The Tangerine Tree by Regina Hanson

Title: The Tangerine Tree

Author: Regina Hanson

Publisher: Clarion Books

Release date: September 1995 

Page: 31

ISBN-13: 978-0395689639

Summary:

Amazon:

"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."

http://www.amazon.com/Tangerine-Tree-Regina-Hanson/dp/0395689635/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288638630&sr=1-1

In the classroom:

This book deals with a very current issue that many families may be going through right now, unemployment.  It shows the broader definition of multiculturalism and how important support is during tough times.  It shows the importance of family and family values.  The importance of loved ones and family is something that students can relate and hopefully connect with during their reading.  

The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson

Title: The Other Side
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile; 9th Printing edition
Release date: January 2001
Pages: 32
ISBN-13: 978-0399231162


Summary:
Amazon:
"Woodson (If You Come Softly; I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This) lays out her resonant story like a poem, its central metaphor a fence that divides blacks from whites. Lewis's (My Rows and Piles of Coins) evocative watercolors lay bare the personalities and emotions of her two young heroines, one African-American and one white. As the girls, both instructed by their mothers not to climb over the fence, watch each other from a distance, their body language and facial expressions provide clues to their ambivalence about their mothers' directives. Intrigued by her free-spirited white neighbor, narrator Clover watches enviously from her window as "that girl" plays outdoors in the rain. And after footloose Annie introduces herself, she points out to Clover that "a fence like this was made for sitting on"; what was a barrier between the new friends' worlds becomes a peaceful perch where the two spend time together throughout the summer. By season's end, they join Clover's other pals jumping rope and, when they stop to rest, "We sat up on the fence, all of us in a long line." Lewis depicts bygone days with the girls in dresses and white sneakers and socks, and Woodson hints at a bright future with her closing lines: "Someday somebody's going to come along and knock this old fence down," says Annie, and Clover agrees. Pictures and words make strong partners here, convincingly communicating a timeless lesson"


http://www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Jacqueline-Woodson/dp/0399231161/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288637996&sr=1-1


In the classroom:
This is a story of a friendship that overcomes the racial divide at the time.  It's a beautiful story of young girls that shows the innocence of young people and how they are judgement free and curious.  A lesson can be learned from the two girls in this story no matter the age of the reader.  The book carries such a big message in such little words.  

Smoky Night by Eve Bunting

Title: Smoky Night

Author: Eve Bunting

Publisher: Sandpiper

Release date: April 1999

Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 978-0152018849

Summary:

Amazon:

"Bunting addresses urban violence in this thought-provoking and visually exciting picture book inspired by the Los Angeles riots. Although they're neighbors, Daniel's cat and Mrs. Kim's cat don't get along. Nor do Daniel and his mother shop at Mrs. Kim's market. "It's better if we buy from our own people," Daniel's mother says. But when Daniel's apartment building goes up in flames, all of the neighbors (including the cats) learn the value of bridging differences. Bunting does not explicitly connect her message about racism with the riots in her story's background, but her work is thoroughly believable and taut, steering clear of the maudlin or didactic. Diaz's dazzling mixed-media collages superimpose bold acrylic illustrations on photographs of carefully arranged backgrounds that feature a wide array of symbolic materials--from scraps of paper and shards of broken glass to spilled rice and plastic dry-cleaner bags. Interestingly, Diaz doesn't strongly differentiate the presumably Asian American Mrs. Kim from the African American characters--even the artwork here cautions the reader against assumptions about race."

http://www.amazon.com/Smoky-Night-Eve-Bunting/dp/0152018840

In the classroom:

This short picture book broadcasts community in a very positive way that would be a great mini lesson for students.  It carries a lot of meaning with the broadening of ethnicities and judgements and leaves with a happy ending with the characters helping one another.  It's a kids book with a great message, regardless of the age.  

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Title: The Color Purple

Author: Alice Walker

Publisher: Mariner Books; 1 edition

Release date: November 2006

Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 978-0156031820

Summary:

Amazon:

"Novel by Alice Walker, published in 1982. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. A feminist novel about an abused and uneducated black woman's struggle for empowerment, the novel was praised for the depth of its female characters and for its eloquent use of black English vernacular. Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to "Mister," a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister's letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self."

http://www.amazon.com/Color-Purple-Alice-Walker/dp/0156031825/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288635542&sr=1-1

In the classroom:

The recent musical that this book was made into has the potential to spark interest for students to get familiar with the story.  Students get a woman's perspective of the issues and hardships that came alone with slavery in America.  It's an empowering story that I think a lot of students, boys and girls, would enjoy. 

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Title: When You Reach Me

Author: Rebecca Stead

Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books; 1 edition

Release date: July 2009

Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 978-0385737425

Summary:

Amazon:

"Sixth-grader Miranda lives in 1978 New York City with her mother, and her life compass is Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. When she receives a series of enigmatic notes that claim to want to save her life, she comes to believe that they are from someone who knows the future. Miranda spends considerable time observing a raving vagrant who her mother calls the laughing man and trying to find the connection between the notes and her everyday life. Discerning readers will realize the ties between Miranda's mystery and L'Engle's plot, but will enjoy hints of fantasy and descriptions of middle school dynamics. Stead's novel is as much about character as story. Miranda's voice rings true with its faltering attempts at maturity and observation. The story builds slowly, emerging naturally from a sturdy premise. As Miranda reminisces, the time sequencing is somewhat challenging, but in an intriguing way. The setting is consistently strong. The stores and even the streets–in Miranda's neighborhood act as physical entities and impact the plot in tangible ways. This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers"

http://www.amazon.com/When-You-Reach-Rebecca-Stead/dp/0385737424/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288632426&sr=1-1

In the classroom:

This book grows through a series of changes and transitions that all adolescents go through during their beginning teenage years.  Therefore, this book is able to connect with lots of different types of kids within a classroom and could be read as entire class unit.  I think every student can benefit from the transitions that the characters go through and reading a story like this one can help kids adapt.  It's a wonderful way for adolescents to learn lessons about what's to come as they continue to grow up.

Holes by Louis Sachar

Title: Holes

Author: Louis Sachar

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition

Release date: September 2008

Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 978-0374332662

Summary:

Amazon:

"If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy." Such is the reigning philosophy at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention facility where there is no lake, and there are no happy campers. In place of what used to be "the largest lake in Texas" is now a dry, flat, sunburned wasteland, pocked with countless identical holes dug by boys improving their character. Stanley Yelnats, of palindromic name and ill-fated pedigree, has landed at Camp Green Lake because it seemed a better option than jail. No matter that his conviction was all a case of mistaken identity, the Yelnats family has become accustomed to a long history of bad luck, thanks to their "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!" Despite his innocence, Stanley is quickly enmeshed in the Camp Green Lake routine: rising before dawn to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet in diameter; learning how to get along with theLord of the Flies-styled pack of boys in Group D; and fearing the warden, who paints her fingernails with rattlesnake venom. But when Stanley realizes that the boys may not just be digging to build character--that in fact the warden is seeking something specific--the plot gets as thick as the irony.

It's a strange story, but strangely compelling and lovely too. Louis Sachar uses poker-faced understatement to create a bizarre but believable landscape--a place where Major Major Major Major of Catch-22 would feel right at home. But while there is humor and absurdity here, there is also a deep understanding of friendship and a searing compassion for society's underdogs. As Stanley unknowingly begins to fulfill his destiny--the dual plots coming together to reveal that fate has big plans in store--we can't help but cheer for the good guys, and all the Yelnats everywhere"


http://www.amazon.com/Holes-Louis-Sachar/dp/0374332665/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288631658&sr=1-1


In the classroom:
I chose Holes because it deals with a troubled boy who acts out.  This could be a very common scenerio amongst students around this age and those kids can sometimes be socially exiled and made fun of.  It's another book that students can relate to and maybe channel their frustrations into.  

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Title: The Outsiders 

Author: S.E. Hinton

Publisher: Speak

Release date: November 1997

Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 978-0140385724

Summary:

Amazon:

"According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser. This classic, written by S. E. Hinton when she was 16 years old, is as profound today as it was when it was first published in 1967"

http://www.amazon.com/Outsiders-S-Hinton/dp/014038572X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288630771&sr=1-1

In the classroom:

This book shows a different sort of multiculturalism that is still just as important to put into the classroom as the others.  Socioeconomic status and different "cliques" of friends are highlighted in this book and that is something that kids deal with on a daily basis in the school systems.  The story is relatable and applicable to the students lives, especially in the years of middle school when they are going through their self discovery.

Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco

Title: Pink and Say

Author: Patricia Polacco

Publisher: Philomel; First edition

Release date: September 1994

Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 978-0399226717

Summary:

Amazon: 

"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."

http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Say-Patricia-Polacco/dp/0399226710/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288588297&sr=1-1

In the classroom:

This book is yet another example of the racial issues that took place during the Civil War and allows students to see that diversity is a good thing and that having friends that come from different backgrounds and races is something positive.  It shows them to now focus on the outer appearance of an individual.  Due to the time period that the story is taking place, during the Civil War, it also allows for a lot of historical background. 

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

Title:  If You Come Softly 

Author:  Jacqueline Woodson

Release date:  January 1998

Publisher:  Speak

Pages:  208

Genre:  Middle grade fiction

Source:  Library

ISBN-13: 978-0698118621

Summary:
Amazon: 

"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."

http://www.amazon.com/You-Come-Softly-Jacqueline-Woodson/dp/0142415227/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288586528&sr=1-1

In the classroom:

This book is a the perfect example of the blending of cultures.  It is a good book when dealing with the topic of racism in the class and teaches the students to embrace those of other ethnicities, cultures and upbringings.  

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Title: The Giver

Author: Lois Lowry

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Release date: January 2006

Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 978-0385732550

Setting:

Amazon:

"In the "ideal" world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children's adolescent sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community's Elders. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are "released"--to great celebration--at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also "released," but with no fanfare. Lowry's development of this civilization is so deft that her readers, like the community's citizens, will be easily seduced by the chimera of this ordered, pain-free society. Until the time that Jonah begins training for his job assignment--the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory--he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society's collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world. With a storyline that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher's Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form--raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers"

http://www.amazon.com/Giver-Lois-Lowry/dp/0385732554/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288584308&sr=1-1

In the classroom:

The Giver shows students to stand up for what they believe in.  It teaches them the standards between right from wrong and gives them the strength to act when they know something is not the way it should be.  

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Title: Number the Stars

Author: Lois Lowry

Publisher: Laurel leaf

Release date: February 1998

Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 978-0440227533

Setting:

Amazon:

"The evacuation of Jews from Nazi-held Denmark is one of the great untold stories of World War II. On September 29, 1943, word got out in Denmark that Jews were to be detained and then sent to the death camps. Within hours the Danish resistance, population and police arranged a small flotilla to herd 7,000 Jews to Sweden. Lois Lowry fictionalizes a true-story account to bring this courageous tale to life. She brings the experience to life through the eyes of 10-year-old Annemarie Johannesen, whose family harbors her best friend, Ellen Rosen, on the eve of the round-up and helps smuggles Ellen's family out of the country.Number the Stars won the 1990 Newbery Medal."

http://www.amazon.com/Number-Stars-Lois-Lowry/dp/0440227534/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288580959&sr=1-1

In the classroom:

This book allows for a lot of history background to be explored within the classroom.  It could be paired with Ellie Wiesel's Night in order to get another perspective on the horrors of the holocaust.  The subject matter of the novel also leads to exploration of morality and diversity.  It also shows how empowering and important friendship can be.  I think it would be a rewarding book to read with a class.  

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

Title: Seedfolks
Author: Paul Fleishman
Publisher: HarperTrophy
Release date: December 2004
Pages: 70
ISBN-13: 978-0064472074


Summary:
Amazon:
"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 inSeedfolks--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"


http://www.amazon.com/Seedfolks-Joanna-Colter-Books-Fleischman/dp/0064472078/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288563575&sr=1-1


In the classroom:
Throughout this entire book, it describes a sense of community between complete strangers.  This is something that is very important for kids who are transitioning between middle school and high school or maybe moving to a completely new city.  Community is something that will help them adjust to the people that they are around during these difficult times and needs to be emphasized within schools.  

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

Title: Island of the Blue Dolphins

Author: Scott O'Dell

Publisher: Sandpiper; Anv edition

Release date: February 2010

Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 978-0547328614

Summary:

Amazon:

"The Newberry Medal-winning story of a 12-year old girl who lives alone on a Pacific island after she leaps from a rescue ship. Isolated on the island for eighteen years, Karana forages for food, builds weapons to fight predators, clothes herself in a cormorant feathered skirt, and finds strength and peace in her seclusion. A classic tale of discovery and solitude returns to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for its 50th anniversary, with a new introduction by Lois Lowry."

http://www.amazon.com/Island-Blue-Dolphins-Scott-ODell/dp/0547328613/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288562288&sr=8-1

In the classroom:

Kids in middle school are going through their own troubles with self discovery.  This book tells the story of another discovery and survival allowing kids who are going through their own forms of these things to go along for the ride.  

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

Title: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Author: Ishmael Beah

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition

Release date: August 2008

Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 978-0374531263

Summary:

Amazon:
"This absorbing account by a young man who, as a boy of 12, gets swept up in Sierra Leone's civil war goes beyond even the best journalistic efforts in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare. Beah's harrowing journey transforms him overnight from a child enthralled by American hip-hop music and dance to an internal refugee bereft of family, wandering from village to village in a country grown deeply divided by the indiscriminate atrocities of unruly, sociopathic rebel and army forces. Beah then finds himself in the army—in a drug-filled life of casual mass slaughter that lasts until he is 15, when he's brought to a rehabilitation center sponsored by UNICEF and partnering NGOs. The process marks out Beah as a gifted spokesman for the center's work after his "repatriation" to civilian life in the capital, where he lives with his family and a distant uncle. When the war finally engulfs the capital, it sends 17-year-old Beah fleeing again, this time to the U.S., where he now lives. (Beah graduated from Oberlin College in 2004.) Told in clear, accessible language by a young writer with a gifted literary voice, this memoir seems destined to become a classic firsthand account of war and the ongoing plight of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide"


-http://www.amazon.com/Long-Way-Gone-Memoirs-Soldier/dp/0374531269/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288561280&sr=1-1


In the classroom:
Because this book takes place within the past decade, kids can really connect with the issue at hand and the age that the author is throughout the story.  Told as a memoir, the students get a first hand experience of what life would have been like had they grown up as a boy soldier.  This book can be used in a classroom to get the students involved in global issues and become strong individuals who can over come any obstacle that may be put into their own lives.  

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Title: To Kill A Mockingbird 

Author: Harper Lee

Publisher: Harper

Pages: 336

ISBN-13:  978-0061743528

Summary:

Amazon:

"A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel—a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice—but the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

One of the best-loved classics of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many dis-tinctions since its original publication in 1960. It has won the Pulitzer Prize, been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously popular movie. It was also named the best novel of the twentieth century by librarians across the country (Library Journal). HarperCollins is proud to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the book's publication with this special hardcover edition."


http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Mockingbird-50th-Anniversary/dp/0061743526/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288560008&sr=8-1

In the classroom:
To Kill A Mockingbird is an American classic.  I chose it for my multiculturalism blog because it depicts the different cultures that impacted the south during the times of slavery in the 1930's.  This book could be used in a history course that correlates their curriculum with the English department because of it's historical content. Through the eyes of a 6 year old girl, we get to see a southern towns beliefs, customs, traditions, and attitudes towrads the different kinds of people around them.  Aside from the history that is involved with this book, it could be used to look at the issue of morality and how that varies from person to person.