LEE & LOW BOOKS celebrates its 25th anniversary this year! To recognize how far the company has come, we are featuring one title a week to see how it is being used in classrooms today and hear from the authors and illustrators.
Featured title: Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree
Author: William Miller
Illustrators: Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu
Synopsis: The true story of the famous African American writer, Zora Neale Hurston, who as a young girl learned about hope and strength from her mother.
Awards and honors:
- Reading Rainbow Selection, PBS Kids
- Choices, Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)
- Pick of the List, American Bookseller’s Association
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, NCSS/CBC
The story behind the story:
Since 1994, William Miller has published nine picture books with Lee & Low, in addition to several titles with other publishing houses. He made his picture book debut with Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree, which was a “Reading Rainbow” selection, and which Booklist praised as being “lyrically told.”
“I started out as a poet who wrote poems about famous African American writers, such as Zora Neale Hurston and Frederick Douglass. My high school English teacher, who is also a children’s book author, encouraged me to write a picture book based on my poems. I expanded a poem on Hurston’s life and simplified the language for children. I sent the manuscript out when I felt I had written the best possible, most poetic story I could tell.
I’ve taught African American literature for many years at York College in Pennsylvania. Personally, I am drawn to the themes of struggle, renewal, and celebration in the literature I teach. No matter how many times I teach the works of Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, I find something new, something that inspires me to live my life on a higher level.”
(from an interview with William Miller)
Resources for teaching with Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree:
Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree Teacher’s Guide
Learn more about Zora Hurston:
Additional LEE & LOW titles by William Miller:
Book activities:
- Pretend you are Zora’s friend. Write her a letter encouraging her
to remember her dreams and to find a way to keep her promise to her mother.
- After students have read the story, arrange them into groups of four. Explain to them that the members of each group will take turns adding leaves to a “Tree of Dreams.” Provide each group with a large sheet of butcher paper on which you have drawn the outline of a tree. Tell students that they will take turns drawing leaves on the branches of the tree. Inside each leaf, they will each write a dream. The students may take turns until they have run out of ideas or class time. Use the trees as a “Forest of Dreams” to facilitate a discussion of dreams and aspirations. Be sure to display the “Forest of Dreams” in the classroom.
Have you used Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree? Let us know!
Celebrate with us! Check out our 25 Years Anniversary Collection.
Trees are so much a part of our daily lives, whether we take them for granted or find ourselves fighting for their survival: so it is perhaps unsurprising that there are many stories from all over the world that feature trees, woods or forests as a central theme or ‘character’… … Continue reading ... →
Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.
Ready or not, the 2012-2013 school year is upon us!
And while parents are stocking up on pencils and notebooks (and, if the Target Music Teacher is to be trusted, potentially an inordinate amount of denim), teachers are busy planning for the first weeks of school.
Educators, for your planning pleasure, here are three titles to get students back in the right mindset for those first days back in the classroom:
Read Aloud: Yasmin’s Hammer by Ann Malaspina and illustrated by Doug Chayka
Major topics & themes: hard work, determination, the transformative power of education
Common Core connections:
- What does the author want us to learn from this story? What is the central message? How do you know? Use details from the story to justify your answer. (Grades 2 & 3, Literature, Key Ideas and Details, 2)
- Who is Yasmin? How would you describe her? What kind of person is she? How do you know? How do her actions affect what happens in the story? Use details from the story to justify your answer. (Grade 3, Literature, Key Ideas & Details, 3)
Read Aloud: Richard Wright and the Library Card by William Miller and illustrated by Gregory Christie
Major topics & themes: triumph over adversity, educational equality, scholarship
Common Core connection:
- Ask students to write a persuasive response to the following question: Is access to books and information a right or a privilege? Use details from the life of Richard Wright to support your answer. (Grades 3 & 4, Writing Standards, Text Types and Purposes, 1 a-d)
Read Aloud: Babu’s Song by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen and illustrated by Aaron Boyd
Major topics & themes: educational opportunity, integrity, sacrifice
Common Core connection:
- Where does the story take place? How would you describe the setting? How is Bernardi’s neighborhood like your neighborhood? How is it different? How do the illustrations in the story help you picture the setting? (Grades 1 & 2, Literature, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, 7)
What are your favorite books to read to your students during the first weeks of school? Drop me an email at [email protected] or share yours in the comments!
Filed under:
Curriculum Corner,
Resources Tagged:
ann malaspina,
Babu's Song,
back to school,
CCSS,
common core standards,
Read Aloud,
richard wright and the library card,
stephanie stuve-bodeen,
william miller,
yasmin's hammer 
Rent Party Jazz
Author: William Miller
Illustrator: Charlotte Riley-Webb
Publisher: Lee & Low Books, June 2008
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
How could this bright, colorful book not grab your attention? The illustrations are amazing and fun, and truly capture the allure of New Orleans Jazz. But what it also offers is a look into Rent Parties. Rent Parties started out as fund-raising events, but they also played a major role in the development of jazz and blues music.
Even though the illustrations are what drew me to this book, the story is a powerful one with people coming together to help others in a time of need. In New Orleans in the 1930s, young Sonny Comeaux has to work before school to help his mother make ends meet. When Mama loses her job, Sonny is worried. Rent day is coming soon, and if they miss paying by just one day, the landlord will put them out on the street and sell off their belongings.
Sonny wanders sadly through Jackson Square after school one day. His attention is caught by Smilin' Jack, a popular jazz musician. Sonny returns day after day, and soon finds himself explaining his problem to Smilin’ Jack. What Smilin' Jack offers Sonny then—how to raise money for the rent while having the world’s best party—changes both their lives forever.
The afterword of the book explains how rent parties originated and that they were common in African American neighborhoods during the 1920s and 1930s. I thought it was interesting how Miller explains that national events like Farm Aid are contemporary versions of the rent party on a much larger scale. This is a fun and educational read that would be a wonderful way to celebrate Black History month!
Check out the Classroom Guide for Rent Party Jazz and read BookTalk with William Miller at Lee & Low Books' website.
LEE & LOW BOOKS celebrates its 25th anniversary this year! To recognize how far the company has come, we are featuring one title a week to see how it is being used in classrooms today and hear from the authors and illustrators.
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