book review: Remember: The journey to school integration

Title: Remember: The Journey to School Inegration  

Author: Toni Morrison

Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004

non-fiction

This nonfiction book contains many sepia toned images of Blacks and Whites, children and adults. The most certain fact is contained in the image of the New York Times front page dated 17 May 1954, the date the US Supreme Court ended school segregation “with all deliberate speed.”  From this starting point, Morrison tells us, no she shows us what it was like for people of this country to desegregate its schools. I found it amazing how Toni Morrison, such a gift story teller, was able to let the images tell the story. The images chosen for this book make the struggles of this era human and personal. Morrison depicts those Blacks and Whites who lived through this era as determined, fearful, united, hopeful and strong. While the book does not contain a lot of facts about this era, it does what most history books do not: it brings life to the past.

 

from Greg to Jesse to me to You

This is just the coolest thing I’ve seen all day.

 

 

Sunday Morning Reads

O, this will be short!  I did my reading yesterday! I’d love to go to the movies today. What happened to all the good movies? I had hoped it to Precious while it was here at the Heartland film festival, but it sold out so quickly! Regular readers here were introduced to A Wish After Midnight back in January. Since then, Zetta Elliott who you may remember had to self publish her book. She’s been reviewed by Bookslut, Justine  Larbalestier,Neesha Meminger,  HappyNappyBookseller and most recently, ALAN Pick of the Month. Books are such personal expressions of our creativity that is has to hurt immensely to have some stranger, some well appointed “expert”, tell you that your work just isn’t good enough. Nonetheless, Elliott believed in her book enough to keep looking for venues to get her book to readers. How do you teach perseverance like this to students? How do you teach them how to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em? Especially how do you teach this to children of color who may be shot down at the blink of an eye while this child denies racism even exists? Educators have  got to know more than content area! Parents have to make tough choices remembering that they’re being watched, and the same for community members.  We’ve got to find reasons to believe in our young people and ways to show them.  And when we can’t do that anymore, we have to move on. We have to be honest with them, people of integrity.

I’ve (finally) gotten a lot of good books read, so look for several reviews in the upcoming week.

 

The Book Closes

The closing meme for this year’s Read-A-Thon

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? I guess around midnight I knew I wasn’t going to make it until 8am. I kept setting small goals and lasted until 2:45
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? All of my books were great reads! Lust Caution was intense but short. I didn’t want Orange Mint and Honey to end!
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? When you needed a book break, there was a lot to read/do online.
5. How many books did you read? 4.5
6. What were the names of the books you read?  half of Lady J by L. Divine; The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman; Orange Mint and Honey by Carlene Brice; Shine Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger and Lust Caution by Eileen Chang.
7. Which book did you enjoy most? Orange Mint and Honey
8. Which did you enjoy least? This would almost imply that I didn’t like one of my books, I enjoyed them all!
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? My cheerleaders were great. Many took the time to read my posts and make more personalized comments. That was nice. It was really great to have friends who stopped by show love and I was WOWED when my son had read my blog and texted and tweeted me!
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? There’s a good chance I’ll be back next time!

Thanks to the ladies who organized this! Job well done!

 

Music between the Covers

I finished Orange Mint and Honey three books ago, but our girl Shay was such a Nina Simone fan that I’m still listening!

 

Challenge #4

The challenge: use the titles of 3-4 books to create a sentence.

“The ties that binds a quilt of dreams fade to blue.”

 

ReadAThon update

Good Morning!

I did a quick workout at Curves to prepare for a day of reading and then snuggled in with Orange Mint and Honey by Carlene Brice. This read a thon is giving me a rare opportunity to talk about a few works of adult lit! Suggestions to get us through this challenge included reading short, quick to read books so that we feel like we’re accomplishing something. Well, Orange Mind and Honey is not short and I don’t want to make it quick! I want to savor every word of this book; it is so well written! Brice’s descriptions alert your mind to just where she wants to take you. I want to wear a shirt that says “WWNSD?”. I want to evoke a goddess of inspiration! I want one more chance to talk with my own mom. I don’t know if I want to see what Lifetime does to this book when they make the movie. This is a book I don’t want to end!

I pulled out the laptop to listen to some of the jazz artists Oliver is mentioning, visited the 24HR Challenge homepage and marked myself on the map! Now…back to the book…

 

Reading Break

I’ve just signed up for Dewey’s 24 Hr Read-a-Thon. Yes, it’s last minute, but I’m all in! Check on me or any participating blog to find everyone’s progress.

Here’s my list of intended books, though not necessarily in this order and more or less!

Shine Coconut Moon

Lady J

Lust Caution

What Great Teachers do Differently

Fade to Blue

Millicent Min Girl Genius

Necessary Noise

Ball Don’t Lie

Orange Mint and Honey

 

Troy Cle: Marvelous World

Olivion’s Favorite releases in November.