Open-access E-journal for 
International Scholars, Practitioners, and Students of Multicultural Education
 ISSN: 1559-5005
Copyright © 1999-2006 by 
Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education

THIS ISSUE
(SPRING 2003: vol. 5, no. 1)
Theme: Urban Education and Reform
ARTICLES:
Hurley • Fallahi • Blanc et al. • Bauer et al. 
REVIEWS:
Art • Books • Multimedia

CONTRIBUTORS

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Call for Papers
Call for Reviewers
Issue Themes
Acknowledgments
About EMME
About the Editors

Heewon Chang, Ph. D.
 Editor-in-Chief
 ?
 Copy Editor
  Hwa Young Caruso,  Ed. D. &  John Caruso, Jr. , Ph. D.
 Art Review Editors 
?
 Assistant Editor

Eastern University
Education Department
1300 Eagle Road
St. Davids, PA,
19087-3696



BOOK REVIEWS

Literature for Young Readers | Professional Literature

(provided by the editorial staff of EMME unless indicated otherwise)


 Literature for Young Readers
 

Gonzalez, Rigoberto & Ibarra, Rosa. (2003). Soledad Sigh-Sighs/Soledad Suspiros. San Francisco, CA: Children's Book. 32 pp., ISBN: 0-89239-180-4 (hc), $16.95 (ages 4-8).

 Dealing with the "uncomfortable" reality of latch-key kids, this book tells the story of a very lonely young girl.  Soledad is tired of coming home every afternoon to an empty apartment and having no one to share her evening meal with.  Eventually she decides to have a pretend little sister, but when other children in her apartment building catch her with her pretend friend they chastise Soledad for forgetting about her real friends.  The friends then go to Soledad's empty apartment and spend the afternoon with her comparing life in a busy house with that in a lonely household.   The girls end up discovering a dark and bright side of each situation.  While this story portrays difficult situations of latch-key kids in an urban setting, it is an excellent story to use with students to discuss the differences and similarities between families.  It can also be used by parents and educators alike to discuss the sensitive issue of latch-key kids and help teach safety rules for kids who live in this unfortunate reality.  Bold and bright illustrations and bilingual (Spanish - English) text will make this book interesting to a variety of children.   

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Myers, Walter Dean. (1988). Scorpions. New York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers. 216 pp., ISBN: 0-0602-4365-1 (hc), $16.89 (ages 10 & up).

 Scorpions, one of many books from prolific Walter Dean Myers, is an excellent book for young and old alike.  This amazing story is about Jamal and Tito, two middle school children growing up in the ghettos of New York City.  Jamal, the second child in the Hicks home, suddenly finds himself as the "Man" of the house when his brother Randy is convicted of murder.  Randy, the former leader of the Scorpions gang, appeals to his brother to take over the gang.  This story not only details Jamal's struggles with deciding over whether to lead the Scorpions, but also with how one balances demands from school, home, and peers.  In school an unsympathetic principal and teachers are quick to demean and berate Jamal and look for an opportunity to expel him.  At home Jamal's mother works day and night to barely make ends meet for the family and the competition between kids in the "hood" is tight and mean. How are Jamal and his friend Tito to survive with few supports and resources? This book provides an amazing insight into the harsh realities that the urban youth from poor neighborhoods face daily.  Through the eyes of the vulnerable young people in this story, readers will hopefully gain an understanding of desperate school environments, the consequences of violence and the dangerous temptations of making quick easy money through drug dealing. 

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Myers, Walter Dean. (1996). Slam. New York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers. 266 pp., ISBN: 0-590-48667-5 (hc), $12.70 (ages 10 & up).

 Greg (Slam) Harris knows how to "hoop" (play basketball).  It is the game he wants to live and breathe and it is the game that gives him purpose and meaning in his life.  He stands on the edge, the edge of a game he doesn't know how to play.  That is the game of life.  Growing up in the ghetto is hard and full of choices.  Slam decided to go to one of the city's magnet schools focusing on the arts.  Slam knows that he has chosen a different path and is questioning that choice every day.  At his new school, he must learn to reexamine what school is and what school (and life) means to him.  He is pushed to excel and succeed but the outside pressures are almost too much.  His lack of background in math may do him in; unintentional racism brought to the classroom by his peers and teachers incenses him; the pressure to be like his friend Ice and to deal in the streets is attractive; and the new rules on the school's basketball court infuriate him.  These all work against Slam.  This book is yet another of Walter Dean Myers incredible books about the lives of young people in the city.  It does not artificially sugar-coat the harsh reality.  While painful,  the realistic depiction strikes the core of our consciousness of injustice. This is a must read for teachers and students.  This book will touch every reader and bring home the reality of life in a big city.    

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Robles, Anthony D., Angel, Carl (illustrator), de Jesus, Eloisa, D. & de Guzman, Magdalena (translators). (2003). Lakas and the Manilatown Fish/ Si Lakas at ang Isdang Manilatown. San Francisco, CA: Children's Book. 32 pp., ISBN: 0-89239-182-0 (hc), $16.95 (ages 4-8).

 This first-ever bilingual English-Tagalong book is set in a ten-block section of San Francisco, known as Manilatown. In this story a young American boy of Filipino descent, the boy's father, and some manongs (Filipino elders) meet up with a strange fish that can walk and talk.  Eventually this meeting leads to a chase through Manilatown.  The bold and colorful illustrations add to the flavor of this whimsical book.  Though the storyline does not specifically speak to some higher messages, the story does fill one with the understanding and joy of being part of a close-knit community, such as portrayed in Manilatown.  In America's bustling urban centers, a sense of community is sometimes lost.  Fortunately many culture groups, including the Filipino Americans portrayed in this book, have been able to retain this sense of community in urban areas, thereby making these urban centers true gems of America's multicultural heritage.  The amazing illustrations add to this sense of urban community.  As the readers look more closely at each picture, imbedded into each they will see black and white pictures of real Manilatown residents and structures ghosted into each watercolor streetscape.  

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Rosen, Roger. & Sevastiades Patra (Editors). (1993). Urbanities: Visions of the Metropolis. New York, NY: Rosen Publishing Group. 180 pp., ISBN: 0-8239-1387-2 (hc), $21.25 (ages 12 & up).

 This well-edited book will be a great resource in any middle or high school social studies class as it brings a global perspective to a study of urban centers.  This book not only focuses on detailing urban centers from around the world but also through time.  It opens with one author's fictional depiction of one man's quest to get to Rome, detailing all the reasons why Rome was such an attractive goal for this young soldier in search of money, fame, and opportunity.  Eleven additional chapters focus on various urban settings around the world.  From Havana of Cuba, to Berlin of Germany, to New York City of the United States, to Bombay of India, readers will jet around the globe and glimpse the wonders, horrors, and realities of urban centers around the world.

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Yolen, Jane & Condon, Ken (Illustrator). (1996). Sky Scrape/ City Scrape. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills. 32 pp., ISBN: 1-56397-179-8 (hc), $15.95 (ages 4-8).

 This unique collection of poems is a must-have for all elementary classrooms that study neighborhoods.  A variety of poets, from Langston Hughes to Norma Farber, bring the rhythm of "the city" to life as one reads this anthology.  The lively illustrations in chalk and oil pastel jump off the page and take readers into each setting.  The poems and images express the energy and rush of city life and touch on many urban topics, including skyscrapers, graffiti, the subway, pigeons, and more.  Readers will "walk" away from this book with a positive and refreshing insight on city living.  As the poem "In The Inner City" states, "... happy to be alive and in the inner city or like we call it home," readers will be happy to be alive and experiencing this book.

 


Professional Literature

Compton-Lilly, Catherine. (2003). Reading Families: The Literate Lives of Urban Children. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. 156 pp., ISBN: 0-8077-4276-7 (pbk.), $21.95.

 Another well-written work of a teacher-researcher defies the mainstream discourses of portraying poor urban parents as "uninformed, uninterested, and uninvolved" (p. 64) and their children as having poor attitudes and low interest in education.  As a veteran teacher of reading in an urban elementary school, the author collected ethnographic data on reading habits and practices of her first graders and "randomly" selected 10 parents/guardians who reside in a poor urban community where she has been teaching for over 15 years. In contrast to the popular assumption that urban parents do not care much about their children's academic progress, especially in reading, the author found that the poor urban parents not only supported their children's reading practices, but also engaged in reading for their personal pleasure. At the same time she agrees with the parents that hostile urban environments are often infested with crimes and violence and devoid of economic, social and cultural capital, which affects children's academic achievement significantly. Leaving the bigger picture of structural inequalities untouched, the author resorts to the way in which a classroom teacher can make a difference--developing a healthy and caring relationship between teachers and parents to come to a true understanding of poor urban families. This suggestion is hardly a new idea, but affirms the effective way of reaching out urban families and their children for academic improvement as proposed by influential scholars such as Ladson-Billing, Delpit, and Nieto.  The book is strongly recommended to those who aspire to teach or are currently teaching in urban schools.  

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Dance, L. Janelle. (2002). Tough Fronts: The Impact of Street Culture on Schooling. New York, NY : Routledge Falmer. 187 pp., ISBN: 0-415-93300-5 (pbk.), $22.95.

 This sociological field-based study of street-savvy Black male adolescents establishes its credibility on the researcher's multi-year involvement in the lives of the young people as a caring mentor and tutor in a community organization.  Being "down" with the youth (accepted and respected by the youth), she is able to draw out the voices of the street-savvy youth who are often misunderstood as "gang bangers," "dangerous villains," or "drug-dealers."  Her fine differentiation among those assuming "hard" postures is helpful to adults working with urban youth.  She refers to the "hardcore" as those who have no alternative but demonstrating their toughness to survive in their harsh street environments; the "hardcore wannabe" to those who want to appear tough for peer approval although hard postures are not their survival mechanisms; and the "hard-enough" to those who have proven their abilities to fight but choose not to exercise their physical prowess.  Focusing more on individual needs of students--their lack of economical, social and cultural capital--than a mere structural analysis of social injustice,  Dance's plea for more caring teachers, who already possess a profound understanding of the street demands or who, if not knowledgeable, are willing to take time to listen to them, strikes a chord with many advocates of urban educational reform, who value the human capital in school.  Her introduction and appendix may be particularly interesting to those who wish to gain a concise literature review of urban education and reform as well as studies of urban African-American youth.

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Fine, Michelle & Weis, Lois. (2003). Silenced Voices and Extraordinary Conversations: Re-Imagining Schools. New York: NY : Teachers College Press. 208 pp., ISBN: 0-8077-4284-8 (pbk.), $21.95.

 Fine and Lois, also co-editors of Construction Sites: Excavating Race, Class, and Gender Among Urban Youth (2000, Teachers College Press), juxtapose two paradoxical roles of schooling: "reproducing and legitimizing large-scale structural inequalities, along the axes of race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and disability" and, at the same time, "offering opportunities for individual mobility" (p. 9).  The first part of the book focuses on the former role of schooling, drawing upon the authors' previously published studies of urban adolescents in public school and working-class youth respectively; the second part, also a compilation of reprints, introduces innovative and dedicated works of new and veteran educators who created space through detracking, curriculum reform, and self-inquiry instruction, in which previously silenced youth--urban, students of color, and female--gained voices.  Through their empowerment works the youth reconstruct their sense of self and gain meaningful knowledge and useful skills, which will become the solid foundation for their future mobility.  While the first part delves much into the scholarly discourse, sometime a bit dry and contentious, the second part exudes a lively, optimistic, and promising tone of practicing educators.  Since all articles in this collection were previously published, readers must position them in the time period of their original publications to be able to see the significance of the authors' contributions to the development of the critical theory of education. Their unapologetic cry for educational reform voiced during the last two decades is bearing fruit in the 2000's. 

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Nieto, Sonia  (2003).  What Keeps Teachers Going?, New York, NY: Teachers College Press. 159 pp., ISBN: 0-8077-4272-4 (pbk), $18.95.

 Teachers are a critical component in any educational endeavor, especially in educational reform.  Nieto's book reminds the general public that dedicated teachers are alive and are making differences in the lives of children in diverse classroom settings.  This book also serves as a reminder to teachers about what might have caused them to commit themselves to this noble profession in the first place and why they may keep going in spite of barriers and daily frustrations.  Each chapter bears a title characterizing different aspects of teaching: teaching as "evolution," "autobiography," "love," "hope and possibility," "anger and desperation," "intellectual work," "democratic practice," and "shaping future."  Skillfully interweaving stories of teachers, Nieto brings dedicated veteran and less-experienced teachers to the center of the transformative arena of education.  This book would be excellent reading for pre-service teachers who are about to commit themselves to the noble profession of teaching and in-service teachers who need to breathe fresh life into their life-long commitment of transformation.