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Coretta Scott King Honor Books: Francie & Black Hands, White
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 14:34:38 -0600
Steven, Christine, and Sue: Thanks for your thoughtful comments about
"Francie" by Karen English. I agree. Francie doesn't have assurance of a wider supportive family or of any kind of economic stability compared to Cassie Logan in "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry."
One of you also noticed how very hard Francie's mother and Francie herself had to work. The class differences between Francie's family and the white folks for whom her mother worked or who themselves worked in the store were so clear in this novel. I liked Francie's spunk in finding small ways to retaliate the injustices she experienced. This was a welcome contrast to the scary plot elements, all of which English made so believeable.
Francie's father worked as a Pullman porter, and he was based out of Chicago, which is why he wasn't around. That made me recall Patricia and Frederick McKissack's Coretta Scott King Award book "Long Hard Journey" (Walker, 1989) which provides information about the Pullman porters' work. This book is like the McKissack's current CSK Honor Book "Black Hands, White Sails" in that both fill significant gaps in U.S. history. Both give information about the workers in a particular time and place, African American workers whose roles made a difference to more than their jobs. For example, I didn't realize until I read
"Black Hands, White Sails" the extent to which the whaling ships off the North American coast were one of the active links to the Underground Railroad.
If you've had a chance to read "Black Hands, White Sails" or
"Francie," please so share your responses - or those of young readers
- to these two CSK Honor Books for writing.
Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center - CCBC
(www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/) A Library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin Madison
Received on Mon 14 Feb 2000 02:34:38 PM CST
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 14:34:38 -0600
Steven, Christine, and Sue: Thanks for your thoughtful comments about
"Francie" by Karen English. I agree. Francie doesn't have assurance of a wider supportive family or of any kind of economic stability compared to Cassie Logan in "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry."
One of you also noticed how very hard Francie's mother and Francie herself had to work. The class differences between Francie's family and the white folks for whom her mother worked or who themselves worked in the store were so clear in this novel. I liked Francie's spunk in finding small ways to retaliate the injustices she experienced. This was a welcome contrast to the scary plot elements, all of which English made so believeable.
Francie's father worked as a Pullman porter, and he was based out of Chicago, which is why he wasn't around. That made me recall Patricia and Frederick McKissack's Coretta Scott King Award book "Long Hard Journey" (Walker, 1989) which provides information about the Pullman porters' work. This book is like the McKissack's current CSK Honor Book "Black Hands, White Sails" in that both fill significant gaps in U.S. history. Both give information about the workers in a particular time and place, African American workers whose roles made a difference to more than their jobs. For example, I didn't realize until I read
"Black Hands, White Sails" the extent to which the whaling ships off the North American coast were one of the active links to the Underground Railroad.
If you've had a chance to read "Black Hands, White Sails" or
"Francie," please so share your responses - or those of young readers
- to these two CSK Honor Books for writing.
Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center - CCBC
(www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/) A Library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin Madison
Received on Mon 14 Feb 2000 02:34:38 PM CST
