learning2gether Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 I would like for my 9th grader to take a course with great book written by aa authors with different writing styles. I also want the books to collectively tell the rich story of this history. I would like a mix of fiction and non fiction. The only books I know for sure that I want to include are personal favorites-Roots, The Color Purple and I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings. Please share your favorites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in AL Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 I just finished reading an essay by W.E.B. Du Bois called "Of the Coming of John," set in the South in the early 1900's. It was excellent. You might be able to find it online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faithr Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (one of the most admirable people who ever lived!), Raisin in the Sun (a play), poetry by Langston Hughes, Dr. MLK Jr's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
learning2gether Posted December 18, 2009 Author Share Posted December 18, 2009 Thanks so much. I don't see how I forgot about The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I've read that one several times and have enjoyed it each time. All of these are great suggestions and many of them are on the shelf already. Please keep them coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God Toni Morrison: Song of Solomon or Beloved, maybe Jean Toomer's Cane is taught a lot in classes on Modernism, but it might be a little inaccessible for a 9th grader Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlotteb Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 I don't think anyone mentioned "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faithr Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Invisible Man gave me nightmares and I read that in college. Native Son as well. I personally wouldn't feel a 9th grader was ready for such stuff. I've never read any Toni Morrison. Gotta put her on my to read list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Cry, The Beloved Country--don't know if it was written by an African American, but it is about South African Apartheid, and it might be worthwhile to contrast/compare an African experience with an African American one, if that makes any sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deidre in GA Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 I don't think anyone mentioned "Uncle Tom's Cabin". that's because it was not written by an African American. i like Faithr's list a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Invisible Man gave me nightmares and I read that in college. Native Son as well. I personally wouldn't feel a 9th grader was ready for such stuff. I've never read any Toni Morrison. Gotta put her on my to read list. Yeah, I left off Native Son for the nightmare factor ;); it's kind of always a problem with finding really good contemporary literature for that age, I think... Ernest Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying might be really good for a 9th grader. It's not on the same level as some of these others (it's good rather than great, I'd say), but it's worth reading. I'd put Margaret Walker's Jubilee in that category, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlotteb Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 I don't think anyone mentioned "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Deidre in GA said, "that's because it was not written by an African American." Aha, well that makes sense then :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elizabeth Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Manchild in the Promised Land http://www.amazon.com/Manchild-Promised-Land-Claude-Brown/dp/0684864185 breathtaking Race Matters by Dr Cornel West The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes,Countee Cullen Having Our Say -the Delaney sisters awesome biography Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlovebaker Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 and I apologize in advance for spelling that work. Loved the book altho written more for middle schoolers level ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
learning2gether Posted December 18, 2009 Author Share Posted December 18, 2009 Thank you so much ladies. A few of these are books I had simply forgotten about, but many are titles I've never heard of. I think I may end up reading a couple over the Christmas break. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 and I don't see a problem with a ninth grader reading any of them. I would add "Fences" by August Wilson (you don't have any plays yet. It's a great one.) One of the Little Rock 9 wrote a 2 volume memoir about her life--I strongly recommend at least the first one of those two books, which is "Warriors Don't Cry." "Soul on Ice" by Eldridge Cleaver is a good memoir of the Black Power movement of the 60's in the SF Bay Area. For a very recent memoir, set in the San Francisco Bay Area, read "Not a Genuine Black Man". BTW, this is based on a one man show here locally, which I have seen. If you have a chance to see that show with your DD, please do it! There is a great book about the slave trade called "Amistad". Good background, very well done--a middle school level book. I read a lot of fiction that posed the racial questions during the 70's, and they made a tremendous impression on me, but unfortunately I can't remember the titles. There was one about a girl who was kidnapped and treated with sun tanning pills so that she would look Black, and how she was treated because people thought that she was Black. For several literary or semi-literary white perspectives on ante-bellum African American experiences, read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Huckleberry Finn." For youngers, read "Amos Fortune, Free Man". A non-literary memoir by a white high school teacher who taught English literature during the 60's or 70's in a Black school in Philadelphia is "An Empty Spoon." I recommend that book for background--as a bridging book. For a very good, deep, white Christian perspective on black/white relations, "Grace Matters" is one of my favorite books. Preread that one, though. You'll want to discuss it. Also, read the rest first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy in TX Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup The Narrative of Sojourner Truth Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 It's non-fiction Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Cry, The Beloved Country--don't know if it was written by an African American, but it is about South African Apartheid, and it might be worthwhile to contrast/compare an African experience with an African American one, if that makes any sense. This is a truly beautiful book. The author, Alan Paton, was a white African, an Afrikaner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 Guess that doesn't qualify anyway, but I do think it gives a wonderful perspective of racial inequality that could be useful in discussion--it isn't long and is deeply moving and profound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 Guess that doesn't qualify anyway, but I do think it gives a wonderful perspective of racial inequality that could be useful in discussion--it isn't long and is deeply moving and profound. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 My personal favorite is Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Lovely story--captures a wide spectrum of the culture at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 Here's what we did: Selections of poetry by Phyllis Wheatley Autobio. of Frederick Douglas Souls of Black Folk, selected Essays by WEBDubois (I consider several of these must-reads to understand the Black experience) Read in conjunction with Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington and compare the perspectives of the two men. Black Boy -autobiography of Richard Wright Raisin in the Sun (play) Essay: I Tried to Be a Communist by Richard Wright (it's online) Ralph Ellison Invisible Man Autobiography of Malcolm X Langston Hughes, poetry selections (I like Mother to Son: Life Ain't Been No Chrystal Stair) I like the Maya Angelou selection you chose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 When I was in 11th grade, I think, we did a unit on African American literature. Two I remember quite well still that haven't been mentioned were Coming of Age in Mississippi - it's an autobiography set in Mississippi during the voting rights drive. I admit it has some intense stuff, and some bad things happen to the protaganist. Might be a bit much for 9th grade. The other was Jubilee, set before and after the Civil War. Of all the books we read in that unit, those are the ones that have stuck with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faithr Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 Maytroyshka! You've just brought back some memories! I read Coming of Age in Mississippi in one weekend when I was visiting my aunt in Manhattan! I remember it being fascinating, disgusting, brutal and funny all at the same time. I was in high school at the time and that book definitely was an eye-opener. I'm with you that it might be a bit much for a 9th grader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicole M Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 I second Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison. Beloved is a cathedral of a book, but hard. I would have been devastated by it in 9th grade. The Bluest Eye might be a better choice for that age. YMMV. I always like to recommend Howard Thurman's autobiography, With Head and Heart. Thurman was one of the most, if not the most, brilliant American theologians of the 20th century. He was a contemporary of Martin Luther King Sr. MLK Jr.'s assassination brought him into the public eye in such a big way that other brilliant thinkers were somewhat eclipsed. (I heard a scholar say that if MLK Jr. had not been murdered, Howard Thurman would be the household name, not Dr. King. I think that's a little harsh, but the point is that Thurman was brilliant and is mostly, sadly, forgotten.) I especially enjoyed his chapters about his meetings with Gandhi. http://www.amazon.com/Head-Heart-Autobiography-Howard-Thurman/dp/015697648X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261237049&sr=8-3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
learning2gether Posted December 19, 2009 Author Share Posted December 19, 2009 I have been doing some research on some of these that I hadn't heard of and found out that next month they have a festival for Zora Neal Hurston about an hour from us. It is an annual event in her hometown which the website says oldest african american settlement in FL. I would love for her to read the book and attend the festival, but I kinda wanted to do these in order of time period. Do you all think it would mess things up to go out of order a little? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 I have been doing some research on some of these that I hadn't heard of and found out that next month they have a festival for Zora Neal Hurston about an hour from us. It is an annual event in her hometown which the website says oldest african american settlement in FL. I would love for her to read the book and attend the festival, but I kinda wanted to do these in order of time period. Do you all think it would mess things up to go out of order a little? No, I don't think it would mess them up. I used to tie myself in knots trying to coordinate English, history, religion, geography together exactly and chronologically. I think now that I put too much emphasis on it. Generally proceeding chronologically is helpful, but the mind can also go back and forth making connections. A friend of mine who teaches world history, for instance, shows the movie Ghandi when her class studies ancient India. It gives them a modern hook to hang it on, and reinforces both. So I wouldn't worry at all about taking a great opportunity when it comes. It will give your student a future frame of reference when studying works that came earlier , and that is a useful thing. (I find that useful in math, too. Sometimes knowing the answer and then figuring out how to get there is more helpful than starting at step 1 not knowing where you're going!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 who wrote a cycle of plays that span the decades of the 20th century, and reflect the African american experience. I've seen some of them, and always come away very moved. If you ever have an opportunity to see his plays produced, take it-I'm thoroughly enjoyed each one I've seen. I read an interesting book called The Color of Water-it is not classic literature, but a "black man's biography of his white mother" as it is subtitled, and was a compelling read. It's one woman's poignant journey from a Eastern European Jewish childhood to an African American Christian adulthood. It's quite a story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carmen_and_Company Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 As an AA parent, I'm quite pleased with most of the selections, and as some have said, tread lightly as some of the mentioned titles may be to much for 9th grade. Also, you may want to research visual artists and study them via a time line, too. Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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