Lost Boy, Lost Girl (158 Pages)

I'd know about this book for some time as my friend, Bryan told me about it. However, I didn't get to read it until he loaned it to me at the end of our summer writing project work. Thanks, Bry! In this short memoir, and told in alternating chapters, John Bul Dau and Martha Arual Akech tell the story of the years of their lost childhood as they tried to stay alive during the civil war in Sudan. As awful as the details are, they are also fascinating. The details of just how these two stayed alive, are remarkable. I kept thinking of today's youngsters who complain about having to walk a block! The lost children walked from one country to another Sudan to Ethiopia, eventually ending up in Kenya. John and Martha met while both were in a neighboring refugee camp. The boys and girls were separated, but during one of the "dances" in the boys' camp the lost girls were invited and John and Martha met. He was immediately interested in her, but both followed the Dinka ways, and as a result their relationship took many years to result in their eventual marriage. With the help of the UN, Martha and her little sister managed to arrive in the United States where they settled with an American family in Seattle, Washington. Eventually, John made it to the U.S. as well. In addition to the incredible accounting of their survival, I was fascinated with the Sudanese "communication web" which allowed family members to find one another. This book is a wonderful, short read. It is an important eye-opener for our American children to learn about children struggling to stay alive.

Crow (291 Pages)

Barbara Wright has written a novel that combines fictional characters with real historical events. The book takes place in the late 1800's in Wilmington, North Carolina. The main character, Moses Thomas and his family are facing the  progress and the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation. His father, a newspaper reporter has been elected as an alderman to the town's governing body. Moses experiences fun and games amid constant racial prejudice. His grandmother was a slave and she is constantly using her superstitions and homemade medicines. Moses straddles the line between wanting to treat her with respect while at the same time unwilling to go along with her superstitious ideas. Moses becomes a witness to the Wilmington Race Riot that changed his life. Both boys and girls will enjoy this book, and I hope they will read the notes at the end of the book. These notes explain the many parts of the book that are true as well as people who were really part of the story. The idea of using an historical event(s) and writing a narrative adding made up characters strikes me as a wonderful social studies/ language arts collaborative unit!