Week 11: Informational Books (Nonfictional)

Remember: The Journey to School Integration

by: Toni Morrison

Second Grade 

• APA Citation: Morrison, T. (2004). Remember: the journey to school integration. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

• Description:  "Toni Morrison has collected a treasure chest of archival photographs that depict the historical events surrounding school desegregation. These unforgettable images serve as the inspiration for Ms. Morrison’s text—a fictional account of the dialogue and emotions of the children who lived during the era of “separate but equal” schooling. Remember is a unique pictorial and narrative journey that introduces children to a watershed period in American history and its relevance to us today." Retrieved from Amazon.com on November 17, 2017: https://www.amazon.com/Remember-Journey-School-Integration-Nonfiction/dp/061839740X. 

• Age/Grade Level: 4-7 years old, 3rd - 8th Grade

• Justification: This book serves a wide range of ages as an excellent tool about and glimpse into what it would be like and what it was like when schools were first desegregated. This is an important topic that occurred in the not too distant past. We can't sugar-coat or ignore that fact, and appropriate materials educating and informing students must be provided. The images are striking and thought provoking, and confront readers with realities faced within the civil rights movement. The captions bring a cohesive picture to life, one that readers cannot ignore. The book humanizes everyone involved, you are unable to separate the humanity from a generalized group of people. This is another tough issue to introduce to a young audience, and this well-written book provides a perfect platform to do just that, and to promote interest in further future study. After reading this book as a class, students will be asked to reflect independently including any questions, comments, and related thoughts. They will also be asked to write about the use of photographs in this book. This will demonstrate CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot and CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.7 Explain how specific images contribute to and clarify a text. After independently reflecting, they will participate in a respectful class discussion in which they can ask questions for clarification. (English Language Arts Standards >> Reading: Informational Text >> Grade 2, Retrieved from Common Core State Standard Initiatives on November 17, 2017: http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/2/.)

• Keywords: civil rights, desegregation, racial tension, history

• Review: "The photos are electrifying. Beautifully reproduced in sepia prints, the archival images humanize the politics of the civil rights movement. The leaders are shown, but the focus is on ordinary young people and the role they played in school integration. In her eloquent introduction, Morrison talks about what the pictures show: the reality of separate but equal, the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision, the nationwide movement to eliminate racist laws. On the page opposite each photo, however, she imagines the thoughts and feelings of kids in the photos, and the intrusive fictionalized comments get in the way of the visual images ("I think she likes me, but . . .What will I do if she hates me?"). The fiction is not about the angry white mobs; there's no verbal racist confrontation. But there's hatred in the pictures, and children will constantly turn back to the photo notes at the end to find out more. Every library will want this not for the condescending made-up stuff but for the stirring history." Hazel Rochman   Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved           

• Citation: Review from Book List, retrieved from Amazon.com on November 17, 2017: https://www.amazon.com/Remember-Journey-School-Integration-Nonfiction/dp/061839740X. 

• Awards: The Coretta Scott King Award for Authors