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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
Wow. I love Sharon Draper. She is so good at crafting a narrative. I loved having Sylvia's diary entries interspersed with the rest of the book. Though the book was told from her perspective, having those insights made the book just that much better.
I really liked how Draper created the Patterson family. They each took a slightly difference stance on the integrationist movement, but it all felt veyr natural for where each character was in life. It felt to me as though the characters were great representations of integration in Little Rock.
I really liked how Draper created the Patterson family. They each took a slightly difference stance on the integrationist movement, but it all felt veyr natural for where each character was in life. It felt to me as though the characters were great representations of integration in Little Rock.
Really good.
I thought this book did a good job at conveying the historical aspects of this period in time. At the same time, Draper did a good job of making the protagonist relatable to teenagers today. It helped to better understand the situation the protagonist went through. Which is as followed:
The protagonist(I really can't remember her name). Oh yeah, Sylvia, lives in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. She is smart and is about to be a freshman in high school. Unlike her friends, she has a choice about the high school she can attend. She can go to the black high school that honestly is inferior to the other white high school she has been invited to attend. So she must decide whether she wants to attend the white high school during integration and face prejudice(w/ the Little Rock Nine), or just attend the black school and make a difference there. I think if you know your history, you know what school this girl attended.
Great book for teens who are history geeks :D
I thought this book did a good job at conveying the historical aspects of this period in time. At the same time, Draper did a good job of making the protagonist relatable to teenagers today. It helped to better understand the situation the protagonist went through. Which is as followed:
The protagonist(I really can't remember her name). Oh yeah, Sylvia, lives in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. She is smart and is about to be a freshman in high school. Unlike her friends, she has a choice about the high school she can attend. She can go to the black high school that honestly is inferior to the other white high school she has been invited to attend. So she must decide whether she wants to attend the white high school during integration and face prejudice(w/ the Little Rock Nine), or just attend the black school and make a difference there. I think if you know your history, you know what school this girl attended.
Great book for teens who are history geeks :D
Sylvia and her family live in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, during the height of school integration. Becuase of her grades and disposition, Sylvia is suggested to be on the list to integrate Central High School. She has mixed emotions about this, but ends up going through the interview process and remains on the list. As the summer before integration continues, Sylvia has an experience that may change her decision, and life, forever.
This book is told in third person narration of events and first person journal entries of Sylvia's feelings and thoughts. The journal entry sections allow for great insight in to what teens must have been thinking and going through during the time period.
I am excited to incoporate this as part of my classroom literature circles for the Civil Rights Movement. My only critique of this book is that I wish the turning point would not have turned out to be an accident.
This book is told in third person narration of events and first person journal entries of Sylvia's feelings and thoughts. The journal entry sections allow for great insight in to what teens must have been thinking and going through during the time period.
I am excited to incoporate this as part of my classroom literature circles for the Civil Rights Movement. My only critique of this book is that I wish the turning point would not have turned out to be an accident.
Sylvia Patterson is about to finish middle school. She's, of course, concerned about what she'll wear on her first day of high school, if she'll have a boyfriend, what color her toenails should be, what her favorite song is, everything typical of a 15-year-old girl. There's something else she's worried about though. If she's strong enough to be one of the first black students to attend the all-white Central High School. She doesn't want to be a hero, she just wants to be normal!
Fire from the Rock is an historical fiction novel based on the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. The reader discovers along with Sylvia the trials and hardships of black students and families living in segregated times. She doesn't think they'll ever be black singers on TV or black leaders on the covers of magazines. She doesn't think black people will ever be allowed to do anything that white people can do, but when she's chosen to be one of the first students allowed to integrate in the all white school, she doesn't know if she can do it.
The integration of Central is not the only difficult task Sylvia has to face. Her best friend is a Jewish girl and her father's store is constantly vandalized with swastikas and even gets destroyed by homemade bombs while Sylvia is in the store. She and her younger sister, Donna Jean, are attacked after leaving their local library by a group of angry white teenagers. Simply walking down the street is something she fears to do, so will she be up to the task of integration? Will she make the right decision? Only she knows the answer to that.
Fire from the Rock is an historical fiction novel based on the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. The reader discovers along with Sylvia the trials and hardships of black students and families living in segregated times. She doesn't think they'll ever be black singers on TV or black leaders on the covers of magazines. She doesn't think black people will ever be allowed to do anything that white people can do, but when she's chosen to be one of the first students allowed to integrate in the all white school, she doesn't know if she can do it.
The integration of Central is not the only difficult task Sylvia has to face. Her best friend is a Jewish girl and her father's store is constantly vandalized with swastikas and even gets destroyed by homemade bombs while Sylvia is in the store. She and her younger sister, Donna Jean, are attacked after leaving their local library by a group of angry white teenagers. Simply walking down the street is something she fears to do, so will she be up to the task of integration? Will she make the right decision? Only she knows the answer to that.
This book was really informative and eye-opening. I hadn't read anything about segregation before so I enjoyed reading a historical fiction that made us understand it from a young black girls perspective.
It's horrible and sad all of the brutality and injustice that occurred. Sylvie was brave but she also didn't want to put her family at risk. Many of the first 9 kids who were segregated dealt with extreme bullying, terror tactics, and outright abuse. They are truly heroes.
I am giving this 3 stars because I really enjoyed this but the writing style lacked for me. I believe it's geared for younger kids to understand racism.
It's horrible and sad all of the brutality and injustice that occurred. Sylvie was brave but she also didn't want to put her family at risk. Many of the first 9 kids who were segregated dealt with extreme bullying, terror tactics, and outright abuse. They are truly heroes.
I am giving this 3 stars because I really enjoyed this but the writing style lacked for me. I believe it's geared for younger kids to understand racism.
Look, it just completely blows my mind that segregation was actually legal and enforced as recently as 50 years ago. What the %&%&$?!?! I don't understand how people were (and still are) so actively hateful towards one another and how it can make some people feel good about themselves to act that way.
Well done! I've had a class set in my room since my first year of teaching and finally read it.
Draper has a great way with words and incorporating engaging drama while simultaneously stirring up deeper thinking and empathy. I don't know why it took me until the end to connect this story to the Little Rock Nine, but this was an amazing telling of the process of desegregation of schools.
Draper has a great way with words and incorporating engaging drama while simultaneously stirring up deeper thinking and empathy. I don't know why it took me until the end to connect this story to the Little Rock Nine, but this was an amazing telling of the process of desegregation of schools.
A little slow moving, but a great way for students to learn about this important time in history.
This book was going pretty well until the end. I didn't like how anticlimactic it was, or the way the ending was written. It seemed like the story was rolling along and suddenly dropped off and was over.