book but I will just end by saying, again, that I HIGHLY recommend this book because of it's ability to teach me so many new things about the Eastern Indian culture, it has many moral moments and thought provoking questions/scenarios for the reader to toss around. FABULOUS! :)
I recently read "Bud, Not Buddy," by Christopher Paul Curtis. The story revolves around Bud a 10 year old African American boy living during the depression. His mother died when he was only 6 years old. Since then he had been living in a orphanage. Bud is placed in a home with the Amoses. Bud shares a room with a boy who is 2 years older than him. Having been in the house for one night, the two boys fight because Todd, the 12 year old white boy, shoved a pencil up Bud's nose. Todd's parents thought it was all Bud and made him sleep in the shed where a bees' next already occupied.
ReplyDeleteBud was not going to stay with such people. He took his suitcase of things his Mother gave him and made way. He slept under a christmas tree until he decided to find his father. While on his own he had to find food and such a defeat was not easy.
The plot thickens as he begins to walk to Grand Rapids, 24 hours away, if walking 5 miles a day. He meets a man who takes him to Grand rapids, where Bud meets his "father." I cannot tell you what happens, but the plot is very good and ends well.
I have not read many books learning about boys POV or even that of an African American. This story would relate to young adults on many levels; they may not have parents, parents may have passes, lived in foster care, frightened of who they are, unsure of their history, and even being courageous to find onesself. I recommend this book.
I loved the character of An in "Paper Daughter." A first generation American growing up in Seattle's 1930's Chinatown, she is curious for how aware she is of how many cultural influences are pulling at her, competing for her. I love her juxtaposition in this sequence, narrated by Fai-yi:
ReplyDeleteShe asks if I am not glad she is American. She says it makes her modern and able to decide for herself that it is all right for us to see each other alone.
But when, one day, I try to kiss her, she stops that quickly enough. She says she is too Chinese to be kissed by a boy who is not her husband. (114)
And again later:
It is familiarity that troubles An. Often we talk about the conflict she feels. At school she is a modern girl. At home she must be more like her mother and grandmothers were. And during the in-between hours, like these, she must decide how much of one and how much of the other she is. (145)
When Sherman Alexie spoke at the Project LETTERS Summit this summer, he talked about how his experience dangling between two cultures competing for his being ultimately fractured him, and his writing reflects that, and he stated that much of the depression he struggles with still today is rooted in that history.
His message for the teachers there were to let students have multiple personalities. Don't force them to choose one over the over. Don't fracture them, as his teachers had done to him.
"Paper Daughter" is a poignant example for how a fractured identity can be not just a person, but a whole family tree, carried on through the generations, exemplified most profoundly by Steven Chen.
Steven's daughter, Maggie, is working successfully to reinvent that inheritance. To do so she has to do what her father taught her (but never got to do in his own lifetime), and go beyond what she has always known. She has to dare herself, she has to take a chance, sure that one choice will lead to a lifetime of regret -- furthering the generational cycle of regret -- but unsure which choice is which.
It might be interesting to match a story like "Paper Daughter" with a non-fiction story like "Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance: The Glorious Impersonator", who was an African American impersonating an Indian American in order to get ahead in life! He acquired more than a little fame as a 'Chief,' attended Carlisle, representing Indian American culture in Hollywood, and essentially turned himself into a spokesman and champion for native peoples.
I'm sure there are more applicable non-fiction stories related to the Exclusion Era presented in "Paper Daughter," this is just one story of how far people end up being forced to go to counteract the limitations inherited as a minority in American culture, as well as the roller-coaster created in their personal life through the maintenance of their own web of lies.
For my multicultural piece, I read "Drowning in Fire" by Craig S. Womack. While I really enjoyed the story, sometimes the rich background of the native american stories of Oklahoma were a little confusing.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think that reading multicultural literature can be a great way to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes," some of Lucy's chapters in the novel were hard to get through due to SUCH a rich back story and references.
Overall, I do think that this novel is worth reading. Josh's story of a young gay native american is really interesting to read. I definitely recommend it!
For my multicultural text I read "Morning Girl" by Michael Dorris which I think may actually be more of a children's book (it seemed really short/easy). However the book seems to meet the "multicultural literacy" definition perfectly. Dorris tells the story of these Native Americans through the two contrasting view points of a brother and sister. This technique allows the reader to be completely immersed in the culture without feeling the divide between themselves and the Native American traditions. What is even more fascinating is that by the end of the novel, you realize the story is told before colonization, over five hundred years ago. There doesn't feel like a generation gap while reading because the family theme is relatable and common in both history and present day. The differences between American culture and Native culture is bridged. I really enjoyed reading the novel and never felt like I didn't understand what the book was talking about. I felt really sentimental the entire time.
ReplyDeleteFor my multicultural book I read "Parrot in the Oven" by Victor Martinez. The book was about a teenage boy growing up in the southwest. He is mexican and lives in low income project style apartment with his mom, dad, older sister, older brother and baby sister. The story chronicles about a year of his families struggles and happenings. I don't really know what it is like to grow up in this sort of atmosphere so it is hard to say how relatable it would be for students, but the book does do an excellent job of addressing family issues and difficulties of growing up like peer pressure, finding ones own voice, working to survive, and coping with family drama. Within the story there really is no positive male figure, but there are several prominent female figures who greatly influence the narrator, Manny. By the end, Manny has found his path in life, despite the example set by his alcoholic father and do-nothing brother. He follows the guidence of his mother and uses the strength she builds in him to overcome gang recruitment, and bullying. He looks to his sisters, images of innocence lost (his older sister) and fresh innocence (his baby sister), and realizes how important it is to have the support of your family and to support your family unlike so many of the men filling his life.
ReplyDeleteI think this would be a good book for high schoolers because it relates a difficult lifestyle to students who may not understand some of the difficulties others have to live with. Also, it shows the inner strength that is necessary to overcome hardship and may even inspire students to find inner strength by developing familial relationships.
I read Street Love by Walter Dean Myers. It tells the love story of sixteen year old Junice and seventeen year old Damien, and their life growing up in Harlem, NY. Both of them must overcome obstacles of the "hood" before they are able to be with each other. The book is told all in free verse, which was really interesting. The character's speech is extremely poetic, yet Myers also weaves in distinct, regional dialect so the characters remain realistic to the setting.
ReplyDeleteThe book deals with some very tough subject matter. At the beginning of the novel Junice's mother has received 25 years to life in prison for possession and distribution of drugs, which leaves Junice to care for her aging grandmother and little sister. Damien is planning to leave Harlem to go to Brown for school. I was not able to relate to either Junice or Damien's situations, but the book offers some wider-scoped themes that any reader would be able to relate to. One example is the theme of staying true to one's self before assisting or loving others. Because the book is told in very metaphorical and abstract verse and the story-line is so mature, I think it would be a little tough for a younger reader to see and understand the broader, more universal themes in the book. I think an older reader in the late teens would definitely be able to handle the material and enjoy the novel.
Warning: I read a novel this week that is both Multicultural and a Memoir, and I chose to use it for my memoir novel instead of the multicultural novel.
ReplyDeleteThis week I read Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, and I am happy to report that this novel would be an essential for the classroom to introduce multicultural literature, memoirs, and possibly creative nonfiction due to the beautiful language Ishmael Beah uses in the novel. I believe that this novel would definitely need a small history lesson on the Republic of Sierra Leone and civil war to make sure that the novel is understood and does not frighten students. I would argue that this novel would be suitable for a higher grade level due to its graphic images and drug references.
There are a large number of interviews of Ishmael Beah can be found online that can be combined with this novel, but I find that the novel and a history lesson would be enough for any school lesson. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a memoir that they will keep on their bookshelf!
For my multicultural literature book I read "The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. This book is about a young boy named Ponyboy Curtis who is dealing with the death and violence that comes with gang life. His gang, the greasers, reside on the East side. While their rival gang, the Socs, live on the West side. It is a very interesting book that explores the interactions between two different cultures. I would not hesitate to teach this book to a class of young adults, I feel like it would help them deal with loss, cultural identity and culture clashes.
ReplyDeleteFor the multicultural read, I chose to read Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini which follows the relationship between two afghani boys. One of which witnesses the other being raped by one of the town bullies. This book dealt with some major themes including betrayal and friendship. I think This would be a powerful novel to cover in a class because it is a young adult piece yet Hosseini's writing is sophisticated and rich with detail and beautiful word choice. It would be a good novel to discuss in class because there are so many layers in the novel. One could analyze the father-son relationship between the main character Amir and his father or the relationship between Amir and his friend Hassan. One could also analyze and look at the novel as a comment of Afghani social classes and the impact they can have on individuals.
ReplyDeleteFor my multi-cultural book I read Flight by Sherman Alexie. This was definitely my favorite week so far because I got to read one of my favorite authors but also because the book was one I could not put down.
ReplyDeleteThe story begins with the protagonist, Zits, committing a mass murder at a bank. From there the novel tells the story of his upbringing through flashbacks, and also Zits eyes through famous characters in different historical settings that are significant to Native American history. He experiences Custer’s Last Stand, the massacre of a village, amongst other events. All of these events of discrimination, and his rough upbringing (20 different foster homes) all seem to contribute to why he shoots up the bank at twenty years of age.
That was the most interesting theme to the story for me, was how throughout the novel he was told by different native American figures in history to always seek revenge against the white man. For my reading response I actually compiled a chart of these instances and how they motivated a deep anger within Zits’ character. (Anyone can see it if they would like). The different experience Zits (which is an awesome name for a teenage protagonist) goes through as a child, I believe, is an awesome teaching point for a young adult audience. It may also be a life many kids in your classroom, depending on your demographic, can relate to.
I would highly recommend this book for the classroom. It is extremely well written, has a dynamic teen protagonist, deals with young adult issues, and actually takes the reader through some great historical moments. Flight is educational and relatable, it really doesn’t get much better than that.
For my multicultural novel, I chose to read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. While I'm sure it is not entirely classified as a Young Adult novel, I believe that it contains themes and elements that would appeal to a young adult audience. The story is of a boy, Amir, growing up in Afghanistan in the seventies. He watches something horrible happen to his friend/servant Hassan, and does nothing to intervene. He must live with this guilt hanging over his head the rest of his life, and the reader follows him to the United States, to Pakistan, and back to his birthplace in an attempt to free himself of sin. This book was absolutely inCREDIBLE. More than once, I broke down sobbing, and the entire thing was masterfully written. There are so many layers to Amir's story, and each of them is as affecting as the last. I made a webquest that goes into a few of the different layers, offering links to sites about Islam and Afghanistan history among other things. All-in-all, this is a very teachable book. It is possible to create a lesson plan for each separate aspect of the novel, including the way it's written, the symbols, and the incredible character voice. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. (You could probably read it for the section about books turned into movies!)
ReplyDeleteMy multicultural selection was Beast by Walter Dean Myers. In the interest of honesty, I have to confess that I really did not like this book. It's the story of a boy from Harlem who leaves his family and girlfriend to go to a prep school in Connecticut in the interest of getting into a decent college and not falling through the cracks like most of his friends (predictably guess who gets into Brown at the end of the book?). I recognize and respect the message Myers is trying to send: that it is ok to leave parts of yourself behind in where you have roots if it means bettering yourself. I can even really appreciate the entire (albeit overdone) theme of overcoming difficult circumstances. But I felt like the entire book was contrived and, if anything, contributed a lot TO the stigmas of African Americans growing up in Harlem rather than dispelling them. Naturally, all of the main characters friends have turned to drugs and crime and dropping out when he returns for spring break. Naturally he has to save his girlfriend from a drug den after her mother dies and leaves her parentless. Maybe I'm being too harsh about a book dealing with a culture that I simply don't know anything intimate about, but I found the book difficult to relate to and too predictable to offer up any real multicultural illumination.
ReplyDeleteI chose Jubilee Journey by Carolyn Meyer as my multicultural book. This book provided me a lens of a culture I was completely unfamiliar with. The way Meyer writes her novel inspires readers to get to know their own cultural past. Emily Rose, the protagonist, lives her life in two different settings in the book, the first being her home in Connecticut, and her second with her Grandmother in Texas. She is exposed to two completely different worlds, the one in Texas as one that is not so accepting. By exposing students to existing racism, this book uses ethos to get its message across.
ReplyDeleteThrough Emily Rose the reader can recognize the coping strategies many minority groups face on a daily basis, and can learn the importance of family heritage and traditions. Meyer’s book bridges the racial gap between the North and the South by giving Emily Rose’s experience in both states. I would highly recommend this book for any middle school classroom because it makes the students step outside of the touristic view and into the actual shoes of Emily Rose.
I read "The Window" by Jeanette Ingold. It is not a traditional multicultural novel because none of the main characters are from a 'minority' race, but the main character, Mandy, has recently become blind. Ingold confronts the many ways that Mandy faces and overcomes adversity as a person with a visual impairment. I think it is a wonderful book to demonstrate how people react to others who are different than themselves. Ingold did a wonderful job of showing the different reactions between children and adults; children were merely curious about life without vision from Mandy's perspective, whereas adults often commented that she needed or expected special treatment--neither of which is true. "The Window" does a fantastic job of critically confronting life from another's shoes, and I would recommend it to any student or friend of mine.
ReplyDeleteFor this week I read, "The Absolutely True Part-Time Diary of a Part Time Indian." I know by now, most people in the class have read it, which shows a true testament to how great of a book this is. What's great about it is trying to figure out if Alexie is enforcing Native American stereotypes or trying to break them down. I think there is a lot of class discussion in this novel, and it's a great segue into more Native American literature (at least in the high school realm).
ReplyDeleteThis continues to be one of the best books I've read this semester. Also, the fact that it contains several illustrations can be a source of more visual literacy incorporation in the classroom.
-Justin
Justin provides a very necessary point in reference to Alexie's novel (I also chose it for my multicultural text) and the controversy that surrounds stereotyping. Throughout this work readers see traditional negative imagery of Native Americans that seem counter productive to lessons on diversity. Where one would initially see this as turn off point, it leads to intense conversations between students. Where Conrad's Heart of Darkness brought controversy to the racial questions of colonized Africa, Alexie brings questions of colonized North America.
ReplyDeleteHis text is an invaluable tool for the facilitation of classroom discussion and development.
Born Blue by Han Nolan embodies an interesting idea I've been turning over in my head since I began studying gender and sexual identity five years ago or so: that race is a construction. Janie, the first person protagonist of Nolan's novel, renames herself "Leshaya" because she believes that she is part African American -- despite her blonde hair and blue eyes. At one point a black friend criticizes her speech because she speaks how she imagines an African American young woman would speak. Questions of reality perception arise as well, connected to the concept that we build and perform race, which Nolan explores to interesting effect.
ReplyDeleteMy book choice for Multicultural week was "The Book Thief" by Marcus Zusak. The novel follows the journey of Liesel Meminger. Liesel is living in Nazi Germany during WWII; she is living with her adoptive parents and trying to survive the hard times. The novel is narrated by Death. Death is fascinated with Liesel, who he dubs "the book thief." She steals books, but in the beginning she doesn't know how to read them. With the help of her stepfather, she learns how to read and becomes pretty fluent. The book talks about all the books she stole and how she went about acquiring them.
ReplyDeleteThe book is very enjoyable to read, and I believe it could be used in the classroom. One of the things that I found most fascinating in the book is the character of Death. As I read I was reading I found myself feeling like the character of Death has a soul. I think this notion could open many discussions in the classroom based on this one notion alone.
One of my favorite choices from this semester has to be "Counting Coup" by Larry Colton. It is the true story of the season of a basketball team from Hardin, MT. The team's best player is a Native American girl named Sharon LaForge. Colton follows her career on the court while investigating why so many amazing athletes like Sharon end up missing out on college. He is looking into the ugly truth that less that half of Native American students graduate from high school in this part of the country, let along go on to college.
ReplyDelete"Counting Coup" involves so many important topics for young adults that I don't know how one would cover them all. Alcohol, sex, sports, grades, racism, and parental issues are all explored at length by Colton. The abundance of topics probably stems from the fact that it is a true story. The book was not intended to be about any one single issue in the lives of high school kids, but rather about the issues that face a specific culture. But in the process of this investigation so much useful information is covered that the book becomes distinctly teachable.
Hayley actually recommend that I read "Galax-Arena" by Gillian Rubinstein for the multicultural genre.It's technically considered a science fiction novel because it's about kids who are kidnapped by ailens, (the Vexa which are natives of the planet Vexak), and used as the ailen's pets or as entertainers as they are forced to preform death-defying stunts in the Galax-Arena.The Vexa are hooked up to devices that cause them to feel the adrenalin rush of the kids. As it turns out, the Vexa are actually humans in costumes and planet Vexak is a sham. Everybody is still on Earth and the narrator of the story, Joella, finds out that all the kidnapped children are being used in an experiment called Genesis 5. The goal of the experiment is to acheive immortality by channeling the children's adrenalin into the bodies of the elderly in an attempt to trick their minds and bodies into thinking they are young and have many years ahead of them.
ReplyDeleteNow most of you are probably wondering how this could possibly be at all considered appropriate for the multicultural genre. Well, let me explain. The "Vexa" targeted children with amazing athletic abilities who had no gaurdians to wonder where they'd gone. The kids the "Vexa" captured came from all over planet Earth and so when they "arrived on the planet Vexak", they couldn't communicate with each other. Due to this lack of communication coupled with the fact that most of them had been on the streets before being kidnapped, the children were chaotic and wild. Then one day, a boy is kidnapped who decides the kids need to make their own language that they can all understand and speak to one another. Not only do they develope their own language, but also a very cut-throat, primative culture.
When the children become "problematic" they are killed by the "Vexa". For this reason, there are no TRUE friendships, only rare gestures of kindness.
This book could provide for teachers a way to dicuss the good and bad things about the culture the characters create and then take relevant points from that conversation and apply them to real cultures of the world.
During the multi-cultural week, I chose to read Pam Munoz Ryan’s beautiful novel Esperanza Rising. I would invite everyone to visit my webquest for additional information at http://esperanzarisingwebquest.blogspot.com/. Telling the story of Esperanza, a wealthy girl from Aguascalientes, Mexico, the novel is about how people retain and discover personal identity when separated from their homeland. Esperanza moves to the United States after great tragedy tears her family and home to pieces, and her journey toward healing incorporates socio-economic and cultural issues with feeling and accuracy. I loved this book and (months later) feel emotionally stirred when I think of it. I would advocate for its use in any school’s curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI read Paper Daughter by Jeanette Ingold. Born in America, but from Chinese heritage, Maggie Chen stumbles upon some possible lies regarding her father's after his death that could be connected to a story that she is investigating as an intern for the local newspaper.
ReplyDeletePaper Daughter has two stories that weave in and out of the novel, but end together. One story telling Maggie's current situation, the other deals with a story stemming from the Chinese Exclusion Act.
I think the center them of this novel deals with Maggie's own identity. As she learns that her father might not be who she thought he was, she wonders who she is?