| Booktalk
#1
Death all too often claims
the lives of parents leaving behind children to cope and often experience
feelings of guilt for things they could have done. In Miracle’s Boys by
Jacqueline Woodson, Tyree, Charlie, and Lafayette come to terms with the
death of not one, but both parents. Their father died as the result of
trying to rescue a lady and her dog, both had fallen into a frozen lake.
Tyree stood by and watched in horror. It was he who had insisted that his
father try and save the dog. Time passed and things became financially
difficult for a mother with three sons.
Charlie wants to take his mother back to her homeland of Bayamon. He needs
cash so he robs a nearby store. Charlie is sent to a juvenile home for
two years. While he is away Lafayette wakens one morning to find his diabetic
mother unconscious from insulin shock. At first he thinks she is just sleeping
in late. When he realizes what is wrong, he calls for help. But did he
wait too long?
Tyree now has to sacrifice a full scholarship to MIT in order to work and
support Lafayette. Charlie comes home after serving his sentence and blames
Lafayette for the death of their mother. Not knowing any other way to handle
his anger, he slips deeper into a life of crime and violence. Lafayette
spends the majority of his time dreaming of his mother and talking to her
ghost.
Can these three brothers ever repair their strained relationship? Find
out in Miracle's Boys. (Teresa Reid, teereid97@mindspring.com)
Booktalk #2
If their parents hadn't died,
if Charlie hadn't robbed the candy store and been busted and sent to Rahway
Correctional, Ty’ree could have gone to college. Instead Ty’ree works
to support his brothers. Now Charlie has come home and he is changed, a
very different man. Where is the Charlie who was compassionate and
cared for the hurt things? Why does he hate Lafayette so much?
How are the three boys going to survive in a world that seems so hostile?
(Jean Bellavance bellavance@erols.com
for Pennsylvania
Young Reader's Choice Awards, 2003)
Booktalk #3
13 year-old Lafayette is confused. He is confused by the way his brother
Charlie has been acting ever since he got home from Rahway Home for Boys.
Surely there is some good deep down in this brother he now calls ”Newcharlie”
because he seems so different. Charlie was sent there for his role in an
armed robbery. That was a few years ago, 2 months before their mother died
suddenly. Lafayette misses his mom very much. She raised him, Charlie and
their older brother Ty’ree after their father died in a tragic accident.
She was their rock; she kept all 3 boys in line with her love and determination.
Now what will happen to them? Ty’ree was the brain in the family, destined
to go to college. Instead he traded in a scholarship to MIT to stay and
be a father to Charlie and Lafayette, only Newcharlie keeps messing up
and Lafayette can’t get past his grief to help Newcharlie work through
his anger. Can the boys find a way to stay together?
Professional Notes: A great book for middle school boys, it isn’t graphic
or preachy and Woodson proves adept at writing to include today’s dialect
and slang. It provides a realistic look at the problems facing inner city
kids. (Barbara Stewart Zinkovich, barbiez@bellsouth.net,
student USC) |
