American Born Chinese

I thought this was a really bold story and I loved the melding of Chinese mythology tradition with Christianity. It is a book that will have its struggles because of its openly Christian slant, but the discovery of self is the true heart of the story.

There are several ways this could be taught, beginning with the medium of graphic novel. Students could create their own or at least blocks of story. Another is in a "coming of age" unit that looks at how Jin grew into himself. Allegory is highly present and this could be a great book to teach that technique also.

I think every student could get something out of the message of being who you are and would highly consider using this in a classroom.

Night Response

I remember reading this novel in high school and really enjoying its story and themes. It is a book that needs to be read at least once by everyone.

That said, I think this book would serve best in a unit with other WWII stories. I would choose some that focus on the war, put Night in for the Holocaust study. I think that is the best way to handle it. It needs to be kept in context with history so that the student can better come to grips with its view of life.

"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" Response

At first I didn't like the book. At all. I found it redundant and bitter. As it progressed, however, I began to understand my own latent prejudices that I don't like to voice and as the book confronted prejudices and racism, I confronted my own. I would teach this book for that reason alone if none other existed.

That, to me, is its redeeming quality. It forces teens to confront the images of what "white" and "red" and "black" and "brown" are and makes them come to a conclusion in their own mind.

There are so many great talking points in this book and I think Alexie does a great job of bringing these issues to the front in a nonthreatening way (at least to the student). I would spend a lot of time on the quote: "You have to love somebody that much to also hate them that much, too."

Apart from all of that, it is a useful book for anyone (every kid in high school) who is trying to find out who he/she is. Is it redundant? Perhaps. But it's a fresh redundancy that is needed.

"Things Fall Apart" Response

The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger is one the greatest endings to any book I have read. Wow. Achebe wrote a fantastic, heartfelt exposure of a culture while making me, a white man, feel outrage at the white man's destruction of a culture. At the same time, I feel for the missionaries that were sent into that culture to try and combat it in the ways open to them.

This book would be an incredible addition in a history class when discussing British Colonialism in Africa. This novel hits on so many emotional levels that every one should read it. This novel alone can serve as a discussion of social justice. In what ways are we still impeding and destroying cultures? How do we speak of respect then beat men's backs? Simply powerful.

I would definitely add this to a list of possible books to use in a classroom.