Book Talks

Book talk

April 13, 2009

It has been a while since I have read from the book. But I read the story Godmother and found it interesting. Willa is a fourteen year old girl who leaves home to spend the summer with her Godmother. At first she is very excited about the trip, but it isn’t long before Willa is not real happy with her Godmother and wishes to go home.

A phrase from the book that caught my attention was, “she and Thomas fell in love and married and had all those babies.” When Godmother makes this comment it offends Willa and I can relate to that a little bit. I am the oldest of six children, six children born in five years. My mom has shared stories about the comments and the funny looks that she got each time she went to town with all of us in tow, and comments from her own family who thought that she should have only a couple of children and have a career, because she is college educated and very, very intelligent. It hurt me to hear those stories because it hurt my mother, but it was also hurtful to me because I was one of “those babies”. I am very grateful to my mother for having each of us, teaching us, loving us and sacrificing for us. Willa loses a little bit of respect for her Godmother for this comment and I did for those who spoke against my mother.

March 5, 2009

Earlier today I read the story Bride Price by Linda Crew. The story is about a Cambodian girl living in America. She is having a discussion with another Cambodian girl about marriage. In Cambodia girls marry by arrangement and to the man who pays the highest price. She is now living in America and the marriage game is different. She makes the comment, “How could you cling to old rules that no one else bothers following?” This statement caught my eye when I read it, but it meant more after class today. We discussed following the rules of the Classroom teacher, and how important that we uphold those rules. Frances made the comment that we hold all students accountable for the rules not just some of them. Yes! I hate having to play by rules that others don’t have too. I also believe that if you create a rule then it is very important to uphold those rules, or you cut your own legs out from under yourself. If the rules are only there to enforce when or if you want too, then they are meaningless and you lose credibility with your students. (This was a major factor in me deciding to homeschool my children.)

There was another comment in the story, “Maybe superstitions lasted longest when everyone agreed to the same thing and no one dared defy the rules.” Sometimes rules need to be challenged and reevaluated, if we can’t or won’t enforce certain rules then perhaps they need to be changed or removed.

February 27

The last two stories I have read in the Anthology is about teenage girls becoming pregnant, and their experiences. It always breaks my heart when young girls become pregnant without being married and without finishing their education. In the story Dead End by Rudolfo Anya, the main character, Maria, makes the comment that “I don’t want to drown my children.” She is referring to a story about a woman who drowns her children because her husband leaves her. Maria is speaking literally about drowning her children, but I also thought about figuratively drowning them. By that I mean that when you are having children so young without being married you are in a manner of speaking drowning them. The chances of the mother finishing school is very low, she will probably have to go to work to support the child, which lessons the chance that the child will have the love, attention and support that he or she needs and the cycle will continue. Somehow we have got to stop the cycle!! We are seeing the results of these drownings in our classrooms.

2/19/09

We didn’t get to do a book talk today, but I have continued to read and so will share some insights. The last couple of stories that I have read really portray stereotypes that are in our culture. In No Win Phoung and A Daughter of the Sea, the stereotypes were about Asians. Fortunately, each of the stories had a happy ending, in that those throwing the negative comments had a change of heart. I came away from these stories being reminded once again that usually once you get to know someone, all prejudices melt away, and we find that primarily we are all the same. We all want to be accepted and loved, we want friends, and we want to be happy. Our cultures just sometimes define those desires differently.

2/3

Sarah and I are both reading the anthology Join In edited by Donald R. Gallo. I had read several of the stories in the book, Sarah had read only the first one and so that is what we talked about. The story Into the Game by Rita Williams-Garcia, is a story of three teenage boys who have just been paid, and are on their way into the city to spend their money. They would also really like to pick up some girls on the way. Three girls join them on the subway, but the boys never quite gather the courage that they need to talk to them. It brought back memories from my teenage years, wow! Wouldn’t go back there again for anything.

I can’t wait for her to read a few more stories so that we can discuss them. I really connected with the story Eagle cloud and Fawn by Barbara Beasley Murphy, because the setting is the San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico. I am familiar with that pueblo and the culture. Eagle Cloud is Native American and Fawn is a girl from New York. Eagle Cloud invites Fawn into his pueblo and home for a day and then when she leaves Eagle Cloud looks around his home and comments that “I was seeing things through Fawn’s eyes. Yet I didn’t understand her that well, and I wanted my own sense of what I was seeing back.” That statement caught my attention because it is a profound statement about what happens when we interact with others, especially those who are so different from us. We begin to see the world differently, and sometimes we are grateful to have another view point and othr times we wish we could go back to our own vision.