Messenger

Title:   Messenger

Author:  Lois Lowry

Illustrator:  None

Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Publication Date:  Reissue September 2012

ISBN:  978-0547995670

Audience: 12 and up

Summary: Matty, a lively boy entering adolescence, lives with Seer, his blind guardian, in Village, once a welcoming and healing place for all. But this is beginning to change.  People are growing selfish; they want to close the village to any newcomers who, they say, have too many needs.  Seer and Leader suspect the baleful influence of the Trade Mart and Trademaster.  People are trading their inmost selves to get such things as a Gaming Machine or a better appearance.  When Village votes to close its gates, Seer knows that he must send for his daughter, Kira, who lives in another village and who is lame.  She had stayed there to use her gift with needle and thread to embroider a new life for the violent, cruel village in which she lived.  Matty, who hopes his real name will be Messenger, is sent to tell all nearby villages that Village gates are closing.  He goes first to Kira to bring her to her father.  Matty has discovered that he has the gift of healing and he offers to heal Kira before they start for Village, even though he knows how much vitality and strength this will take from him.  Kira refuses and they start back through Forest, only to find it has become hostile to them.  Branches stick them; vines entangle them; the stench makes breathing almost impossible.  Matty is called to use his gift in a costly, remarkable act of healing that restores Forest and Village and restores Kira to her father.

Literary elements at work in the story: The genre is dystopian fiction. The tension and danger of most such novels takes a slightly different form here. The gifts used in the story’s conclusion veer into fantasy or magic rather than dystopian fiction.  Evil is represented by a consumerism that encourages selfishness and that affects the natural world.  The trip through the forest that Matty and Kira make is vivid, frightening, horrifying.

How does the perspective on gender/race/culture/economics/ability make a difference to the story? The reasons people of the Village give for closing their gates express racial and cultural prejudice and prejudice against those handicapped. Neither gender nor economics affect the story.

Theological Conversation Partners: Messenger opens up a number of topics for theological exploration: evil, suffering, ecology, responsibility, stewardship of gifts, identity, community. In the two previous  communities, an evil pattern of life was already established. Here Lowry telescopes the results of materialism, consumerism, selfishness into a rapid change in the entire character of Village. Is this an adequate concept of evil? Explore Genesis 2 and compare. Lowry and the Bible personalize evil.  Compare Trademaster with Satan or the devil.  Kira claims her lameness as part of her identity-“Who I am.” Does our faith encourage us to accept handicaps as identity, as something to keep?  When does my healing take from the community-a question that lurks in discussions of medical care today.   Biblical characters are given new names-Abraham, Jacob, Peter. Compare this with the names given in Village. Matty is reminded to use his gift carefully, not to squander it.  This is in contrast to the story Jesus told about the Master who demanded that his servants invest their gold coins. (Luke 19: 11-27, Matt. 25:14-30)  Both ideas could be included in the stewardship of gifts.

Faith Talk Questions:

1. Villagers give reasons for wanting to close their gates to newcomers.  What are these and are they used when we discuss immigration today.
2. When Matty arrived at Village he lied, stole, and avoided responsibility.  What made him change?
3. Why did Kira refuse healing.  What did she mean by, “This is who I am?” Was she right?
4. Leader tells Matty about using his gift: “Wait for the true need, Matty,. Don’t spend the gift.”  How does he recognize the need?
5. Names were given to indicate the true nature of the person.  What would your name be?
6. Can you think of times when you can trade your true self for something you want-popularity? Good looks? Success in sports or grades? Other?
7. Selfishness affects the natural world, making Forest hostile.  What is the connection between selfishness and global warming, for example?
8. Do you think the author gives an accurate picture of the Village before Trademaster comes?
9. How can a community protect itself from influences the cause us to be selfish, cruel, dishonest?
10.  In Christian theology is selfishness the root of all other sins? What other sins mar us and our world?

This review was written by regular contributor Virginia Thomas

Perfect Square

Title:  Perfect Square

Author:  Michael Hall

Illustrator:  Michael Hall

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2011

ISBN: 9780061915130

Audience:  Written for ages 4-8 years

Summary:  Start with a square of bright red paper that is perfectly happy. On Monday it is cut into pieces and riddled with dots, so the square adapts the shapes into a babbling fountain.  The next day the square is torn in pieces, so it makes itself into a garden. Each day as the square is changed it transforms itself into something unexpected and delightful.  On Sunday nothing happens and the square, now used to change, makes a surprising adaptation rather than remain the same.

Literary elements at work in the story:  Perfect Square is a visual experience of design, shapes and colors. With a few lines-a smile, a drooping mouth-the square becomes more than paper; it becomes a subject that acts and feels. The brief text follows a repeated pattern that complements the design.  .

How does the perspective on gender/race/culture/economics/ability make a difference to the story? The square is referred to as “It” and is still a remarkably vital personality.  None of the other issues arise.

Theological Conversation Partners: A good book- that is one that engages the reader, stretches her mind, stimulates imagination, brings delight, and demands to be shared- needs no purpose beyond the reading.  Perfect Square fits this description.  Any parent, child, or art teacher will welcome it thankfully.  While transformation and change are themes of the Christian faith, there’s nothing in this book to indicate who makes the changes and nothing to indicate anyone is involved in the transformation except the square itself.  Just enjoy the book with a preschool or elementary child. Still, the square’s experience of change and adaptation, can help older Christians ponder how they respond to changes in their lives. In an intergenerational study, valuable insights could be gained.

Faith Talk Questions For Upper Elementary to Adult

1. Have you ever felt like the square? Something happens to change your situation or alter your lifeover which you had no control.
2. Could you identify the cause of the change?
3. Does it make a difference if you feel God has a part in the change?
4. How did you respond to the change?  How did the square respond to change?
5. Did the square find change good? Why?
6. Some Biblical characters must have felt that they were cut, torn, shredded or ripped: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Jeremiah, Peter, Paul, John.  Think about how they responded to a changed situation or a new demand.  Read Romans 8:28, TEV.
7. Is change always good?

Review prepared by guest blogger Virginia Thomas

Home

Title:  Home

Author:  Jeannie Baker

Illustrator:  Jeannie Baker

Publisher:  Greenwillow Books, 2004

ISBN:  978-0066239354

Audience:  Ages 4 – 10

Summary:  This wordless picture book chronicles the view outside Tracy’s window from the day she is brought home as a baby to the day she brings her own child home. From the inside of the window you can see that Tracy is growing up, but it is the view outside the window that tells another story.

Looking out of the window, a portion of two front yards can be seen. Beyond the fences of those yards is an urban neighborhood in decay. Graffiti, rusted old abandoned cars, empty buildings and robberies can be seen. Inside the fences, however, neighbors are beginning to reclaim the space – gardens are planted, lawns tended. Slowly but surely, the neighborhood begins to change and over the years, the reader sees signs of that change: fresh paint, new stores, children outside playing, a new community garden. Home is seen not just as the building in which you live, but the community within which you share life with many others and the difference that people can make in transforming their communities.

Literary elements at work in the story:  This story is told entirely in pictures, and the medium is collage. The pictures are extremely rich in color and detail, and you can have a lot of fun looking for the surprising small things both from the inside of the room and outside the window. For a book with no words, this book has multiple stories that all tie together to convey the sense of home.

How does the perspective on gender/race/culture/economics/ability make a difference in this story? Part of the story that Home tells is that a community is made up of all kinds of people. So you see people of different races and genders throughout the book. And although the community first seen is fairly blighted, the urban space has been reclaimed by the end of the book so one is not left with the idea that cities are terrible places to live.

Theological Conversation Partners: Ezekiel 34:17-18;  Psalm 24:1-4; Genesis  2:15; Leviticus 25:23-24;

Romans 12; Ephesians 4.  This book reflects both the care with which the land/neighborhood is reclaimed, and how communities are formed within a particular space.  Passages related to God’s created world and our responsibility for it, and those related to how we live in community can both be used when sharing this book.

Faith Talk Questions:

1. This book tells many stories through pictures.  What are some of the things you learn about the girl who lives in the room with the window looking out on the neighborhood?
2. What are some of the things you learn about Tracy’s neighborhood?
3. Lots of things change in this book.  Tracy changes as she grows up.  What are some things that change in her neighborhood?  Who helps the neighborhood change and how does that happen?
4. How is your neighborhood like Tracy’s?  How is it different?  What do you do to care for your neighborhood?
5. How do Tracy’s neighbors show that they care about each other?  How do you show your neighbors you care about them?
6. God created the world and asked us to care for it.  What are some of the ways that you can care for the world?

Review prepared by Union Presbyterian Seminary alumna Ann Knox

Letting Swift River Go

Name of book:  Letting Swift River Go

Author:  Jane Yolen

Publisher:  Little Brown

ISBN: 978-0316968607

Audience:  Ages 4-8

Summary:  Sally Jane tells the story of the demise of her beloved town along the Swift River in Massachusetts. The town will be flooded along with the rest of the valley to form the Quabbin reservoir that will supply water to Boston. The story covers from 1927, when the town is told about the flooding, to 1946 when the flooding is completed. Sally is just six years old when the story begins. She watches as graves are moved, trees cut, homes destroyed and the river dammed. Later she and her father are in a boat on the now filled reservoir. As she looks down into the water she recalls something her mother told her when she wanted to keep lighting bugs in a jar, “ You have to let them go, Sally Jane.” As she looks into the water, she smiles and does just that, she lets it all go.

Literary elements at work in the story: This beautiful book for young readers is told in poetic narrative form perfectly illustrated by Barbara Cooney’s soft understated watercolors. The perspective is that of an adult recalling when she was six and the Swift river was flooded. This form allows the narrator to have insight a child would not have, but still keep a child’s perspective.

How does the perspective on gender/race/culture/economics/ability make a difference to the story: Both Yolen and Cooney bring to the story a personal understanding of the valley. Yolen often visited the Ouabbin Reservoir and Cooney lived not far away from the reservoir. The illustrations portray the time and place perfectly with carefully selected details that will appeal to children of any time period.

Scripture:  Luke 24: 36b-48

Theology:  Disbelief and disappointment are common to us all. Sally Jane just can’t believe what is happening around her. The town knew this was going to happen, but the eventuality of it all was shocking. In this passage, the disciples, like Sally, had been told what was going to happen, but they didn’t believe it. Then, when it comes, they are just as shocked and fearful as Sally was. Jesus calms their fears and opens their eyes and they are once again joyful. In the same way, Sally Jane’s boat ride on the reservoir helps her find joy once again. However joy, as great and healing as it may be, is not enough for the disciples or for Sally Jane.. Jesus tells his disciples they must spread their joy by preaching in His name and witnessing to others. We, like Sally Jane, must also pass on our stories of hope and joy to those around us. If the disciples had not passed on the joy of Christ where would we all be today. Don’t let you disappointments in life get in the way of living in Christ’s joy and then pass that joy on to others.

Faith Talk Questions:

1. How did Sally feel about what was happening around her?
2. How would you feel if someone said your town was going to be flooded so someone else miles away could have water?
3. Sally tells us her story to pass on her love for her town. What story can you pass on about something you love?
4. What does Jesus say to the disciples about passing on his story?
5. How can you pass on Jesus’ story?
6. Which of Jesus’ stories would you share and who would you share it with?

Review prepared by guest contributor Janet Lloyd.  (A review of Someday, a book for middle and high schoolers that chronicles the same event, was reviewed here yesterday.)

Someday

Name of Book:   Someday

Author: Jackie Koller

Publisher: iUniverse

ISBN: 978-1440186752

Audience:  Ages 12+

Summary:  It is 1939. Celie is 14 years old has lots to worry about. She is about to lose her home, which has been in her family since the 1700′s, to the flooding of Swift River. The river is being flooded to form a reservoir which will supply water for Boston. As if that were not bad enough, her grandmother refuses to move, saying she will die with the town and her mother is actually looking forward to starting a new life. It is all too much for Celie. Will she ever be happy again?

Literary elements at work in the story: Complex, finely drawn characters and fluid language that rings true for the period and place, make this coming-of-age story perfect for young people who are transitioning from childhood to adulthood.

How does the perspective on gender/race/culture/economics/ability make a difference to the story: Based on first hand records, this story accurately shows the trauma caused to the families and land caught in this situation. An afterwords shows the environmental and social issues raised by this event.

Scripture: Luke 24: 36b-48

Theology:  Disbelief and disappointment are common to us all. The people in Celie’s town had been hearing for so many years that the town would be flooded, that when they finally did get the notice, they didn’t believe it. In this passage, the disciples, like Celie, had been told what was going to happen, “someday” but they didn’t believe it. Then, when “someday” comes they are just as confused and afraid as Celie. However, Jesus calms their fears and opens their eyes and they are once again joyful. Knowing joy, as great and healing as it may be, was not enough. Jesus says they must spread that joy by preaching in His name and witnessing to others. The joy must be passed on. Celie comes to see this as well. She sees that someday can refer to a beginning as well as an ending. In the end she finds, not bitterness and resentment  in the leaving, but joy in beginning a new life. Many of the people that lived, hoped and feared in the Swift Rriver valley passed on their story, allowing us to see and feel their experience. We also must pass on our stories of hope and joy to those around us today and those that will come after us. If the disciples had not passed on the joy of Christ where would we all be today. Don’t let your disappointments in life get in the way of living in Christ’s joy and passing that joy on to others.

Faith Talk Questions::

1. You get a letter in the mail saying that you must leave your home. Not only that but your town will be dismantled piece by piece and all the world around you will be destroyed. Your favorite tree, the park you play in, everything. How do you feel? How do you cope?
2. How do you find joy in tough situations?
3. Jesus opened the disciples eyes, but they had to be willing to allow that to happen. How can we keep our eyes and hearts ready and open?
4. How were Celie’s eyes finally opened? How did she find joy?
5. The disciples were told to go and tell His story. How can you tell your story? How does Christ fit into your story?

Review prepared by guest blogger Janet Lloyd.  Her review of Letting Swift River Go, a book written for younger children about the same event, will be reviewed on Wednesday.

John Calvin

Name of Book: John Calvin

Author: Simonetta Carr

Illustrator: Emmanuele Taglietti

Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books

ISBN: 9781601780553

Audience: Ages: 7-10

Summary: This is a biography of the reformer, John Calvin, that provides the reader with the basics of Calvin’s life and teaching in a very readable and interesting way. The author does not spend a great deal of time on insignificant details but gives the main points of Calvin’s life, theology and ministry. The seven chapters (which chronologically follow Calvin’s life) are of appropriate length and depth of information to help the reader be able to divide it into manageable portions in order to study different aspects of Calvin’s life.  The author does an excellent job in this book of presenting the more human side of this great theologian and reformer.

Literary elements at work in the story:  As a biographical account of the life and works of John Calvin the book does an excellent job of highlighting Calvin’s personality, his love for God and the church, and the personal challenges he faced, in a simple and straightforward manner.  The books illustrations allow the reader to be transported back into history and to gain some visual insights into the struggles that Calvin faced as he fought for the reformation of the church.  Also, the last few pages of the book provide some “Did you know?” questions that provide an opportunity for additional learning regarding the customs and culture in which Calvin lived.

Perspective on gender/race/culture/economic ability:  As this is an historical accounting of a specific person’s life this book does not give an overall perspective other than that of a reformer. Therefore, this book would be appropriate for all audiences that have an interest in learning more about the history of Christianity and the reformed tradition.

Theological conversation: Servanthood, Church doctrines

Faith Talk Questions:

1. What does “reformed” mean?

2. Why did John Calvin think that the church needed to be reformed?

3. What happened to John Calvin as a result of his beliefs?

4. What would be considered the most important book that John Calvin

published?

5. How important was that book to the reformation? Why?

6. Do you believe that John Calvin was a faithful servant?  Why?

7. Does John Calvin’s life present any ideas about how we should live our lives?

Review prepared by Union Presbyterian Seminary student Donna Fair

For a previous review of this book, click here.

The Keeping Quilt

Name of Book: The Keeping Quilt

Author: Patricia Polacco

Illustrator: Patricia Polacco

Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks

ISBN: 9780689844478

Audience: 4-8, though this book would be useful for adults in a congregation that is facing significant internal changes.

Summary: Patricia, the author, tells the story of six generations of her own family since her Great Grandmother immigrated to the United States from Russia by highlighting the way a family quilt was used during times of change for the family. The “keeping quilt” was originally made from her great grandmother’s favorite dress and babushka, was decorated by all the Russian ladies in their neighborhood, and used as a tablecloth, a picnic blanket, a wedding huppa, and was wrapped tightly around all the new babies in the family for generations to follow. Giving accounts of how the quilt was used allows the author to describe many of the traditions of her family, culture, and religion, and how the traditions changed and adapted with the passage of time and the mixing of cultures. It ends with the author wrapping her own newborn daughter in the keeping quilt and looking forward to the day when her daughter will do the same.

Literary Elements at Work in the Story: The Keeping Quilt is the author’s own true family story, spanning over a century. The immediate social group is a family of Russian Jewish immigrants living in a large city in America. While you do not learn a great deal about individual characters in the story, the author gives you a clear picture of the values of a family and the community it is a part of. The plot is carried out by the continued use of the keeping quilt as generations of her family get married, have children, and pass away. Though it is not always stated how the quilt is used, the colorful quilt stands out against the black and white illustrations on each page allowing readers to visualize its central role in the life of this family.

How does the perspective on gender/race/culture/economics/ability make a difference to the story? This book is clearly a story about a particular culture. Traditions of a Russian Jewish family fill the book and offer opportunities for readers to learn unique things about that culture. It also can present opportunities for the many cultural traditions represented in a classroom or group to be explored. Patricia Polacco does focus on a woman in each generation and gives a glimpse of what life was like for her and her role in continuing the family traditions. This book also encourages the reader to think about how traditions and cultures change and adapt over time.

Theological Conversation: Traditions are a big part of Christianity and a big part of being the Church. There are items and activities that believers hold dear and that serve to remind us of where we came from and give us comfort during times of change. Change is another big part of Christianity and the Church. Children face change within their families, at school and at church. The Keeping Quilt can be used as a tool to talk about those changes and to explore the things we can claim as our own (both personally and as a community) that will stay with us. This book would also be useful with adults who are experiencing major change within a congregation, such as new leadership or new worship styles, to encourage discussion about what constants we can lean on when change feels inevitable.

Faith Talk Questions:

1.    Why do you think Patricia’s family loved the keeping quilt so much?

2.    What are some things or traditions your family passes down from generation to generation?

3.    What kinds of things do we do at church that Christians have done for a long time?

4.    How does it make you feel to know that your family has had this item/tradition for many years or that Christians have done this same thing for thousands of years?

5.    What is it that makes doing new things hard sometimes?

6.    What are some new things that you were frightened to do at first but turned out to be really great or exciting?

7.    What are some ways that we can remind ourselves and each other that God is with us during times of change?

Reviewed prepared by Union Presbyterian Seminary student Megan Argabrite

Tuck Everlasting

Title: Tuck Everlasting

Author:   Natalie Babbitt

Publisher:  Scholastic, Inc

ISBN:  9-780590-988865

Audience: Written for ages 9 -12, but this review suggests the book’s applicability to both young and mature audiences.

Summary:   The story starts with a young girl, Winnie, fed up with her family and wanting to run away.  She meets another family, the Tucks, in the woods near her home who whisk her away because she has discovered something that only they know about, a hidden spring a the center of the wood. During this abduction, they tell her that she must never drink from nor even tell anyone about the spring and their story.  Many years ago the Tucks came to settle there and each one, mother Mae, father Tuck, and their two sons Miles and Jesse, drank from the spring.  After living there for a few years they began to notice something odd about their lives.  They weren’t getting any older and each one survived what should have been fatal accidents (falling from a tree, hit by stray gunshot).  Winnie wasn’t sure what to make of the story but she discovered she liked these strange people, and they promised they’d return her to her home once they were sure she understood why this must be kept secret.  Meanwhile Winnie’s family  were frantically searching for her with the help of another stranger, identified only as the man in the yellow suit, who had a peculiar interest in finding her kidnappers, which he eventually did.  When he attempted to force Winnie back home, she resisted. Mae Tuck came to her defense with a shotgun, and in the ensuing tussle, delivered a fatal blow to the stranger’s head just as the town constable arrived on the scene.  Winnie was returned to her family and Mae was taken into custody for murder and sentenced to hang.  Only Winnie and the Tucks understood the horrible implications of this sentence.  Mae could not die, no matter how long she hung from the gallows.  Winnie sought out the Tucks again and together they devised a plan to break Mae out of jail. In a suspenseful climatic scene, they execute a masterful escape and that was the last Winnie ever saw of the Tuck family.  The story ends many years later when the Tucks return to the area to learn the fate of their little accomplice.

Literary Elements:   An allegory on the meaning of life’s impermanence, the story hovers between reality and fantasy set in the rural midwest sometime in the mid 19th century. Improbable as the plot may seem, the characters are palpably real.  Winnie is curious, restless, and compassionate. The Tucks have a melancholy wisdom born of their resignation to an endless life.  The villain in the yellow suit also knows the secret of the spring and has a sinister scheme for appropriating it to enrich himself. Winnie’s well-meaning but clueless parents and the fat old constable are made vividly familiar through narrative and dialogue.  Even a soft brown toad has a significant role. The narrative is superbly crafted with intense sensory imagery, most exquisite in a scene on the pond next to the Tuck household where father explains to Winnie the significance of what has happened to his family.  “The sky was a ragged blaze of red and pink and orange, and its double trembled on the surface of the pond like color spilled from a paintbox,” a photographic simile that a child could understand.

Theology:  Tuck uses the pond to teach Winnie something that very few people, young or old, can comprehend. “Life. Moving, growing, changing, never the same two minutes together. This water, you look out at it every morning and it looks the same but it ain’t. All night long it’s been moving, coming in through the stream back there to the west, slipping out through the stream down east there…”  He explains how the water evaporates and forms clouds and rains and fills the pond again. Then he drifts the boat into the branches of a partially submerged fallen tree. “That’s what us Tucks are, Winnie.  Stuck so’s we can’t move on…And everywhere around us, things is moving and growing and changing. You, for instance. A child now, but some day a woman, and after that moving on to make room for new children.” Having already considered drinking from the spring, Winnie protested, “I don’t want to die,” but Tuck patiently puts it into perspective. Everybody thinks they want to live forever, but if they could they’d surely change their minds.  Forever is forever.  What this means becomes chillingly clear when Mae is sentenced to what would become endless brutal suffering. Profound truths and questions about the meaning of life and death lurk in the pages of this unusual story.

Faith Questions:

The author provides thoughtful literature circle questions at the end of the story, although none of them are theological. Here are a few suggestions:

1. How is the encounter between Winnie and the Tuck boy like the story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis?
2. In what ways is Mae like Jesus?  In what ways is she not like Jesus?
3. Does the man in the yellow suit remind you of anyone or anything in the Bible? Why?
4. Why do you think God didn’t create people so they would live forever?

Review prepared by Union Presbyterian Seminary student Susan Wills

Our Children Can Soar

Name of Book:  Our Children Can Soar

Author:  Michelle Cook

Illustrator:  Cozbi Cabrera, R. Gregroy Christie; Bryan Collier; Pat Cummings; Leo and Diane Dillon; AG Ford; E.B. Lewis; Frank Morrison; James Ransome; Charlotte Riley Webb; Shadra Strickland; Eric Velasquez

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Audience: 3-8 years old

Summary: This book highlights some key figures in the African American fight for equality. Their contribution resulted in bringing about change that has shaped American history. The author uses a chronological progression from our early ancestors who fought to present day Barack Obama who holds the most powerful office as president. The story illustrates that our children can soar because their future have been paved by the path our ancestors have taken.

Literary elements at work in the story:

Genre: Picture book collective partial biography featuring significant African American in history

Setting: Historical progression of some African American who have made significant contributions to our history.

Characterization: Each person is noted in one sentence for the contribution that each has made to bring about change.

Plot: The author follows along a chronological time line and attempts to show how each individual contribution impacted another leader that followed.

Theme:  The theme of this book is centered on the achievements of American Africans who helped to shape the future, brought about change and left a lasting impact on the generation to follow.

Point of View: Story begins with a first person pronoun “our” and then shifts to a third person point of view.

Style: Author uses a single sentence to sum up the contribution of each person that has been highlighted.  She begins the next sentence with the contribution made from the previous person and then the page turns.

Perspective on:

Gender: No gender stereotyping; Story is a collective biography of specific African Americans.

Race: African American focus.

Culture:  Contributions of key African American figures during certain periods of America’s history.
Economic: African Americans struggling to gain equality

Ability:  No representation of anyone being handicapped

Scripture :  1 Kings 8:57-58

Theology talk: Ancestors and ancestry

Faith Talk Questions:

1.       Why are our ancestors important?

2.       The Bible points to some important ancestors for our faith. Can you name any of our biblical ancestors?

Review prepared by Union Presbyterian Seminary student Dee Osbourne-Smart

Harvesting Hope

Name of Book:  Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez

Author:  Kathleen Krull

Illustrator:  Yuyi Morales

Publisher: Harcourt

Audience: 10+

Summary: At the age of 10,  Cesar’s family had to migrate to California in search of farm work after being displaced from their ranch in Arizona due to a severe drought which resulted in their inability to pay their bills.  Cesar quits school after the eighth grade to work on the farms and help support his family. The working conditions on these farms were harsh and poor with low wages.  Cesar feels that the workers are being treated as less than human.  When he could no longer tolerate the conditions, he organizes the first National Farm Workers Association and in a non-violent protest he fought for justice.  He organized a strike and a non-violent march from Delano to Sacramento the capital, a total of 340 miles to ask for government help.  As a result of the march, Cesar’s protest against the grape company became well publicized. The National Farm Workers Association was recognized and a promise of better pay and working conditions was the result.  Cesar celebrates this victory but he states that “it is well to remember that there must be courage but that in victory there must be humility.”

Literary elements at work in the story:

Genre: Picture book partial biography of a Mexican American Cesar Chavez

Setting: Inhumane working conditions on the grape farms in California during the life of Cesar Chavez

Characterization: Cesar Chavez portrays courage, determination and hope of changing the inhumane conditions in which the farm workers had to work. He organized the first farm workers union.

Plot: The author gives a chronological account of Chavez’ life to the point where he organizes a non-violent protest to bring about change and justice to a group that was disenfranchised by wealthy land owners.

Theme:  The theme of this book is centered in having the hope, determination and courage to bring about change and justice through a non-violent protest.

Point of View: Written from a third person point of view

Style: Beautifully illustrated with warm colors that draws the reader in and brings the story to life.

Perspective on:

Gender: No gender stereotyping; Story is specifically about Cesar Chavez;

Race: The main character is Chavez a Mexican America who sought change for Mexican American Farm Workers

Culture:  Mexican American working for predominantly white farm owners in California during a specific time period

Economic:  Suppress a specific ethnic group—Mexican American Farm Workers by wealthy land owners.

Ability:  No representation of anyone being handicapped

Scripture :  Jeremiah 33:15-16

Theology talk:

1)      The Lord raises people up for a purpose

2)      Righteousness and justice

Faith Talk Questions:

1)      How does it make you feel when certain people are treated incorrectly because of how they look?

2)      How does God expect us to treat each other?

3)      What other leaders or heroes used non-violent resistance to create change?

Review prepared by Union Presbyterian Seminary student Dee Osbourne-Smart