Teaching Writer’s Craft with Multicultural and Diverse Literature

1. Teaching Writer’s Craft with Multicultural and Diverse Literature Jane M. Gangi, ph.d. Updated November 25, 2012

2. Organized by…. Biography and autobiography Informational text Contemporary Realistic Fiction Poetry Historical Fiction Concept Book Fantasy Magical Realism

3. Why Scaffold Writer’s Craft? Cynthia Leitich Smith, Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu’s Jingle Dancer Jingle Dancer could have taught me “transitions”—and a host of other things about writer’s craft.

4. Beginning lines: Monica Brown and Rafael López ’s My Name Is Celia “SUGAR! My voice is strong, smooth, and sweet. I will make you feel like dancing. Close your eyes and listen. My voice feels like feet skipping on cool wet sand, like running under a waterfall. My voice climbs and rocks and dips and flips with the sounds of congas beating and flips with the sounds of congas beating and trumpets blaring. Boom boom boom! beat the congas. Clap clap clap! go the hands. Shake shake shake! go the hips. I am the Queen of Salsa and I invite you to come dance with me!” (n. p.) Biography

5. Endings:Savion Glover and Bruce Weber’s Savion: My Life in Tap “And if I have anything to do with it, tap is going to keep growing. It’s going to have its proper place at last. I want tap to be like a baseball game, a football game, people coming to see us at Yankee Stadium. I want tap to be on TV I want tap to be in the movies. I want tap to be massive. Worldwide.” (p. 78) Autobiography

6. Sentence Fragments:Tonya Bolden’s W. E. B. Du Bois: A Twentieth-Century Life “’MR. PRESIDENT, WHY NOT MAKE AMERICA SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY?’ asked banners in an NAACP land mark march on July 28, 1917. Some eight thousand souls marched down New York City’s Fifth Avenue. Men in dark suits. Women and children in white. All of them silent. Du Bois in the forefront.” (p. 127) Biography

7. Format: Pam Muñoz Ryan and Brian Selznick’s When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson “SEASON OF TWO THOUSAND AND TWO SCHOLASTIC PRESS · NEW YORK· PRESENTS When Marian Sang The True Recital of Marian Anderson The Voice of the Century Libretto by Pam Muñoz Ryan Staging by Brian Selznick” (title page) Biography

8. Time Passage:Nikki Giovanni and Bryan Collier ’s Rosa “And the people walked. They walked in the rain. They walked in the hot sun. They walked early in the morning. They walked late at night. They walked at Christmas, and they walked at Easter. They walked on the Fourth of July; they walked on Labor Day. They walked on Thanksgiving, and then it was almost Christmas again. They still walked” (n. p.). Biography

9. Coherence of text and illustration: Joseph Bruchac and S. D. Nelson’s Crazy Horse’s Vision S. D. Nelson studied Native American ledger art to create the illustrations for Joseph Bruchac’s text. Biography

10. Hybridity in writing: Lucía González and Lulu Delacre’s The Storyteller’s Candle: La velita de los cuentos “¡Asalto!” boomed the voices of the parranderos, surprising everyone. The children stretched up on tiptoe for a good look. “Saludos, saludos, vengo a saludar…” sang the parranderos” (p. 28) Biography

11. Writing in two languages: Guadalupe Rivera Marín and Diego Rivera’s My Papa Diego and Me/Mi papá Diego y yo “In Mexico, y pico can mean something like ‘and a little bit.’ When I was a young girl my father called me ‘Picos’ because I was so small… En Mexico, y picopuede decir <<y un poco más>>. Cuando era niña mi padre llamaba <<Picos>>… “(p. 4) Biography

12. Sensory images:Crystal Hubbard and Randy DuBurke’s Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream “Marcenia Lyle loved baseball. She loved the powdery taste of dust clouds as she slid through them. She loved the way the sun heated her hair as she crouched in the outfield, waiting for fly balls. And she loved the sting in her palm as a baseball slammed into it, right before tagging a runner out” (n. p.) Biography

13. Sensory images:Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara’s A Song for Cambodia “With his heart again full of sweet sounds, Arn vowed to return to his country of sugar plums, whispering grasses, and bright sunshine to help others with his music” (n. p.). Biography

14. Thought or Theme:Pat Mora and Beatriz Vidal’s A Library for Juana: The World of Sor Juana Inés A woman’s struggle to be recognized as a scholar in the seventeenth century Biography

15. Irony:Gaylia Taylor and Frank Morrison’s George Crum and the Saratoga Chip It is ironic that the potato chip was born in an (justifiable) act of spite. Biography

16. Direct address: Jody Nyasha Warner and Richard Rudnicki’s Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged! “Viola Desomond was one brave woman! Now come on here, listen in close and I’ll tell you why” (n. p.) Biography

17. Audience: Luis Rodríguez’s It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way: A Barrio Story/No tiene que ser así: Una historia del barrio Rodríguez has a very specific audience in mind when he tells his story of leaving a gang after his cousin is hurt. Autobiography

18. Writing in First Person:Stephen Buchmann and Diana Cohn’s The Bee Tree “All the years of my life, I remember my grandfather going to collect the honey from the bees in the tualang trees. The bees travel hundreds of miles, even over oceans, and arrive every year just as the rainforest flowers begin to bloom” (n. p.). Informational Text: Life Science

19. Writing in Second Person and Author’s Note:Amalia Astorga, as told to Gary Paul Nabhan, and Janet K. Miller’s Efraín of the Sonoran Desert: A Lizard’s Life among the Seri Indians “Wander down into some of the hottest and driest lands in North America, and you’ll come upon a tribe know to outsiders as the Seri Indians. They have lived along the dry coasts of the ocean for centuries, celebrating the animals of the deserts and seas around them” (p. 26). Informational Text: Earth Science

20. Writing a Foreword: Jan Reynolds’s Cycle of Rice: A Story of Sustainable Farming “To the people living on the small Indonesian island of Bali, rice is life….When it comes to growing rice, they have developed one of the world’s most efficient systems for water sharing, crop rotation, and the use of natural fertilizers and pest control” (n. p.) Informational Text: Earth Science

21. Blending genres: Poetry and informational text in Kate Milway and Eugenie Fernandes’sOne Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference “This is the school Kojo attends with the fees he paid from the money he made selling his eggs” and “There are practical lessons for country life, too: how to filter drinking water with a cloth to remove parasites…” (p. 15) Informational Text: Economics

22. Combining Text, Photographs, and Illustrations:Anthony Robinson, Anthony, & June Allan’s Gervelie’s Journey: A Refugee Diary A story of the Congo and England See also: Hazmat’s Journey (from Chechnya) and Mohammed’s Journey (from Iraq) Informational Text: Cultures

23. Detail: Nicola Campbell’s Shi-shi-etko Before she leaves for the Indian Boarding School, Shi-shi-etko walk and gather a memory bag: “They went to visit silver willow, red willow, sage brush, cottonwood, Labrador bushes and even kinnikinnick. They visited blueberry, salmonberry, Saskatoon, and huckleberry buses. They found bitterroot, wild potato and wild celery patches. On and on they went through fields of wild roses, Indian paintbrush, fireweed and columbine” (n. p.). Contemporary Realistic Fiction

24. Inner Story:Truong Tran and Ann Phong’s Going Home, Coming Home “What’s so great about Vietnam anyway? And why do you keep calling Vietnam home? I want to say. Instead I sigh and say, “This trip is taking forever” (n. p.) Contemporary Realistic Fiction

25. Metaphor:Mary Williams and R. Gregory Christie’s Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan “Education is very important. It can be your mothers and fathers. It can speak for you, when your parents cannot” (n. p.) Contemporary Realistic Fiction—based on a true story

26. Verb Tense: Monica Gunning and Elaine Pedlar’sA Shelter in Our Car “Police cars are coming closer! The sirens hurt my ears and the light blind my eyes. I jump up, really, really frightened. “Shhh, Zettie, lie down,” Mama says. “We don’t want to be noticed.” We sink between the clothes on the back seat of the car. “Mama, it’s creepy sleeping in our car,” I whisper. Contemporary Realistic Fiction

27. Onomatopoeic words: Olivier Ka and Luc Melanson’s My Great Big Mama “My mamma gives me noisy kisses. They go ‘shmops’ on my cheek” (n. p.) Contemporary Realistic Fiction

28. Parallel Story:Juan Felipe Herrera and Ernesto Cuevas’s Featherless/Desplumado Tomasito, who has spina bifida, lives in a trailer with his father. Tomasito’s father gives him a pet bird that has a deformed leg; their stories, and successes, parallel each other. Contemporary Realistic Fiction

29. Simile (and personification): Melrose Cooper and Nneka Bennett’s (2000)Gettin’ through Thursday “Mondays and Tuesdays amble by just fine.” But, as funds begin to dwindle, by Wednesday,“[W]e feel it comin’, like an earthquake rumblin’ underground, makin’ folks edgy before they even know why. And the next day, my family and I grit all we got toward getting’ through Thursday. That’s because payday at Mama’s school where she’s a lunch lady doesn’t come till Friday” (n. p.). Contemporary Realistic Fiction

30. Repeated lines: Diana Cohn and Francisco Delgado ’s ¡Si, se puede!/Yes, we can!: Janitor strike in L.A. Each night, before leaving for her job as a custodian, Carlitos’s mother says, “Sleep with the angels, Carlitos.” Each morning, before Carlitos leaves for school, he says to his mother who has come home to sleep, “Sleep with the angels, Mamá” (n. p.). Contemporary Realistic Fiction

31. Metaphor: Maxine Trotter and Isabelle Arsenault’s Migrant There are times when Anna feels like a bird. It is the birds, after all, that fly north in the spring and south every fall, chasing the sun, following the warmth. Her family is a flock of geese beating its way there and back again (n. p.) Contemporary Realistic Fiction

32. Dialogue:Ahmad Akbarpour and Morteza Zahedi’s Good Night, Commander “Then I hop over and pick up my crutches. He can’t believe it. He drops his gun and picks up my leg. ‘Can you walk with this?’ he asks. ‘Yes,’ I say. ‘Can you run?’ ‘Yes.’… ‘Can I borrow this, just for tonight? I want to show my mom.’ ‘I thought she was dead,’ I say. ‘Yes, but she can see me’” (n. p.) Contemporary Realistic Fiction

33. Author’s Note:Sun Yung Shin and Kim Cogan’s Cooper’s Lesson “I…wanted to explore how language plays such an important part in who we are and how we relate to other people. I imagine how one boy might come to understand—and challenge—himself when he feels caught between two worlds’” (n. p.). Contemporary Realistic Fiction

34. Symbolism:Kathleen and Michael Lacapa’s Less Than Half, More Than Whole “’This corn is like you,’ Tony’s grandfather said. ‘It is one of great beauty because of its many colors. And just as the corn with its many colors is a gift to the people, so you are a gift from the Creator. ‘Some will see only the blue in this corn, and others will see only the red…You are not half a person because of your color, my son; you are a whole, beautiful person’” (n. p.). Contemporary Realistic Fiction

35. Metaphor:Bebe Moore Campbell, Bebe Moore and E. B. Lewis’s Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry “I have cereal in my tummy, not pancakes. But I’m still full. Sometimes my mommy has dark clouds inside her. I can’t stop the rain from falling, but I can find sunshine in my mind” (n. p.). Contemporary Realistic Fiction

36. All the synonyms for “brown”: Malathi Iyengar and Jamel Akib’s Tan to Tamarind: Poems About the Color Brown Tan Brown. Milk-tea brown. Spicy-sweet masala tea brown… (p. 3) Also poems about: sienna, topaz, bay, sepia, cocoa, ocher, beige, sandalwood, coffee, adobe, tamarind, spruce, nutmeg, brown Poetry

37. Linguistic Diversity, Powerful Beginning, and Simile:Ruth Forman’s Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon “We don have no backyard frontyard neither we got black magic n brownstone steps when the sun go down we don have no backyard no sof grass rainbow kites mushrooms butterflies we got South Philly summer when the sun go down” (n. p.). Poetry

38. Onomatopoeia:Pat Mora and Rafael López’s Yum!¡MmMm! Qué rico¡ America’s Sproutings Pecan “We crack hard, brown shells, Family munching, story time, Crunchy taste of fall” Tomato “Round roly-poly Squirts seedy, juicy splatter. Red burst in your mouth” (n. p.). Poetry

39. Linguistic Diversity:A. LaFaye’s and Keith D. Shepherd’s Walking Home to Rosie Lee “War’s over. Government say we free. Folks be on the move. Getting the feel for freedom. Not me. I’m looking for my mama, Rosie Lee. Master Turner sold my mama away from me. Haven’t seen her since they put me in the fields to work, but I ‘member how she smell like jasmine flowers in the summer sun” (n. p.). Historical Fiction Picture Book

40. Personification: Michelle Lord and Felicia Hoshino’s Little Sap and Monsieur Rodin “Some days the sea was smooth and the ship rocked soothingly, like the hammock of Sap’s babyhood. Other days were stormy. The boat shuddered and the sea spit” (n. p.) Historical Fiction, based on a true story

41. Characterization:Tim Tingle and Jeanne Rorex Bridge’s Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom “Martha Tom knew her mother could cackle like a mad crow on the outside, while inside she would coo like a dove with love for her daughter” (n. p.). Historical Fiction, based on a true story

42. Three Dimensional Texts: Menena Cotin and Rosana Faria’s The Black Book of Colors “Thomas says that yellow tastes like mustard, but is as soft as a baby chick’s feathers” (n. p.) Concept Book

43. Character Details: Walter Mosley’s 47 “He was the most beautiful being I had ever seen. I say that he was colored but not like any Negro I’d known. His skin was the color of highly polished brass but a little darker, a little like copper too but not quite. His eyes were almond-shaped and large with red-brown pupils. He was bare-chested and slender, but there was elegance in his lean stance. All he wore was a pair of loose trousers cinched at the waist with a piece of rope” (p. 47). Magical Realism

44. Personification and Onomatopoeia: Walter Mosley’s 47 “The night air was filled with chirps and clicks of insects and the smell of night blooming jasmine. The nearly full moon was wearing a cloud as a belt and stars winked all around” (p. 67). “There were larks and whip-poor-wills singing in the trees. A dry breeze was blowing and bright sunbeams peeked down through the dark covering of leaves and pine needles. We walked along a shallow creek bed that burbled over large white stones” (p. 210). Magical Realism

45. Audience: J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy Tolkien’s audience for many years was an audience of one: C. S. Lewis. “But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more I should never have brought it to a conclusion” (as cited in Gormley, p. 94). Fantasy

46. In addition to the bibliography posted on the wiki, more information available: in Chapter 2 of Deepening Literacy Learning: Art and Literature Engagements in K-8 Classrooms (Reilly, Gangi, & Cohen, 2010)