I really enjoyed this wonderful story of a young girl waiting for her mother to return from Chicago during wartime. The book starts out with a mother packing her bags and telling her daughter that she is going to Chicago to work with other Black women during the war. The daughter is very sad, but soon a kitten comes into her life. Her grandmother says she can't keep it, but the kitten ends up staying. The little girl writes letters to her mother all the time, but everyday the mailman keeps walking past their house. The seasons change and still no word from mother. Finally one day a letter comes and the little girl learns that her mother will be coming home soon.
I really loved this story and thought that it was very touching. One of my favorite things the author does in this book, is that she italicizes the words that the characters speak to each other. I think this is a great way to show dialogue in the book. Jacqueline Woodson does a fantastic job in engaging the reader from the very beginning. Woodson made all the characters so likable you could almost feel their pain while reading the story. The mother was in pain because she was having to leave her little girl, the grandmother was in pain because she was left alone with this little girl who missed her mother so much and the little girl was in pain because her mother left to better their lives and she hadn't received a letter from her since she had been gone.
I am so glad that I was introduced to this author. Her books are very touching and they are a great resource to use in the classroom. Many books that I find don't have many African American stories or characters. So having this author in the classroom is a great way to incorporate multi cultural characters and books into the class.
No comments:
Post a Comment