Inclusion Literature – Module 6
Budhos, Marina. Ask Me No Questions. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. September 11, 2007. ISBN – 13 978-1416949206
Summary: The book starts with the family moving to Canada to try to find asylum. Nadira, whose family and she are from Bagnaladesh have had to change and adapt to a new lifestyle after the events of September 11, 2001. Unfortunately, her father is held back at the Canadian border and the two sibling daughters have to learn to face the struggles despite the stress and emotions that tear them apart at times.
Cultural Analysis: “Deportation. Green card. Residency. Asylum. We live our lives by these words, but I don’t understand them.” Something that the book highlights is that the mom is always afraid they will ask her something. Living in fear. Siblings who compare each other and try to make their parents happy and cheer them up. I think that is an important cultural trait that most people who are children of immigrants experience. Identity and assimilation are big issues that the girls face, while also processing what happened to their family and still trying to continue moving forward in their lives.
Reviews: “legal immigrant sisters learn a lot about themselves when their family faces deportation in this compelling contemporary drama. Immigrants from Bangladesh, Nadira, her older sister Aisha and their parents live in New York City with expired visas. Fourteen-year-old Nadira describes herself as “the slow-wit second-born” who follows Aisha, the family star who’s on track for class valedictorian and a top-rate college. Everything changes when post-9/11 government crack-downs on Muslim immigrants push the family to seek asylum in Canada where they are turned away at the border and their father is arrested by U.S. immigration. The sisters return to New York living in constant fear of detection and trying to pretend everything is normal. As months pass, Aisha falls apart while Nadira uses her head in “a right way” to save her father and her family. Nadira’s need for acceptance by her family neatly parallels the family’s desire for acceptance in their adopted country. A perceptive peek into the lives of foreigners on the fringe. (endnote) (Fiction. 10-14)”
Kirkus Reviews
Connections: immigration and current laws in the USA in regards to immigrants are definitely something that can be connected to the book. Many people who have never experienced crossing a border, or having parents or family members who are immigrants will never understand the fear and anguish that some people feel as
Bryant, Jen. A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin. Illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Knopf Books for Young Readers. January 8, 2013. ISBN 13 – 978-0375867125
Summary: Horace is born into a loving family, who supports his art skills. He enters an art contest which he wins. That gives him motivation to keep drawing. One day the dad leaves them, so that makes Horace have to stop drawing and instead help his family work nonstop in factories, etc. as he works hard, he thinks about his younger days where he would just draw with whatever he could find. Then one day there is a war that breaks out so he signs up for the military. He endures hearing gunfire and explosions and not seeing the sun and having to be by the side of a gun at all times. This takes a toll on his emotions and his mentality. During these hard times, he again turns to drawing for solace. One day, he is hit on the shoulder by a bullet, leaving him unable to draw for a while. When Horace came back, he married Jenny, a cook, but it was difficult for him to find a job, doing whatever he could do to make money. He continued to long for the ability to draw. One day, he used both of his arms to work on paintings again and slowly, he got more strength in his arms to continue drawing. One very special painting took him 3 years to finish, which was the catalyst to him drawing again, making sure to paint and draw whatever he could document around his life. He drew so many of them that he decided to sell them. One day, a local art president decided to support him by offering him his own art show. From there, Horace became famous and many people admired his paintings, from famous people to famous artists, his art was recognized.
Cultural Analysis: This book takes place during an important historical time period, and the references to slavery and war help depict the struggles Horace faced throughout his life. Despite the difficulties, black families who are strong and supportive of each other are stronger than whatever they face. The book showed so much warmth and love from his grandparents, helping each other and each having responsibilities around the house, including Horace. The book contains the repetition “make a picture for us, Horace,” which I think is symbolic of the constant desire in him and passion to draw and create art. The book contains a lot of images that depict a sort of collage style, also showing the complicated things that surround our lives as adults.
Reviews: “This outstanding portrait of African-American artist Horace Pippin (1888-1946) allows Pippin’s work to shine—and his heart too.
“The colors are simple, such as brown, amber, yellow, black, white and green,” says pencil-lettered text on the front endpapers. These are Pippin’s own humble words. His art and life aren’t really simple at all, but here, they’re eminently accessible. On that spread, brush and pencil lie on overlapping off-white papers—lined, gridded, plain—decorated in pencil hatchings and a painted progression of hues between each primary color and its complement. From Pippin’s young childhood (working for pay to help his family; sketching with charcoal and paper scraps until he wins his first real art supplies in a contest), to his Army service in World War I, to the well-deserved fame that arrived only late in his life, he “couldn’t stop drawing.” When a military injury threatens Pippin’s painting ability, he tries wood burning—“[u]sing his good arm to move the hurt one”—and works his way back to painting. Sweet’s sophisticated mixed media (watercolor, gouache and collage), compositional framing, and both subdued and glowing colors pay homage to Pippin’s artistic style and sometimes re-create his pieces. Bryant’s text is understated, letting Pippin’s frequent quotations glimmer along with the art. Backmatter provides exceptional resources, including artwork locations.
A splash of vibrancy about a self-taught master. (historical note, author’s note, illustrator’s note, references) (Picture book/biography. 5-11)
Kirkus Reviews
Connections: The biggest connection here was the fact that are and drawings were a creative outlet for the challenges that Horace faced. Like any normal person, Horace felt at times defeated, purposeless, helpless, either because of his father leaving his family, or him having to find a job and be responsible for the getting ahead and moving forward of the family, or being shot at in the war, he persevered and did not let his challenges define him. Although it was later in his life that he took up painting again, he still chased his dreams and found away – with both hands and supporting both his arms – to still paint and pursue his goals and creative dreams.
LaCour, Nina. We Are Okay. Dutton Books for Young Readers. February 2017. ISBN-10 0525425896
Summary: This novel focuses on a college girl named Marin who lives in New York but has to deal with the feeelings of grief, feeling alone, and learning how to feel those emotions out and process them. We realize that she had experienced many painful things such as the passing of her mom, as well as the passing of her grandpa who was like her caretaker and best friend. She is able to meet up with her friend Mabel during the Christmas break. While she’s with her friend, she is able to heal and process some of the deep emotions she has been pent up in her heart and mind. Thankfully, the friendship she has with Mabel helps her realize the importance of friendships.
Cultural Analysis: The book helps create personal connections with friendships, especially through solitude. We all have that one person that we can confide in, and even when having that person, like in the book, one can still feel isolated and lonely. The book discusses connective topics such as thoughts of suicide and depression, even planning to end her life in one section. However dark the book was, it still offered consideration of others and genuine care for those you love. Lastly, a major connection was that a lot of children are raised by their grandparents – more than we think, so this type of representation is always appreciated when seen in novels.
Reviews: “If only lonely were a more accurate word. It should sound much less pretty.”
It’s December in New York, and college freshman Marin is in her dorm room, contemplating a solitary monthlong stay after everyone else has left for winter break. Her single respite will be a brief visit from her best friend, Mabel. Marin is dreading the stay for reasons that are revealed in flashbacks: she fled San Francisco without informing anyone after the sudden death of her beloved Gramps, who raised her. Over the course of three days, secrets about Gramps, Marin’s long-dead mother, and the girls’ complicated relationship are revealed in short, exquisite sentences that evoke myriad emotions with a minimum of words. “I must have shut grief out. Found it in books. Cried over fiction instead of the truth. The truth was unconfined, unadorned. There was no poetic language to it, no yellow butterflies, no epic floods…”
Kirkus Reviews
Connections: A major cultural analysis was the use of nature connections with emotions. There are a lot of references to the sharing of feelings and thoughts and emotions in connection to nature and the way the world words in our mother nature. When dealing with grief, the connection through the few people in her life such as her best friend and her grandpa provide that bond she needs to find a way through the pain she feels, ultimately finding hope through her friend's mom’s offer to be her mother figure.
Longoria, Margarita. Living Beyond Borders. Viking Books for Young Readers. August 17, 2021. ISB 13 – 978-0593204993
Summary: The book contains many short stories that are all representative of Mexican American experiences, written by Mexican American authors, highlighting the talent and skill and culture in the Rio Grande Valley by giving these writers a voice. The stories range from various topics such as LGBTQIA+, social justice, language in our culture, school, etc. and any daily experiences that we have in the RGV that reflect and connect with our culture, values, and traditions.
Cultural Analysis: This was one of the few books that I didn’t feel was super stereotypical about the stories provided in representation of Mexican culture. It felt natural and real, maybe because there were various authors and I got to see a glimpse of different perspectives of the same culture with different topics. The variety of the short stories helped provide a vivid, accurate picture of the type of lifestyle and experiences we have whether it is physically, mentally, and emotionally in relation to our culture here in the Rio Grande Valley.
Reviews: “In a note to readers, editor Longoria describes feeling compelled to create this anthology as she saw Mexican Americans being attacked and derided in the media. The result is this collection of short stories, personal essays, graphic stories, and poems by Mexican American authors. The standouts here pack a real emotional punch. Awareness of the impact of socio-economic status often takes center stage, and several pieces are set in the Rio Grande Valley. Protagonists vary in age from middle school through adult and are predominantly mestizx. “The Body by the Canal,” by David Bowles, is not to be missed and, along with “Coco Chamoy and Chango,” by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, brings queer representation to the project. The opening story, “Ghetto Is Not an Adjective” by Dominic Carrillo, successfully cannonballs into the deep end of the social justice pool, while “Morning People” by Diana Lopez wades into the murky waters of the taboo. “Yoli Calderon and Principal Hayes” by Angela Cervantes offers an exemplary use of the first person, and both “This Rio Grande Valley” by Daniel García Ordaz and “Sunflower” by Aida Salazar are full of beautiful imagery. “Ode to My Papi” by Guadalupe García McCall and “La Princesa Mileidy Dominguez” by Rubén Degollado both tug at the heartstrings. The variety of narrative styles contributes to the broad appeal of this volume…”
Kirkus Reviews
Connections: The story that stood out to me the most was “Ghetto Is Not An Adjective,” because living in the Rio Grande Valley, I’ve heard people say this a lot, especially when describing simple things that aren’t necessarily “ghetto,” but they are simply culture ways in white people’s eyes. I think that over so many years of oppression and experiences, people have associated “ghetto” with showing one’s culture in a bad light, whether it be black people or Mexicans, if they are engaged in some sort of activity or saying or wearing something that doesn’t appeal to white people or isn’t necessarily common, they deem it off as “ghetto,” but I've realized how important that language and narrative is to the way we view our culture. Is it ghetto? Or is it just part of our culture? Is it ghetto? Or is it just a poverty stricken area that the system has failed them and its people?
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