Friday, October 19th. 2018

We come to the end of another week and finally the temperatures are beginning to reflect the time of year that we are now in.  

We are continuing to cover theme in literacy since that is a huge but misunderstood concept.  We are also practicing inference to delve into how a character feels and trying to understand a character's point of view.  The more we identify with a character, the more we can empathize, the more meaningful and enjoyable a story becomes.

With that, I would like to discuss a book for my WIN Time group's novel study.that we have been reading.  The book is titled, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and it is an historical fiction book for children starting around the 4th grade.  Written by Mildred Taylor, who heard stories about her African-American family and their struggles in the Jim Crow-era South, it is a book about the fictional Logan family and their struggles to get by in rural 1930's Mississippi.  They have a lot to deal with:  the Great Depression, racism, violence, indifference, economic exploitation of sharecroppers, etc.  The book won the 1977 Newbery Award for children's literature.  The image I used is from the 1991 printing since I have always liked the cover art.

Since it is historical, the author was very accurate in her dialogue.  The characters speak in their vernacular with slang and colloquialisms, varying degrees of grammar usage - all true to form to make the story as realistic as possible.  Unfortunately, there is the occasional use of the "n-word" in the story.  I have explained to my group that is a very derogatory word, and unfortunately, people used it a LOT in the past.  Sadly, it is still used today though it isn't generally a socially acceptable thing to do anymore in public.  Students who read the book aloud to the group were asked to simple skip over it due to how uncomfortable it can make people.  While the word is hurtful and hateful

---