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Settings and Mothers
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From: GRIFFISC at bcvms.bc.edu <GRIFFISC>
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 10:00:30 -0400 (EDT)
Hello to all,
Since this is my first time participating in a CCBC-net discussion, I will introduce myself. I am Susan Griffith, presently a graduate student in educational studies as Lesley College (a small college in Cambridge, MA), and a librarian and teacher of children's literature. Although this is the first time I am participating in a CCBC-net discussion it's not my first CCBC discussion. I worked at the CCBc while in Library School and beyond (197682, to be exact) and have attended many conferences since that time. I've read both the Myers books from time to time over the years and have discussed them with students in my classes--so my responses will be a mixture of what I think and what people have said to me.
The remarks about the racism and violence that surround both Jamal and Richie Perry brought to mind what one student said about the setting in Scorpions--she felt that it was almost a character in the book, it was so active in shaping the plot. When you look closely at the text, you can see that Myers has taken care to include details of the surroundings at every point--people getting off buses, who's on the corner, and the woman frozen at the park when Tito and Jamal shoot the gun to try it out. Thinking about this makes me realize just how much of what happens to Tito and Jamal happens in public--there are always other people who could (and probably do) observe them. So there are always people around but no one to take care.
Thinking about the mothers in both books is interesting. Neither of them quite gives her son what he needs or wants--I start thinking negatively about them until I remember that the point of view in both books is of an adolesent male (and one of the best qualities of both books is the way that Myers sticks to that point of view and uses it to illuminate the situation)Maybe it's unresolved between the boys and their mothers because it is, and young people have to find their own identity before they can see their parents as whole people????
Enough for now,
Susan Griffith Cambridge, Massachusetts
Received on Tue 12 Sep 1995 09:00:30 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 10:00:30 -0400 (EDT)
Hello to all,
Since this is my first time participating in a CCBC-net discussion, I will introduce myself. I am Susan Griffith, presently a graduate student in educational studies as Lesley College (a small college in Cambridge, MA), and a librarian and teacher of children's literature. Although this is the first time I am participating in a CCBC-net discussion it's not my first CCBC discussion. I worked at the CCBc while in Library School and beyond (197682, to be exact) and have attended many conferences since that time. I've read both the Myers books from time to time over the years and have discussed them with students in my classes--so my responses will be a mixture of what I think and what people have said to me.
The remarks about the racism and violence that surround both Jamal and Richie Perry brought to mind what one student said about the setting in Scorpions--she felt that it was almost a character in the book, it was so active in shaping the plot. When you look closely at the text, you can see that Myers has taken care to include details of the surroundings at every point--people getting off buses, who's on the corner, and the woman frozen at the park when Tito and Jamal shoot the gun to try it out. Thinking about this makes me realize just how much of what happens to Tito and Jamal happens in public--there are always other people who could (and probably do) observe them. So there are always people around but no one to take care.
Thinking about the mothers in both books is interesting. Neither of them quite gives her son what he needs or wants--I start thinking negatively about them until I remember that the point of view in both books is of an adolesent male (and one of the best qualities of both books is the way that Myers sticks to that point of view and uses it to illuminate the situation)Maybe it's unresolved between the boys and their mothers because it is, and young people have to find their own identity before they can see their parents as whole people????
Enough for now,
Susan Griffith Cambridge, Massachusetts
Received on Tue 12 Sep 1995 09:00:30 AM CDT
