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Replacing Fredrick Douglass in Early Modern?


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I'm working on putting some links and book lists together for Early Modern. Couple of questions.

 

First off, I tried to read Don Quixote (unabridged), and I just couldn't get it done. I kept falling asleep. Probably more a problem with lack of sleep, I'm sure... I know SWB recommends an abridged version.  I can't get any of the versions through local libraries, and inter-library loan is hit-or-miss for our state. They're not good about sending the right edition of a classic book. Recommendations for favorite versions I should buy?

 

Second, Frederick Douglass. I like this book personally. This kiddo will be a young seventh grader, and the book has some brutal parts. Is there a different well-written slave narrative you can recommend?

 

Thanks!

 

ETA- Is there a poetry and short story anthology that has a similar selection of poetry and short stories to SWB's list? I have Stories and Poems by Bloom (don't love it) and Favorite Poems Old and New (dd has read most of it, and it's probably too young for 7th grade).

Edited by elladarcy
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Second, Frederick Douglass. I like this book personally. This kiddo will be a young seventh grader, and the book has some brutal parts. Is there a different well-written slave narrative you can recommend?

 

I can't speak to favorite Don Quixote editions, but my DS was seven when he asked to Douglass's Narrative. I warned him that it was violent, and he said he knew it would be, but he thought things like that need to be read, even though it's hard to read them, because it's important to appreciate them fully. I hadn't read it in a while before that, so I read a chapter ahead to make sure I could be useful for questions, and to make sure he could handle it. He could, and he did. I certainly think a seventh-grader should be able to handle it.

 

I did tell him he most assuredly could *not* read Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, which was the second half of the edition we had. Far more violent, rape, etc. The violence in Douglass's Narrative is about as mild as you can get and still be telling an honest slavery story, IMO. To water it down any further would be to do the history, and those who lived it, an injustice.

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ETA- Is there a poetry and short story anthology that has a similar selection of poetry and short stories to SWB's list? I have Stories and Poems by Bloom (don't love it) and Favorite Poems Old and New (dd has read most of it, and it's probably too young for 7th grade).

 

Here are links to some specific poets and poems that might be enjoyable to a young middle schooler that fall in the Early Modern time frame:

 

1600-1700

- John Milton (UK) -- "Holy Sonnets: Death Be Not Proud"

- Anne Bradstreet (US) -- "In Reference to her Children"; "Verses Upon the Burning of Our House"; "To My Dear and Loving Husband"

- Samuel Butler -- known for his long mock-epic poems satirizing various groups

- Basho (Japan) -- short article of explanation and a number of his haiku poems

 

1700-1800

- Jonathan Swift (UK) -- famous for his satire, so maybe "A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General"

- William Wordsworth (UK) -- "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (Daffodils)" -- and the Bullwinkle parody

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (UK) -- "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner"; "Kubla Khan"

 

1800-1850

- William Blake (UK) -- "Poison Tree"; "Tyger"; "The Lamb"

- John Keats (UK) -- "A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever"; "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be"

- Lord Byron (IK) -- "The Destruction of Sennacherib"; "Darkness"

- Percy Bysshe Shelley (UK) -- "Ozymandias"; "Good Night"

- Edgar Allen Poe (US) -- "The Raven" -- and the

- early works by Edward Lear and Lord Alfred Tennyson

 

second half of 1800s

- later works by Edward Lear and Lord Alfred Tennyson

- Walt Whitman

- Christina Rossetti

- Emily Dickinson

 

 

Second, Frederick Douglass. I like this book personally. This kiddo will be a young seventh grader, and the book has some brutal parts. Is there a different well-written slave narrative you can recommend?

 

Just my opinion, but I don't think you can get around the fact that slavery itself is brutal, so any slave narrative is going to include the brutalities that the person suffered while enduring slavery… I could be mis-remembering, but it seemed to me that while there were some specific incidents related in Douglass' autobiography, that was just a portion of his overall life story? In other words, by reading the whole work, you have context for the few brutal parts and see his overall victory.

 

Another option might be To Be A Slave (Julius Lester), which is first-hand accounts by people who had been enslaved. In the introduction to the book, Lester talks about specifically putting the book together for middle school students. But, you might want to preview to see if the accounts are too brutal.

 

Just a thought, FWIW: sometimes students can surprise you in what they can handle, and the time-distance to these events might make the brutalities feel somewhat less immediate, so this might be a good time to tentatively try out discussing some of the hard realities that are still on-going in our world today. However, every child is different in sensitivity and only you know when it is right to introduce your student to some of these difficult subjects. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had the same problem of falling asleep while while reading Don Quixote...so my new favorite version is Audible! I've finished it as well as Animal Farm, and I am well into Tale of Two Cities. This is working so well for me because I can do chores and "read" at the same time. Like me, I'm sure you are busy. No, it is not as good as reading with all my attention but it is better than nothing! :)

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Frederick Douglass is irreplaceable. Reading him is absolutely critical to the moral education of a young person IMO.

 

Bill

 

Agreed. I have always thought of it as a high school book. I'm just wrapping up the semester enough to re-read it to see if it will work in logic stage for this particular kiddo.

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