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. 

Pink and Say by Patircia Polacco

ISBN-10: 0399226710
Pages: 48
Published: 1994

From School Library Journal

Grade 4 Up-This picture book set during the Civil War is a departure for Polacco in terms of content and audience. It is certainly the deepest and most serious book she has done. Sheldon Curtis, 15, a white boy, lies badly wounded in a field in Georgia when Pinkus Aylee, an African American Union soldier about Sheldon's age, finds him and carries him home to his mother, Moe Moe Bay. Sheldon, known as Say, is nursed back to health in her nurturing care. But then she is killed by marauders, and the boys return to their units. They are then are captured and taken to Andersonville, where Pink is hanged within hours of their capture. One of the most touching moments is when Pink reads aloud from the Bible to Moe Moe and Say. Say tells them that he can't read, but then he offers something he's very proud of: he once shook Abraham Lincoln's hand. This is a central image in the story, and is what ties the boys together for a final time, as Pink cries, "'Let me touch the hand that touched Mr. Lincoln, Say, just one last time.'" The picture of their clasped hands, with the hands of the soldiers wrenching them apart, is exceptionally moving. Polacco's artwork, in fact, has never been better. She uses dramatic perspectives, dynamic compositions, and faces full of emotion to carry her powerful tale. History comes to life in this remarkable book.
Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 5-9. Hands and gestures have always been important in Polacco's work. Here they are at the center of a picture book based on a true incident in the author's own family history. It's a story of interracial friendship during the Civil War between two 15-year-old Union soldiers. Say, who is white and poor, tells how he is rescued by Pinkus (Pink), who carries the wounded Say back to the Georgia home where Pink's black family were slaves. In a kind of idyllic interlude, Pink and his mother nurse Say back to health, and Pink teaches his friend to read; but before they can leave, marauders kill Pink's mother and drag the boys to Andersonville prison. Pink is hanged, but Say survives to tell the story and pass it on across generations. The figure of Pink's mother borders on the sentimental, but the boys' relationship is beautifully drawn. Throughout the story there are heartbreaking images of people torn from a loving embrace. Pictures on the title and copyright pages show the parallel partings as each boy leaves his family to go to war. At the end, when the friends are wrenched apart in prison, the widening space between their outstretched hands expresses all the sorrow of the war. Then, in a powerful double-page spread, they are able to clasp hands for a moment, and their union is like a rope. Say once shook Lincoln's hand, just as Say held Pink's hand, and Say tells his children, who tell theirs, that they have touched the hand that touched the hand . . . Hazel Rochman

How I would use it in the classroom
This book would be a great to to reveal war significance and the relationships of people and slaves during the Civil War. It would show, again, that people are all the same and people having the right to choose their friends. 

if you come softly by Jeacqueline Woodson

• ISBN-10: 0142415227
• Pages: 208

From Publishers Weekly

Once again, Woodson (I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This) handles delicate, even explosive subject matter with exceptional clarity, surety and depth. In this contemporary story about an interracial romance, she seems to slip effortlessly into the skins of both her main characters, Ellie, an upper-middle-class white girl who has just transferred to Percy, an elite New York City prep school, and Jeremiah, one of her few African American classmates, whose parents (a movie producer and a famous writer) have just separated. A prologue intimates heartbreak to come; thereafter, sequences alternate between Ellie's first-person narration and a third-person telling that focuses on Jeremiah. Both voices convincingly describe the couple's love-at-first-sight meeting and the gradual building of their trust. The intensity of their emotions will make hearts flutter, then ache as evidence mounts that Ellie's and Jeremiah's "perfect" love exists in a deeply flawed society. Even as Woodson's lyrical prose draws the audience into the tenderness of young love, her perceptive comments about race and racism will strike a chord with black readers and open the eyes of white readers ("Thing about white people," Jeremiah's father tells him, "they know what everybody else is, but they don't know they're white"). Knowing from the beginning that tragedy lies just around the corner doesn't soften the sharp impact of this wrenching book. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up-Two 15 year olds, Jeremiah (Miah) who is black, and Elisha (Ellie) who is white, meet during their first year at an exclusive New York prep school and fall in love. Both teens are also dealing with difficult family situations. Miah's father has left his mother for another woman, and Ellie is trying to fight through her feelings about her mother, who twice abandoned her family for extended periods. The teenagers must also deal with the subtle and not-so-subtle bigotry that they are subject to as a mixed-race couple. Miah and Ellie go about working through their problems, both individually and together, and their relationship continues to blossom, giving readers a shared sense of contentment. Thus, the tragic climax will leave them stunned. Woodson's lyrical narrative tells the story through alternating voices, Ellie's in the first person and Miah's in the third. This fine author once again shows her gift for penning a novel that will ring true with young adults as it makes subtle comments on social situations.
Tom S. Hurlburt, La Crosse Public Library, WI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

How I would use I in the classroom:
This would be a great book to show race relationships, and the importance of being an individual. It would also show the importance of helping others, and reveal the historical significance of slavery. 

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

ISBN-10: 0439895294
Genre: Fiction
Published:2007

This is a graphic novel that pictures an Immigrant arriving to the U.S. This book is very creative and fun to read. Although it is designated 7th grade and up, it would still apply to grades 5 and below to show the artistic mode and creativity. The book is well illustrated.

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 7 Up—Tan captures the displacement and awe with which immigrants respond to their new surroundings in this wordless graphic novel. It depicts the journey of one man, threatened by dark shapes that cast shadows on his family's life, to a new country. The only writing is in an invented alphabet, which creates the sensation immigrants must feel when they encounter a strange new language and way of life. A wide variety of ethnicities is represented in Tan's hyper-realistic style, and the sense of warmth and caring for others, regardless of race, age, or background, is present on nearly every page. Young readers will be fascinated by the strange new world the artist creates, complete with floating elevators and unusual creatures, but may not realize the depth of meaning or understand what the man's journey symbolizes. More sophisticated readers, however, will grasp the sense of strangeness and find themselves participating in the man's experiences. They will linger over the details in the beautiful sepia pictures and will likely pick up the book to pore over it again and again.—Alana Abbott, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Recipient of numerous awards and nominations in Australia, The Arrival proves a beautiful, compelling piece of art, in both content and form. Tan (The Lost Thing, 2004) has previously produced a small body of off-kilter, frequently haunting stories of children trapped in surreal industrial landscapes. Here, he has distilled his themes and aesthetic into a silent, fantastical masterpiece. A lone immigrant leaves his family and journeys to a new world, both bizarre and awesome, finding struggle and dehumanizing industry but also friendship and a new life. Tan infuses this simple, universal narrative with vibrant, resonating life through confident mastery of sequential art forms and conventions. Strong visual metaphors convey personal longing, political suppression, and totalitarian control; imaginative use of panel size and shape powerfully depicts sensations and ideas as diverse as interminable waiting, awe-inspiring majesty, and forlorn memories; delicate alterations in light and color saturate the pages with a sense of time and place. Soft brushstrokes and grand Art Deco–style architecture evoke a time long ago, but the story's immediacy and fantasy elements will appeal even to readers younger than the target audience, though they may miss many of the complexities. Filled with subtlety and grandeur, the book is a unique work that not only fulfills but also expands the potential of its form. Karp, Jesse

How I would use it in the classroom
This book would be great for any immigrants, or second generation Americans. It is a graphic novel, so it would be great for teaching critical thinking, and showing how different students bring different interpretation to text. 

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

ISBN: 0590511904
Genre: Fiction
Published: 2004

Seedfolks is a story of a rundown city coming together by creating a community of gardeners. It is told from13 character perspectives, all in chronological order. The characters all come from different cultural backgrounds. Some are immigrants, some are young, old, and some are even criminals. The book shows the reader that if people come together, a lot can be done.

Amazon.com Review

"Sometimes, even in the middle of ugliness and neglect, a little bit of beauty will bloom. Award-winning writer Paul Fleischman dazzles us with this truth in Seedfolks--a slim novel that bursts with hope. Wasting not a single word, Fleischman unfolds a story of a blighted neighborhood transformed when a young girl plants a few lima beans in an abandoned lot. Slowly, one by one, neighbors are touched and stirred to action as they see tendrils poke through the dirt. Hispanics, Haitians, Koreans, young, and old begin to turn the littered lot into a garden for the whole community. A gift for hearts of all ages, this gentle, timeless story will delight anyone in need of a sprig of inspiration."

A review from homeschoolbuzz.com
A child's simple act of planting lima beans in a vacant lot results in a community garden, spawning a sense of kinship in the neighborhood. In monologue form, 13 different points of view represent the melting pot of America as each reflect on their roots, and their present day lifestyle. The young Vietnamese girl, the Mexican teen, the elderly black man; narrations so unmistakably clear you'd swear you could actually hear their voices.
The only chapter of concern is one told from the unwed pregnant teen's point of view. Though her plight is a real part of America, you may not be ready to share or discuss this issue with your children.
Seedfolks offers a revealing look at inner-city culture, and could be used in any study of urban life, immigration, or the many cultures that represent America.

How I would use it in the class
This is a great book on working together in a community to reach a goal. It is an urban setting that shows much progress can be made by working together. I would use this to model that for calss behavior.