Reading Review with Christal

  Title: The Undefeated Author/Illustrator: Kwame Alexander/Kadir Nelson Awards: 2020 Caldecott Medal winner; Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text Genre(s): Poetry, Children's literature, Narrative poetry, Children's Non-fiction literature Age: 6-9      The Undefeated conveyed stories of different African Americans through a poem. The illustrations allow us to feel what is being said, and showed the various faces of important figures in the African American community. The words in the book talked about the struggles they went through, but highlighted how they were able to pave the way for someone else, and they continued the journey, and the torch is continuously passed from one generation to the next. The author wrote this poem, because so much of the story has been left out, or forgotten. Many American textbooks provide a false narrative, or only tell part of the story, they only highlight so many of the common figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa P...

Title: Show Way Author/Illustrator: Jaqueline Woodson/Hudson Talbott Award(s): Newbery Honor(2006), New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing Genre(s): Fiction, Picture books, Children's Literature Age: 4-8           Show Way by Jaqueline Woodson is about a story of seven generations of African-Americans, based on the author's own personal familial experience. Soonie's great-grandmother was seven when she was sold to a different planation by herself in South Carolina. She left with some bright red thread, and two needles to have as a reminder of her home. She was then raised by Big Mama, and many of the other slave children. She would tell them stories about how children were able to get themselves free, and the children loved these stories. When they were able to rest during the day, Big Mama taught Soonie's great-grandmother sewed colored thread into stars and moons, that as children grew up, they would follow at night leading them to fre...

    For the most part my secondary experiences with literature were rather positive. My middle school English teacher had quite the impact on my literature experience as she took time out to explain things and make them relative to us. She wasn't always my favorite, but helped me understand literature better, and dig deeper. We had a project for a book we read ( The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien), and we were allowed to create any multimedia project that represented something major from the scene, or how we thought a character might look. I chose to do Smaug, the monster who lived in the mountain, and after school for about a week or so she would help me p apier-mâché my character, and questioned why I chose this character, and how I planned on incorporating it in my presentation, it was conversations like these that helped made me question literature, and the book we read. Originally I was not into this book, and when she gave us this project midway through it changed ho...

     I have had a great experience with reading and keeping my mind active growing up. During the summer, my mom frequently put me in summer reading programs, and I read many different books, genres, and authors, at times it was required for school, other times, she just wanted to make sure that I was being active mentally, and not regressing with my education. She even bought me different work books so that I could do them and she would check them and give feedback on what I had done to help me get better.     Which books I've actually read is a little bit harder to remember because there were a lot. I did get into John Grisham books at a young age, and I frequently read his books ( A Time To Kill , Sycamore Row , The Runaway Jury , just to name a few). Crime and mystery fascinate me a lot and he writes them in such great detail that I feel like I'm there, and I think in some other form I wanted to be a lawyer or something in the legal field, however I don...

       My word this year is CONNECT. I think is a big one for me, especially with this pandemic, I have to connect with others differently than I'm used to. I took the One Word quiz, and this was my word, which actually was spot on for me, with everything I have going on right now. I love to connect with people in so many ways and this pandemic has really changed them both good and bad. However, this pandemic has given me an opportunity to re-connect with myself and re-build personal connections with myself and take time to get back with myself. For the last I don't know how many years, I have just been on-the-go nonstop, so I feel that this was God's way, of giving me a break and telling me to take time for myself and refocus. It's allowed me to get deeper in my physical and mental health, and doing yoga, has greatly improved my overall health. This word along with flexibility will be big for me, so that I can have a successful semester and overall, year. For me in ...