Brown Girl Dreaming: First Read

Our latest book is Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. The book is written in verse and I have to admit it took me a little bit to get used to it. However, once I settled in with the flow of the book, I kind of enjoyed the rhythmic writing of it. The story follows Jacqueline Woodson, or Jackie, or Jack, as her father originally wanted her to be called. Her and her family go through several life changes while she is a child. They move about three times, experience leaving their father and moving in with their grandparents, and they experience their mom leaving to go to New York City, to try and find a home for them there. Jackie was born in 1963 and recalls many memories of what she remembers during this key time period of the civil rights movement. She talks about the “training” she remembers going to in order to keep cool in case anyone gave them a hard time or discriminated against them. She talks about the marches her cousins go to and even her mom while they live in Greenville. Despite the high tension at this time Jackie and her siblings find Greenville to be home, and they seem to not want to move to New York City as their mom does. They have people in their life in Greenville that treat them good and that’s all they want, to stay there. I wished that I could have learned more about why Jackie’s mom wanted so badly to move to New York City. Maybe she just didn’t want her kids living in the south, seeing how upset she got when they said “ain’t” the first time. Maybe it was just her childhood dream, as Jackie’s grandmother it’s what Jackie’s mom and her friends used to always talk about when they were young. Hopefully, we come to find out more, and I am interested to see what life brings them once they are settled in in New York City.

Finishing YDWKYA

Thank God Yaqui Delgado Wants to kick Your Ass had a good ending, kind of. The whole time I was reading, I had a bad feeling that the story was going to end on a bad note. I was so happy to see that Piddy got out of Yaqui’s reach, but to me, it kind of seems like Yaqui still won. Piddy was forced to leave schools and that isn’t right. I think it is good that the school was able to realize what was going on and then take action to help Piddy, but she still kind of lost in the end and had to leave school because of a bully. That didn’t seem entirely right to me. If I was in this situation, I bet I would probably jump at the chance to go back to my old school too, but I wish that we would have seen Yaqui put in her place somehow. Looking back at Lila’s comments to Piddy, however, and I think maybe Piddy did win. She got accepted to McCleary, and seems to be on a much better track than Yaqui. In that way, I guess Piddy won. The book doesn’t tell us, but hopefully Yaqui got expelled, and I really wonder if Piddy and her mom pressed charges. Something that also upset me, was how Piddy still had to live with the trauma of Yaqui’s bullying. She knew she was safe at her old school, yet she found herself always watching out and wondering if Yaqui was going to be around a corner to get her back. That is not a way anyone should have to live. I have to say, all in all, I think I was more pleased with the ending of this book over both E&P and Feed. I enjoyed reading this book, and it might be my favorite of the books we have read in class thus far.

http://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/stats.asp

E&P, Feed, and The Youth Lens

I am going to apply the Youth Lens to the books we have read, Eleanor & Park and Feed. I think that there are lots of examples of the Youth Lens within these two books. According to the Youth Lens, “…the single story [of adolescence] is one of raging hormones, rebelliousness, and defiance of authority.” At one point in E&P, Park goes over to Eleanor’s house to drop off a comic book. When Eleanor comes inside, her cruel step-father, Richie, noticed Park. Richie asked Eleanor who Park was and then went on to say, “I know what you’re up to, nothing but a bitch in heat,” (67). I think this portrays the part of the youth lens in which adolescence is stereotyped as an age of raging hormones. Seeing a boy come over to the house, Richie rudely generalizes that she is in “heat” with raging hormones and is looking for a guy.

In Feed, by M.T. Anderson, we see another part of the Youth Lens. The Youth Lens points out the many qualities adults often stereotype for all adolescents. The Youth Lens talks how adolescents are often seen as having raging hormones, defying authority, and just being wild. In a way, Feed kind of plays up to all of these. Feed shows Titus and all of his friends going “mal” often. This is supposed to be similar to getting drunk or high in today’s world. This shows how the Youth Lens will portray youth as sometimes making poor choices and taking risks. The Youth Lens also explains how adolescents are seen as sexual beings. In Feed, Titus wonders in the beginning whether or not two of his friends have been hooking up, and in the end Violet even wants to make moves on Titus until he resists and gets upset with her. Overall, it was interesting to read about how adolescents are portrayed by adults in young adult novels, and other books, and fun to see how it related to the books we have read.