Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts

Life Is So Good: One Man's Extraordinary Journey through the 20th Century and How he Learned to Read at Age 98 Review

Life Is So Good: One Man's Extraordinary Journey through the 20th Century and How he Learned to Read at Age 98
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I originally bought 2 copies and am now ordering 9 more copies. There is so much wisdom in this book. It is a primer on life. It goes beyond "Tuesdays with Morrie". George Dawson is so positive and upbeat. I agree with the previous reviewer that this should be mandatory reading in schools, but I would lower the grades to Junior High School and maybe even 5th and 6th graders. George gives us a black man's perspective of life in the South in the first half of the 1900's. He also gives us an excellent work ethic and model for living. White and black children alike would benefit from the historical perspective. We all can benefit from his little philosophical statements here and there. I had lots of smiles while reading this, plus many tears. I remember the South (I'm white) when bathrooms, drinking fountains and restaurants were segregated. I was a child from California, to whom this was foreign. George brings these memories back, but in a non-judgemental way. He experienced the introduction of cars and airplanes, as well as the tragedy at Columbine High School. Through out, he has respect for others and a tolerance for differing perspectives. Buy this book. Read it, and then pass it on. Share it with your children. Discuss the contents. George Dawson has truly given us all a remarkable gift.

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Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule Review

Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule
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I'm surprised to see very few reviews posted here for this excellent award-winning work of historical fiction for middle readers. This Scott O'Dell Award winner about African-American life in the South is in the same tradition as the renowned "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" books by Mildred Taylor.
Here we get on an emotional roller-coaster ride as we follow the lives of three young ex-slaves during the early days of Reconstruction in 1865. Gideon returns from following General Sherman to his former plantation to retrieve his younger crippled brother, Pascal, and his orphaned friend Nelly. In their quest to find the "forty acres and maybe a mule" in Georgia, that had been promised by General Sherman, they befriend a grandfatherly carpenter, and his long-lost granddaughter, to create a new family.
The harsh realities of unjust treatment by white nightriders, who are trying to force emancipated slaves to return to their plantations, are tempered by various friendly white people who help them find their forty acres, open a school for the children, register them to vote, who become neighbors, etc.
This is a story of determination, hard work, rebuilding lives and families, of hope, peace, and love, in the face of discrimination and cruelty.
A seldom recognized historical fact is woven into this well-researched tale: the party of Lincoln, the Republican Party, was the original party of Civil Rights. The impact of the death of Lincoln on these emancipated slaves that were given land is dramatically portrayed here. And the quick backpedaling of his successor, Andrew Johnson, becomes a painful reality for nearly 39,000 black landowners just months after he takes office.
This book deserves a wider reading by upper elementary through middle school students and their teachers, especially when discussing the facts surrounding the impact of the Civil War and early Reconstruction efforts in the South.

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A Very Special Critter Review

A Very Special Critter
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My son uses a walker and a wheelchair and loves this book. He received this book for his birthday and wanted to share it with his preschool class the very next day.

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