Title: Show Way
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Illustrator: Hudson Talbott
Pub. Year: 2005
The story Show Way is a wonderful book about how
generations all from Soonie’s great grandmother survived being slaves and sewed
quilts that had secret codes on them for other slaves to get to freedom. As
Soonie grew up, even though she was free, she made quilts and wrote and read
books and shares the stories with her own children. This story has some great
historical accuracy about slaves and the secret quilts they made.
This would be a great story for
intermediate students – I feel like it a little lengthy and too much history
for primary aged children. But it would be good for children to listen to and
understand generations of history and the illustrations really depict what went
on in the time period that will help them learn the history of slavery. It
would be neat to take this book and have children research their own family
history and see how far back they can go to see where their family came from!
My thoughts exactly! This book makes me want to see how far I can go back in my family tree. I really like how the author depicts how proud she is of every significant moment in her ancestors' life experiences whether they were good or bad, and that there are certain customs and traditions that continued on through several generations. This book is definitely geared more toward middle school or more mature students. It has sophisticated themes and big ideas. Even the illustrations and quotes on the pages signify important events in African American history. However, I don't think these images and themes and plot line would be appreciated or understood by younger children. It may also be very useful to supply background knowledge for middle school students, especially those students not yet in 8th grade when the focus in social studies is U.S. History with a strong emphasis on the Civil War
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