One of the good things about telling myself that I'm going to read a children's book a day and write about them is that I see just how time consuming this really is. I haven't finished a children's book since Thursday, but I am chock full of excuses about why:
Friday -last day of curriculum planning project. Got home at 3:30, took a FOUR HOUR nap, then felt too groggy to read anything for the rest of the night.
Saturday -errands in the morning, brunch around noon, swimming at the pond in the afternoon, then helping my mom move her stuff upstairs (long story), which consumed the rest of the night. I should have just brought a book with me so I could read at the pond, but I didn't. Damn it.
Sunday -super busy day. Early session at the gym, followed by a trip to a national park to go bouldering (a type of rock climbing), then dinner with my mom (roast chicken...yum), followed by dinner numero dos with friends I had gone rock climbing with. I didn't even get home until around 1 in the morning.
Which brings me to today. I did actually read a book, so there is something to report back about. But I also learned an important lesson this weekend about prioritizing reading.
1. I need to ALWAYS have a book on me. I could have been reading yesterday while I was waiting for people to be ready to go at the rock gym, or I could have been reading while I was at the pond.
2. I need to read books I'm excited about reading. The book I had picked out for Friday (which then became Saturday, then Sunday, then Monday) wasn't one I was terribly excited about, so I didn't really care about reading it. Which meant that I didn't read it. So next time, if I don't like a book, I'll just move on.
So the book I did read today (which means I still have to read three extra books at some point this week) was Felita, by Nicolosa Mohr.
I didn't like it, as I alluded to earlier. The book was published in 1979, which plays into some of the race relations that happen in the book. A young girl, about 9, moves with her family from one neighborhood, which is deemed no good, to a nicer neighborhood with better schools. Unfortunately, because the family is Puerto Rican, they are met with gross, obvious racism. They decide to move back to their old neighborhood. Then some other bad stuff happens which is completely unrelated to the first half of the book. Then the grandmother dies and the book ends.
Can you tell I didn't like it?
If I'm looking for a book that speaks to racism, I might choose The Jacket, by Andrew Clements, which has a more modern take on racism. This book is about white/black relations, but it discusses a more subtle kind of racism than the kind in Felita, which is pretty blatant. It dawns on me now that I can't think of a children's book that I liked that talks about race from the perspective of a Hispanic person. This is kind of a shame. As I wrote this, I went through a list in my head of black/white race relations books for children, but couldn't come up with anything about being Hispanic. Wait, I lied. I would rather use How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay. This is a higher level book (an R, according to Fountas and Pinnell), while Felita is a P. Perhaps I would have students read this book as an introduction to racism with Hispanics, but then move into Tia Lola to help advance their thinking.
The second half of the book I felt like was a completely different story from the first half. Felita has some issues in her neighborhood that are pretty much just normal growing pains and have nothing to do with her being Hispanic, other than that her Abuelita helps her sort through some things. Interesting, but unrelated to the beginning. In fact, race only applies to the first half of the book, not the second. I'll keep this as a guided reading book, but it is certainly not one of my favorites.
Two books I liked better:
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