My Own True Name by Pat Mora

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mora, Pat.  2000. MY OWN TRUE NAME: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS FOR YOUNG ADULTS, 1984-1999. Houston: Arte Publico Press.  ISBN 1558852921

PLOT SUMMARY

Pat Mora presents readers with a collection detailing the Mexican-American experience and identity.  Sixty-two poems offer insight into the challenges Hispanics face living in two worlds, the struggles immigrants encounter while learning the English language, and the effects of discrimination.   The author also includes an introductory letter to young readers and future writers asking them to find their voice and share their stories with the rest of the world.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Mora's collection of free verse poems offer readers a glimpse into the thoughts, feelings, and ideas many Hispanics and Mexican-Americans experience while living in the United States.  Spanish words appear occasionally throughout the poems, accompanied with footnotes translating these terms in English.  Poems such as "Mango Juice," "Poinsettia," and "Village Therapy" describe in exquisite detail the traditions and experiences of Latino people.  Imagery used in the poem "Mango Juice" allows readers to experience the warmth and happiness of a family birthday celebration.  Readers can't help but smile as Mora describes the sticky mango juice sliding down one's arm, the laughter of watching blind-folded friends hitting pinatas, and the colorful confetti that erupts from cracking cascarones over each other's heads.  "Poinsettia" describes the long and arduous journey of "A brown-eyed boy/with no Christmas gift for the Virgin," a reference to La Virgen de Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico.  In the poem "Village Therapy," Mora describes the quiet life of a Mexican-American grandmother as she weeds the land: "Baby chicks-pollitos- who peck the dirt floor/at her feet, peck the rice and corn she hides...She washes the dishes, she waters her plants,/ she cooks beans as she pats tortillas."  These authentic details describing various aspects of Latino life help to strengthen Hispanic students' own sense of identity as they relate to their own experiences.

While the issue of finding one's identity is common in adolescence, Mora expands on this by bringing the struggle of cultural identity to light for young readers.  In the poem "Two Worlds," the speaker comments about trying to fit into both American and Mexican worlds, but being judged by both groups as an outsider.  "Viewed by anglos, as perhaps exotic,/perhaps inferior, definitely different,/ viewed by Mexicans as alien...an American to Mexicans/a Mexican to Americans/a handy token/sliding back and forth/between the fringes of both worlds."  The challenges of finding one's identity while trying to stay connected to the homeland's traditions and language are further emphasized in the poem "Family Ties."  The speaker describes the noticeable differences between her abuelita and herself.  While she enjoys shopping for designer jeans, frilly blouses, and barrettes at the local mall, her grandmother prefers buying onions, chiles, and beans from the local grocery store.  When she shows her grandmother the good grades on her report card and recites the Pledge of Allegiance, the grandmother can't help but stay silent and smile.  These poems, along with several others, present to young readers the difficult experience of living in two worlds while trying to relate to older generations whose traditions are different from those in this new country. 

The cultural markers of language patterns and dialect also have a significant impact in many of Mora's poems.  In two very powerful poems, Mora presents to readers the complex and painful experience immigrants face when learning the English language.  The poem "Elena" is written from the perspective of a forty-year-old mother trying to learn English from her children, who are attending American high schools.  Elena describes "I stand alone by the stove and feel dumb, alone./I bought a book to learn English./ Embarrassed at mispronouncing words,/embarrassed at the laughter of my children,/the grocer, the mailman."  This viewpoint expresses one many immigrants experience- the challenge of learning English as quickly as possible to overcome language barriers while living in America.  Elena quietly, but powerfully ends her poem by stating "If I stop trying, I will be deaf/when my children need my help."  Thus, Elena realizes English is becoming a more dominant part of her children's lives and to stay relevant in theirs, she must learn to keep up with them through this new language.  In "Learning English: Chorus in Many Voices," verses expressing the thoughts and fears of immigrants trying to master the English language have a profound impact on all readers, young and old.  Thoughts such as "here no job/no friends but still I see/strong woman goes to school does not care/that people laugh when she speaks" and "english my big problem i believe/i talk choppy/but want opportunity" capture the difficulties many immigrants face while trying to learn English as quickly as possible to better their lives.  Children undergoing similar experiences will find their voices within the poem's lines while other readers may finally become aware of the complexities of the immigrant experience.

Finally, the issue of discrimination is brought to the forefront for young readers to witness.  Poems such as "1910" describe a white store owner's visit to a Five-and-Dime.  Suspicious of the Mexican-Americans standing outside the store, she states "You Mexicans can't hide/things from me.../Thieves.  All thieves./Let me see those hands."  Sadly, discrimination echoes in another poem titled "Sugar," which describes an immigrant family's experience while working in Iowa fields.  The young girl, Tonya, describes a white woman giving her suspicious looks and saying to a friend "Dirty wetbacks/ Look at them.  Do you think they ever/bathe?  The women just baby breeders. I hear/fifty of them live in one of those shacks."  Tonya's immediate reaction is to scream at the woman, but instead, she internally vocalizes her anger, "I belong here! I belong here!"  Mora realistically paints a portrait that many migrant families encounter as they try to build a better life here in America.  It is the hope that such poems reveal to all readers the difficulties many Latinos face while trying to live in two very different worlds.

REVIEWS

AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN: "Pat Mora’s new collection of nonrhyming poetry calls on young adults to embrace their identity with passion … Again and again, she compares generations and speaks of differences, of changes. Mora’s goal is to provide confidence for her young readers and to encourage a path of passion and interest without misrepresenting the difficulties they might encounter.”

BOOKLIST: "Interlaced with Mexican phrases and cultural symbols, these powerful selections, representing more than 15 years of work, address bicultural life and the meaning of family...The rich, symbolic imagery, raw emotion, and honesty will appeal to mature teens, and young writers will find inspiration in the warm introduction addressed to ‘Dear Fellow Writer,’ and its challenge to ‘Listen to your inside self, your private voice … explore the wonder of being alive.’"

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "Mora...has chosen poems with themes that are accessible to, yet challenging for teens, a few of which appear in both English and Spanish. Occasional footnotes explain historical references or Spanish phrases. The introduction encourages young writers, as do the poems themselves. This anthology speaks to a young adult audience, and it should find many readers."

CONNECTIONS

* Have students read other books by Pat Mora

Mora, Pat.  DIZZY IN YOUR EYES: POEMS ABOUT LOVE.  ISBN 0375945652

Mora, Pat.  CONFETTI: POEMS FOR CHILDREN.  ISBN 1880000857

* Have students listen to Pat Mora's interview describing her book MY OWN TRUE NAME came to be as well as her writing experience.  The interview may be found at the Annenberg Foundation website located at http://www.learner.org/workshops/hslit/session1/aw/work1.html#t2

Afterwards have students write and present their own poems in response to the works in Mora's book.  (Idea found at http://www.learner.org/workshops/hslit/session1/lessonplan1.html )

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Woodson, Jacqueline.  1998.  IF YOU COME SOFTLY.  New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.  ISBN 0399231129

SUMMARY

Set in the cities of Harlem and Brooklyn, fifteen-year-olds Jeremiah and Ellie meet at the elite high school Percy Academy.  Jeremiah, the son of a famous film-making father and a successfully published mother, tries to fit into his new school, playing basketball and hanging out with his friends.  Life seems strange until he meets Ellie, the daughter of an often absent, but hard-working father, and a mother who has already abandoned the family twice.  Though they both come from different worlds- Jeremiah is African-American while Ellie is Caucasian and Jewish-  they both take on the struggles of overcoming the prejudice and stereotypes interracial couples face while simultaneously finding their own identities.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

Woodson's complicated story offers many cultural markers that bring to light the major differences between the African-American and Caucasian cultures, and the continual struggle for equality and acceptance.  The first two sentences of the story set a hard tone for the upcoming obstacles Jeremiah will face, as it begins with "Jeremiah was black.  He could feel it."  Readers learn about the different kinds of black in Brooklyn, as Woodson describes the varying skin tones as "light-skinned" and "dark-skinned."  Jeremiah's grandmother often warned him to not be "too black" because it would cause a lot of problems.  Attention is also given to the different types of hairstyles, as Jeremiah describes his friends as "nappy-headed, curly-headed, bald-headed brothers."  Jeremiah is also described as having dread locks that are "thick and black and spiraling" over his shoulders.  Authenticity is also seen in his friends' names, which he refers to as "The Three Black Musketeers": Carlton, Rayshon, and Kennedy.

Jeremiah describes the environment of his new elite-prep school Percy Academy as being "much whiter" than Brooklyn Tech, the school he transferred from, and notices "all the white faces surrounding him."  He even questions what he's doing at a school "with all these white boys around him."  Language use also plays a role throughout Woodson's novel.  Jeremiah and his friends call each other "homeboys" and "brothers", and refer to their neighborhood as "the hood."  Woodson even comments on Jeremiah's feelings as his fellow white classmates try talking like him, writing "He hated when  white guys tried to sound black."

Ellie is a Jewish Caucasian female student who feels an immediate connection when she runs into Jeremiah in the Percy hallways.  Woodson brings Ellie's Jewish faith to light at various points of the story, citing the family's preparations for the Hanukkah and Yom Kippur holidays, going to temple, and wearing a Star of David necklace.  Readers also learn that Ellie's older sister, Anne, has a girlfriend named Stacey, and committed their lives to each other in a commitment ceremony months before.  For some readers, this may be the first time they encounter a homosexual character in a story.  

As Jeremiah and Ellie's romance begins to bloom, the effects of racism and others' prejudice are brought to readers attention.  As the two become more affectionate in public, holding hands and kissing, they are often met with stares and are eyed suspiciously.  Ellie describes "people stare, trying to figure it all out or something."  She also comments that students at school do not know how to react to the interracial couple, saying "It was strong, the way students seemed to turn away from us."   They often here derogatory remarks from passersby, saying things like "jungle fever" and "who turned out the lights?"  As the couple grow together, Ellie asks Jeremiah "You think it will always be like this?" and comments "how stupid the world could be sometimes."  This struggle for equality and acceptance is one many readers may or may not be familiar with, but Woodson does a wonderful job of bringing it to the forefront for discussion and thought.  

Not only do Jeremiah and Ellie face struggles from the outside world, but also from within their own families.  When Ellie tells her sister, Anne, that Jeremiah is African-American, Anne's stunned reaction is revealed to readers: "She didn't say anything.  I could feel the air between us getting weird."  When Anne tries to explain her concern that it must be hard to have a girlfriend or boyfriend of a different race, Ellie angrily ends the conversation, and a rift between the two is born.  Jeremiah, on the other hand, has a father who tells him "You're a black man, you're a warrior."  He says of Caucasians "They don't know they're white.  They know what everybody else is, but they don't know they're white."  Readers gather from these comments that these two different worlds are often at odds with one another, with racial inequalities and discrimination prevalent in both worlds.  As Jeremiah's father boldly states "Times are not different".  Readers realize that the effects of racism still echo even in today's world.   

Readers also learn of both characters' path to self identity  as they step out into the existing world.  Jeremiah struggles with the mixed messages he gets from his friends, family, classmates, and even himself, as he tries to figure out who he is: "But sometimes looking in that mirror, he had no idea who he was or why he was in this world."  Meanwhile, Ellie struggles to make sense of society's expectations and her family's own perspectives.  In an honest admission to confides to Jeremiah "I used to think my family would accept anybody...No matter what color they were.  I'm not so sure of that now...It scares me.  If they have it in them, to not like somebody because of their color- then I might have it in me."  Ellie reflects what perhaps many readers may fear- that deep down that seed of prejudice exists in all of us.  This will let readers reflect on their own attitudes and perceptions of those that may be of different ethnicities and cultures.

REVIEWS AND AWARDS

COOPERATIVE CHILDREN'S BOOK CENTER CHOICES: "A quiet, beautifully etched portrait of a first love that is shattered by the racism, If You Come Softly traces the relationship of two teens whose lives intertwine for a short but life-changing time."

KIRKUS: "In a meditative interracial love story with a wrenching climactic twist, Woodson (The House You Pass on the Way, 1997, etc.) offers an appealing pair of teenagers and plenty of intellectual grist, before ending her story with a senseless act of violence."

PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY: " Once again, Woodson handles delicate, even explosive subject matter with exceptional clarity, surety and depth. In this contemporary story about an interracial romance, she seems to slip effortlessly into the skins of both her main characters, Ellie, an upper-middle-class white girl who has just transferred to Percy, an elite New York City prep school, and Jeremiah, one of her few African American classmates, whose parents (a movie producer and a famous writer) have just separated."

CONNECTIONS

* Have students read other novels written by Jacqueline Woodson.

Woodson, Jacqueline. COMING ON HOME SOON.  ISBN  0399237488

Woodson, Jacqueline. I HADN'T MEANT TO TELL YOU.  ISBN  0142405558

Woodson, Jacqueline.  FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF MELANIN SUN.  ISBN 0590458817

Oh, Brother! by Nikki Grimes

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Grimes, Nikki.  2008.  OH, BROTHER.  Ill. By Mike Benny.  New York: Greenwillow Books.  ISBN 9780688172947

SUMMARY

OH, BROTHER! tells the touching story of a young, Hispanic boy named Xavier, and the new "additions" to his family.   After his mother remarries, Xavier feels out of sorts, struggling to find his place in his new family as well as learning to live with his new step-father and new step-brother,  Chris.  However, as the plot unfolds, Xavier learns more about Chris and the sad experiences he has lived through, and begins to form a real connection with his new step-family.  Readers will enjoy this wonderful story of a new family working through its struggles to build a new life of their own.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

Using rhyming prose and free verse, Nikki Grimes presents readers with twenty powerful poems that capture the struggles and challenges new family's often encounter when parents get remarried.  An added element to this struggle is the biracial factor.  The story's protagonist, Xavier, and his mother are of Hispanic descent while his new step-father and step-brother, Chris, are African-American.  

Grimes cleverly using rhyming poetry to capture the turmoil and complexities Xavier is feeling as he tries to adjust to the new changes in his life.  This is evident in the poem titled "Trouble" where Xavier describes the first meeting with his new step-brother, Chris: "Then, one night he brings/ his son, Chris, along!/ The earth lost its axis/ and spun around wrong."   He comments that "There won't be room/for me unless/ I turn into a mouse!"  As his mother steps into the new role of being young Chris' mother as well, Xavier's jealously burns with in him.   In the poem "Showdown," Xavier finally confronts Chris and asks why he tries so hard to be liked and to be so perfect.  It is in that powerful poem that readers learn that Chris is afraid his dad might go way, "normal wasn't good enough to make my mama stay."  Xavier begins to internalize Chris' emotions and fears as he, too, has experienced the loss of losing a parent.  In the poem "Photograph," readers see Chris comfort Xavier as he describes missing his father who is "73 cities" away.  Grimes quietly, yet powerful reveals to readers that Xavier's father's leaving was for the best, as Xavier describes "Sure, I can see/ it's better now,/ him gone,/ and no more screaming/ at Mami."

As the family dynamics begin unfold, Grimes brings the two ethnic worlds together by sporadically using Spanish terms throughout the text.  Xavier's mother calls her step son Chris "hijo," which means son.  As Xavier's and Chris' relationship begins to strengthen, Xavier tells Chris in the poem titled "The Name Game" that brother is spelled "H-E-R-M-A-N-O," which  in Spanish, describes what they are now.  This touching combination of both English and Spanish words for brother brings to the heart of the story the true meaning of family, and that it goes beyond any cultural borders.

Adding power to the Grimes' prose are Mike Benny's stunning gouache paintings.  Benny uses rich varying colors to depict the variation in skin tones between Xavier and his Hispanic mother, and Chris and his African-American father.  Also seen in the illustrations are the differences in their facial features as well as hair color and textures.  Perhaps the most powerful image comes from the poem "Lights Out," which describes the blooming relationship between Xavier and Chris.  As they "trade jokes/ and line the wall/ with laughter,"  readers see the two character's shadows on the wall, smiling and laughing while playfully having a pillow fight.  For a brief moment, both characters are the same "color" on the dark silhouettes on the wall.  Differences in race,  skin color, facial features, or hair textures are all but forgotten in this moment of pure joy and happiness.

As the boys later learn, a new addition to family comes in the form of their baby sister, Melodye.  Benny paints Melodye a light-shade of brown, and with beautiful round eyes.  Both Xavier and Chris decide that they will always be brothers and that as family, they will never abandon one another.  OH, BROTHER masterfully incorporates both the African-American and Hispanic cultures to help teach young readers to understand and celebrate their differences while helping them to see the world beyond their own lives.

REVIEWS AND AWARDS

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: " The winner of multiple Coretta Scott King Awards, Grimes spins her verse with a light, knowing touch (for example, Mami grinning is "licking us like scoops of ice cream with her eyes") to the happy ending. Mike Benny's colorful gouache illustrations naturalistically complement the story--and occasionally go beyond it, as in his double-page pillow fight interpretation of "Lights Out." This is a well done niche book for the growing market of re-formed families attempting to survive the inevitable jealousies and insecurities of the children caught in the middle."

KIRKUS: "Twenty poems laced with emotion chronicle Xavier's journey from anger to acceptance, while Benny's strong gouache illustrations capture his emotional struggle to embrace his new hermano and their new family. Ideal for kids coping with new step-siblings."

CONNECTIONS

* Have students pre-read before beginning the book.  Ask students questions such as what do you think the title means?  What is great about having a sibling?  What is not so great?  What do you think a family experiences when have new family members join, whether through adoption, marriage, or blended family?  (Ideas from http://www.nikkigrimes.com/teacher/brothtg.html)