I am an American: A True Story of Japanses Interment by Jerry Stanley

• ISBN-10: 0590684442
• Paperback: 102 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic (1998)

From Publishers Weekly

A history professor, Stanley (Children of the Dust Bowl) does an admirable job of distilling the intricate story of the Japanese in America during World War II. At the same time, the author presents a highly personal portrait of Shi Nomura, one of the nearly 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry whom the federal government ordered evacuated from their West Coast homes to relocation camps as a result of war-provoked hysteria and hostility. The seeds for this prejudice, the reader learns, were sown early in the century, when anti-Japanese sentiment escalated to the point that schools were racially segregated in San Francisco and the Japanese government signed a "gentleman's agreement" to stop their citizens from emigrating to this country. Quotes from the perceptive, articulate Shi as well as numerous period photos underscore the ignominy of the U.S. government's wartime action and help make this volume a haunting, at times heartrending chronicle. Ages 9-up. (Sept.) q
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-10-In clear and fascinating prose, Stanley has set forth the compelling story of one of America's darkest times- the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. He has based his account on the experiences of Shi Nomura, who was sent to Manzanar in the deserts of eastern California when he was a high school senior. But the author weaves in more than absorbing personal details; he places the camps in a broader historical context, from Japanese immigration and the resentment it aroused to outstanding Japanese American service in the war. His meticulously researched volume is accompanied by numerous, fine period black-and-white photographs, many by Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams; and he makes judicious use of maps. This eloquent account of the disastrous results of racial prejudice stands as a reminder to us in today's pluralistic society.
Diane S. Marton, Arlington County Library, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

How I would use this in the classroom
I would use this book during a Holocaust unit. I think, again, it is a subject not talked about enough. Showing the students the importance of these historical event would be very rewarding in the long run.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

ISBN-10: 0345514408
pages: 304
Published: 1969

Despite all the accolades showered on her, Maya Angelou has often been on the Challenged and Banned Books lists. She is ranked 8^th in the American Library Association List of “Top Ten Challenged Authors 1990 to 2004” (out of 8,332 challenges reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom.  See link below.) Some of these books are challenged because of their presence on school library book shelves, and others because they have been assigned as required reading in the curriculum.

"This is the autobiography of Maya Angelou's harsh and unpleasant childhood. She and her brother were shuttled from relatives in the dirt poor rural south to then live for a time in St. Louis with their pretty but irresponsible mother. Eventually they met their father. The book shows the ignorance and prejudice of both black and white people in the 30's and 40's. In St. Louis, Maya is molested as a young girl by an acquaintance of her mother. In California, she becomes a delinquent and lives on the streets and in abandoned cars while in her teens. By the time she is in high school she has become pregnant with a child. "
David Fletcher, Resident Scholar 

How I would use it in a classroom
This book has so many themes in it that it would fit into a lot of unit plans. It is smart, coming of age, historical memoir. It would good to practice memoir making in line with this book. 

The Tangerine Tree by Regina Hanson

ISBN-10: 0395689635
Pages: 31
Published: 1995

This story book is set in Jamaica and tells of the hardship of a father finding work, and the determination of hard work and loving family life.

From Publishers Weekly

As her father packs, preparing to leave Jamaica for a job in New York, Ida is distraught. "He never comin' back!" she wails, despite her parents' assurances. Refusing to say good-bye, Ida hides in a tangerine tree. Papa tracks her down, gives her a copy of Stories of the Ancient Greeks and makes her a promise: "Dis is our secret: by de time you are big enough to read it by yourself, I will be home." In an affecting scene, Papa takes leave of his family and Ida gives him a gift-juice she has poured in a bottle: "I squeeze out sun from de tangerines into it. If New York is cold and snowy when you get dere, dis bottle will warm you up." Debut author Hanson, who was born and raised in Jamaica, conveys this gentle, rhythmic tale with a tone that is at once sad and hopeful. In his richly textured acrylic paintings, Stevenson's deft, impressionistic use of color and light recreates the ambience of the island, capturing as well the deep love connecting the members of this family. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2?Ida will sorely miss her father while he's in New York working to provide for the family. But, like her older brothers, she's been given a job?hers is to care for the tangerine tree. "'I must ask Mistress Sun to sprinkle down little pieces of her fire. De tree will catch de tiny bits of sun and put dem inside de tangerines...'" Some of this sun Ida squeezes into a bottle to help keep Papa warm until he returns to Jamaica. In concrete, well-written prose, Hanson captures the emotional poignancy of a family in flux. The text is reminiscent of Mavis Jukes's Like Jake and Me (Knopf, 1987), although here the story is further seeped in cultural richness. The premise of the father's departure, the dialogue, and the tree all work together to create an authentic cultural portrait. Stevenson's rich acrylic illustrations have a raw power that complements the text perfectly. The pictures are awash in bright, dense color and make readers feel as if they're walking in the radiating sun. The characters' concern for one another, sadness, and eventual acceptance are brought to life. A stellar example of how children can share universal life experiences.?Martha Topol, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, MI
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

How I would use this book
This would be a great book to show hardships and how people overcome them. It would be great to show family values and the importance of support from elders and likewise, the support from children for adults. 

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

ISBN: 157270036X
Genre: Multicultural fiction
Published: July 11, 1960

My Personal Review
This is a great novel and seems to be a staple in classrooms across the U.S. It is Lee's only novel. The novel comments on racism, gender roles, class issues, and education. It tells of basic human problems and issues as well as minority issues; it is relevant to any reader at any age. Considering the novel is 50 years old, it is pretty amazing this novel has held up to the test of time.



A review by Phoebe Adams
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/classrev/mocking.htm
Two other novels have turned up which may be classified as respectable hammock reading, if anybody reads in hammocks anymore. Walk Egypt by Vinnie Williams is well-written soap opera, and Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird is sugar-water served with humor. . . .
To Kill A Mockingbird is a more successful piece of work. It is frankly and completely impossible, being told in the first person by a six-year-old girl with the prose style of a well-educated adult. Miss Lee has, to be sure, made an attempt to confine the information in the text to what Scout would actually know, but it is no more than a casual gesture toward plausibility.
The book's setting is a small town in Alabama, and the action behind Scout's tale is her father's determination, as a lawyer, liberal, and honest man, to defend a Negro accused of raping a white girl. What happens is, naturally, never seen directly by the narrator. The surface of the story is an Alcottish filigree of games, mischief, squabbles with an older brother, troubles at school, and the like. None of it is painful, for Scout and Jem are happy children, brought up with angelic cleverness by their father and his old Negro housekeeper. Nothing fazes them much or long. Even the new first-grade teacher, a devotee of the "Dewey decimal system" who is outraged to discover that Scout can already read and write, proves endurable in the long run.
A variety of adults, mostly eccentric in Scout's judgment, and a continual bubble of incident make To Kill A Mockingbird pleasant, undemanding reading.

 And another good site for reviews:
http://www.allreaders.com/topics/info_1072.asp

How I'll use it:

This is a great coming of age story. There are elements in this story that almost anyone in the class could relate to. I could link it up with a government/law unit, or a unit on racial persecution and heroes.