History Makes For A Great Story

Title: Pink and Say

Author/Illustrator: Patricia Polacco
Genre(s): Children's Literature, Fiction
Age: 6-9

    In this story we are taken back to a time during the Civil War. Sheldon's daughter Rosa, is retelling the events as he told her in his own words. When he was just a lad, he had been in the war for about a year, and he had been hurt real bad, and he was wishing he was home. He would go in and out of consciousness, and he was wishing he could be back home with his Ma, eating biscuits. He heard a voice talk to him, and he gave him a drink from his own kit. This man wanted to help him, but if he had been hit in the belly he'd have to leave him behind, but he wanted to get him to his fit, since it was only a leg injury and bring him back to where the other wounded soldiers were. He remembers having to stumble to the ground and trying not to be seen, he may have been half asleep, but he remembered these details.   
    Pinkus Aylee, found Sheldon while he was lost from his division, and took him to his home where his mother was helping Sheldon recover. His mother has been home by herself, because his father went to fight in the war as well, and everyone else left to get out of harm's way, but she chose to stay. She kept praying that the Lord would bring her son home, and through this he did, and she was hoping he was here to stay. He felt that he was putting his Ma, Moe Moe Bay in danger by being there, since marauders have been coming by, but they've seen there's nothing there for them, so they leave her alone. So, as soon as Sheldon healed up, he planned for them to leave. While he was recuperating, Pink's mom showed them where the Master lived, and how they had to take his last name, because they were slaves, but now were able to live on this land free. His mom also made sure Say walked every day so that he could be on the road to recovery. While sitting outside one day Pink and Say are talking about their different experiences and in Pink's troop they weren't given guns at first and had to fight with sticks, sledges, and hammers, when they finally got muskets they were from the Mexican-American War and often misfired and jammed. In Say's troop they weren't allowed to carry guns at first but as many people died they had no choice.
    Pink and Say are learning more about one another and are sharing their stories about what they've been through and what has happened in their lives. Pink's Master taught him how to read, even though slaves weren't allowed to read, from the moment he started learning that no one could ever really own him. They were planning where they needed to go next, and Moe Moe Bay didn't want them to go and wanted them to stay with her so she could take care of them, but they knew they couldn't put her at risk. later that night Say couldn't sleep and Moe Moe Bay came and talked with him, and he told her he didn't want to go back to the war, he tells her the truth about how he ended up in his situation and it was because he ran away from his unit, and got hit while running. Marauders came and ransacked Moe Moe Bay's home, and she hid Pink and Say in the root cellar and told them they needed to stay there until she gave them the all clear signal. The marauders left and there was no signal from Moe Moe Bay, so they crept out the root cellar, only to find Moe Moe Bay lying on the front porch. They felt so sad because they felt as though they put her in danger and had caused this. Pink and Say held her until she passed away. They later buried her under the willow tree, and set out. As they set out on their journey they were captured by Confederate soldiers and were taken to  a Confederate camp, Andersonville, which was one of the worst camps to be at. When they arrived he and Pink were separated, and he wanted to touch the hand that touch Abraham Lincoln's one last time.

    Sheldon Russell Curtis (Say) was able to return home, at only 78 pounds, and was able to recover and have many children and grandchildren. Many people died in this camp due to no food, shelter, and fresh water. The camp was only meant to hold ten thousand prisoners, yet during the war there were thirty-three thousand soldiers. Pinkus Aylee (Pink) never returned home, he didn't get to have a wife, children, or grandchildren. He was hung within hours of his arrival at this camp, and afterwards his body was thrown into a lime pit. She knew this story to be true, because Sheldon Curtis Russell is her great-great-grandfather.

My Thoughts on this Book... 

    I loved the illustrations by Patricia Polacco, they went so beautifully with her words, and really added to the story in a positive way. I love this story because she wrote it to keep the memory of Pinkus Aylee alive, and that this was a way for him to be remembered because he didn't have to people who would remember him, when he died like Sheldon Curtis Russell, who had his family to remember him. This story tells of friendship and triumph through a time, when these two human beings were unlikely to become friends during this time period, but Pink had a great heart and wanted to help Say recuperate and get better, and felt that no man should be left behind. Through her illustrations, I felt the emotions going on in the story, especially when Moe Moe Bay died, because we could see her lifeless body in their arms, and the emotions on their faces and how they felt. This book was very expressive and I loved that, as well as the detail in each picture.

Title: One Crazy Summer

Author: Rita Williams-Garcia
Award(s): Newbery Honor Book (2011); Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction (2011); Coretta Scott King Award (2011); National Book Award Finalist (2010)
Genre(s): Novel, Children's Literature, Historical Fiction
Age: 8-12

    This story is about three girls (Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern), who travel to Oakland California, to meet the mom who abandoned them, and hoped to learn more about her, and maybe even go to Disneyland. As they as arrived in California their mom is very cold towards them, as if she didn't want to be seen with them. When they arrived to her house the girls were shocked to see that her house was pretty normal and that the only oddities were a palm tree and stucco, which no one else on the street had. Cecile won't let them in the kitchen, and this makes the girls suspicious because they want to know why they can't go in this area. That first night their mother didn't even cook dinner, but sent them down the street to order take out, and even then they were forced to eat on a tablecloth spread out on the floor and not in the kitchen. The girls aren't feeling that their mother is very receptive, she makes comments about how she should've went to Mexico to take care of the situation, or that she didn't even want them here in Oakland, and Delphine is usually the only one to hear them, and it just upsets her. Their father wanted and thought their mother should at least be given the chance to get to know them. Once again she sent them to get breakfast from the People's Center, and had them drop off a box to the Black Panther party, after they came to her house and said she needed to do more for the cause, yet she didn't go with them, and even told them to stay out at least until sundown.

    While at the Center, they were questioned by Kelvin, who wanted to ask them questions, and see where there were with the movement, but that conversation quickly went left when they teased Fern, about her white baby doll, and called her a White Baby Lover, and Delphine and Vonetta stuck up for her. After breakfast they stayed for the program and talked about revolutionary people, when Vonetta talked about how they didn't go there for that but that they came for breakfast and Fern added to see their mother, which made the other students in attendance laugh at these girls. When they return home they ask Cecile about her name Nzila and what it meant and she explained she had this name because she wrote poems, in essence it was her stage name. It's believed that she left them because their father chose to name their last daughter Fern, and this made Cecile upset and she took off. However, Delphine cherished her name and felt her mom created it from her poetic bank, but she didn't, she was named after a dolphin from a tv show.

    The girls are spending more time at the Center and becoming involved and learning more about the Blank Panther party. After Vonetta didn't stick up for her sister, Fern, for carrying her doll everywhere and that it was white made Fern and Delphine very upset with her, and they start to do things separately. When they returned to Cecile's house Vonetta had taken a black magic marker and colored in Fern's doll to make her black, and Delphine did the best she could to get it out, but there wasn't any saving this doll. One day Delphine decided she was going to cook dinner, because all the take out food was not good for them, there just was one problem, Cecile didn't let them in her kitchen. She eventually worked out an agreement that she wouldn't make a mess in the kitchen and that she would clean up the mess afterwards, and to not expect any help from her. Spending more time at the camp they are learning about people's instances with racism, and how Hirohito, who's half black half-Japanese, who's father was taken from him, and how they even had their own run in with police, when they were traveling to their grandma's house in Alabama, and were very tired that they pulled over and rested, only to have a policeman question him, and not be polite or offer directions to see if they were ok or needed help, just assumed they were doing something wrong.

    They were asked to prepares special shows for the rally to free Huey Brown and protest the police, but Delphine felt this was too dangerous and that they shouldn't, but they should stand as one, but make sure they're alive to do so, because the police had shot an unarmed teenage for being apart of the Blank Panther group. However, Cecile made them go and basically get them out of her house once again. The way she saw it is that they hadn't held a gun to her head or shot at her, so she wasn't in real danger.  Their mother is up getting arrested and they have to fend for themselves in she said she didn't have any kids and they said they were someone else is kids as well so that they weren't arrested, and put in juvenile.  Their mother's kitchen was thrown apart by the cops because they were looking for something as she and 2 other black panther members were arrested. The girls wanted to put her stuff back together and clean it up as best as possible to which they found one of her poems and thought they should recite it for the program instead. While their mom was in jail the girls stayed with Hirohito's family. While performing at the Center's People rally, the girls nailed their performance of Cecile's poem, and Fern even recited her own poem about Crazy Kelvin, who she saw while she was on the bus, and he was being patted on the back by cops, and would always call them racist pigs, yet she compared him to being called a good puppy by the officers.. Their mother wrote them a month later and said Fern's performance was the birth of a new poet, as she had been released from prison and was able to watch their perform. 

    In a touching moment towards the end as the girls are preparing to leave Cecile opens up about her childhood and life and what caused some of her decisions. While Cecile was in jail, she expected that Delphine would've called their father, but Delphine wasn't ready to go yet, and that she wanted to stay with her mom just a bit longer, and because she knew Big Ma would never let her hear the end of it and every mistake she made up until that point. In this moment all the questions she had had essentially been answered, and when she brought up her leaving because of her not getting to name Fern, she explained that would have to be a conversation for when she was older, but she kept saying Afua, I take it that's what she wanted to name Fern instead. They made their way to the airport to depart for Brooklyn and just as they were about to board the plan, the girls ran to hug their mother, and get her sweet embrace, as any kid would want.

My Thoughts on this Book....

    I absolutely loved this book and it's story! Rita Williams-Garcia's words crafted a beautiful story, and embodied what life was like during this time period, and how people were during this time. I loved how they were able to learn about their family and more about the Blank Panther movement and what it stood for, and how these people were agents of change. I felt like I was taken into this story and its time period because her words created beautiful images and were what would've been said at that time.

    Although their mother seemed heartless and cold at the beginning she started to grow on me. I feel that she was going through a lot and didn't agree with many things, she wanted to fly by the seat of her own pants and serve a greater purpose, however I couldn't imagine leaving my kids behind no matter what. However, when she had that moment with her in the kitchen I felt her motherly side coming out, and her being vulnerable, which before I never got from her. When the girls recited their poem, and later reading that the word 'black' wasn't apart of the original script surprised me because it flowed so well. I just thought it was italicized to add inflection and meaning when reading it, and as they spoke it.