Critical View of "The Parker Inheritance"We hear what we want to hear. We see what we want to see... The Parker Inheritance is a story about a twelve year old girl named Candice, who found a letter in the attic of her grandmother's house in a box addressed to her. The secret letter addressed a hidden treasure within the small town of Lambert, South Carolina, which her grandmother had been working on before she got fired from her position as the first women, and the first African American, to serve as city manager for Lambert. With curiosity of what her grandmother was searching for, Candice decided to start the search with a neighbor friend, Brandon, who has a love for books just like Candice. This book was inspired by real events, community, and people in order for it to be created, according to the author, Varian Johnson. Varian Johnson has written nine novels since his debut, including The Parker Inheritance , which was rewarded with the 2019 Coretta Scott King Honor book and the 2018 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book. He was born in 1977, and grew up in Florence, South Carolina where he was a member of the Wilson High School Academic Challenge Team. He graduated in 1995 and attended the University of Oklahoma, where he continued his education. Knowing this now, I can see how he was able to find facts and information about Wilson High School back before or during the civil rights movement. He tells us in the Author's Note that he based the Perkins High School, in the book, on the actual history of his own school, Wilson High School. The school was founded in 1866 by the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and the Freedmen's Bureau, which was a government agency established near the end of the Civil War to aid newly freed slaves in beginning their lives as citizens of America (Johnson, 2018). After reading this and doing more research, I was able to stumble upon a picture of a sign in Florence, South Carolina about Wilson High School shown below. Picture from yelp.com Therefore, with that being said, we can critically look at this book and know the authenticity and accuracy of the author and the historical aspect of this book. It may be a fiction book, but it was based off of a historical event that took place in his hometown. I think that makes the historical aspect of it even more rich and meaningful because in some sort of way, Johnson was writing down his story as well. Knowing that is an important part of the author's life makes it more alive and real to the readers because we can relate more to it. Therefore, I think it's worth appreciating the work that the author does, and the love that he has for his hometown and the history of his people as well. With this research, I was also able to stumble upon James Raleigh "Biz" Mackey, a player in the Prairie League team called the Luling Oilers, which he then played in the National Negro League. He was also later recruited by Hilldale Giants in the season of 1923. After all his professional playing, he was placed in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. I looked up "Luling Oilers" because I wasn't quite sure who they were, and figured it would be important to have some sort of connection and background knowledge on these facts, especially since Johnson took reference from them. I actually thought it was a made up team as the name sounded weird, but they were a real team league with African American players who were even placed in the Hall of Fame. That's something to be proud of and include in a great historical fiction book such as this. I think this is great to share with students because it teaches them that there are all different kinds of people who can be great and important figures to EVERYONE no matter their skin color. I think it's just like how Boyd, Causey, and Galda stated in their article Culturally Diverse Literature that " if children never see themselves in books, they receive the subtle messages that they are not important enough to appear in books and that books are not for this. " This is why it's important to take time and discuss about the historical aspect and provide background knowledge of characters and events with students in stories because we want to represent every child, and we want ALL children to see the importance of one another's identity. This is a good start to where we can gradually teach students to appreciate diversity and accept it for what it is with no discrimination or stereotypes, which is why I enjoyed learning about these historical aspect of this book. If you want to read more in depth about either of these topics that I discussed about, visit Johnson's page and/or visit the website about Wilson High School and Biz Mackey provided below. Varian Johnson's website Biz Mackey The Updated History of Wilson High School Evaluating... There are different ways to evaluate the quality of a book, but I am going to focus on 3 broad categories for culturally diverse literature which are: visual and verbal sensitivity, authenticity and accuracy, and ideology. The author didn't have visuals in this book except for the cover, so there's not much to evaluate about that. However, as for the verbal part, I think it was appropriate for young students because there weren't a lot of harsh words, stereotypes, discrimination, etc., but enough so that students can relate, build, and be able to discuss about it in a critical aspect. For example, there were several examples of discrimination and stereotyping in this story. When Mr. Rittenhauer, the assistant principal, accused them of breaking in to the school and stealing things. He automatically assumed they were up to no good because they were African Americans. He didn't believe them even when they were trying to explain and prove that they were really doing a research. That wasn't until Ms. McMillan came out and rescued them (Johnson, 2018, p. 132). Another example was when Enoch Washington, African American, had gotten into a fight with Sammy Rackleys, White, because he had lost the bet and accused Enoch of cheating. The teacher reported that Enoch started the fight, but he denied and said to his father that "she's just saying that because of who Sammy's daddy is. She always treats him better than everybody else" (Johnson, 2018, p. 82). Johnson doesn't have any straight up "verbal" words he used to describe something or someone, but he does have a lot of examples of situations where discrimination and stereotyping occurs to African Americans in his story. Therefore, he makes it more connected to situations that students may encounter at one point in their lifetime as a colored person, which is good to engage students in talking about topics such as this. The authenticity and accuracy aspect of this book was discussed above with the author. I can say this book is authentic and accurate to a certain extent because the author is/was an insider of the setting of this book. He knew the history, and researched about it before pulling these facts together to create this book. The reason why I said "to a certain extent" is because even though he is/was an insider to the factual setting, I can't say for sure that he is an insider for the events that took place in history for Wilson High School and his town. His parents and/or grandparents may have been part of the historical part of the school and town, but there's no way for sure to prove that that happened. Thus, I think it's important to note that and know that Johnson may know a lot about his school and town, but it's also not the same if he wasn't alive during the time period that it happened, though, I could also argue that he may have experienced some form of it being born in 1977. The ideology of this book is based on values and ideas that are important to today's society, and an impact of our history. The ideas of justice, freedom, equality, and race has always been a struggle in our history that still carries on into today's society. Even after the Civil Rights Movement, we hoped and expected that the discrimination, racism, justice, equality, and freedom would be all over and everyone would finally be able to cross that idea of "Blacks" or "People of color" and grow together as a society; however, some aspect of the ideology still lives on till today. Which is why I think the ideology presented in this book is very real to our students. These ideologies presented in the book showcases characters and events that occurred to people of color in a very real society. These are events and characters that our students may be able to relate to because of the still-existing-ideas of this. Even though this was a mystery novel, Johnson used a historical aspect to tell a story or maybe even stories through the characters about the mistreatment of the African American community. I think this is a good addition to portraying a story within a bigger story of this ideology of discrimination, race, justice, equality, and freedom. As stated by Boyd, Causey, and Galda, "No group or individual has a single story, and knowing only one story leads to the creation of assumptions and stereotypes ", it is important to read a variety of stories on a topic or ideology to show students that we can't create assumptions and stereotypes based on a single event, book, article, or resource. It's important to observe and study different perspectives and stories before making an idea of your own. Just like how our actions lead us to having consequences, our ideas, too, can lead to consequences; therefore, it's important to teach students and show them how to build a strong, unbiased ideology that they can own and be reliable for their consequences. Therefore, I think the quality of this book is great for young students, maybe emerging middle schoolers or middle schoolers, would benefit from this mystery puzzle book about an important history moment. It will keep them guessing nonstop and on edge, while engaging in critical conversations about the ideas presented in this book. Now I would like to just talk about the book itself.
This book is incredible! The mystery, the context, the history, the characters, and everything else in it was just beautifully well put together. I love mystery books, and so I really enjoyed this book. What I enjoyed most about this mystery puzzle was the fact that it was created to tell a story: Reggie and Siobhan's story. I loved their story line, even though it was heart breaking in what happened to them. I enjoyed Siobhan's character because I could relate to her boldness and ideology of not using violence or hate to solve the issue between segregation or racism. When she discovered that Reggie hadn't tasted a Coke since 1957 because of Chip Douglas, she exploded in disbelief because, like her father, he still couldn't let go of the hate and vengeance after all these years, and after what they went through. I related to her because of her voice and will to want to change things, and hoped for a better world. Her strong character was portrayed throughout this book, and it didn't matter if she was African American. I admired that spirit and powerful will, which is why I think she would poise a good inspiration for women of color, or maybe women in general, to take a stand and find your voice, your beliefs, and your ideologies and follow it till the end. Other than Siobhan, I also was interested in Reggie. It was interesting how Reggie decided to live his life. I wasn't aware that there were probably African Americans who passed as being "white" because of their skin color. It amazed me by how important skin color was back then, and maybe even today. Reggie, being black and poor, was a nobody, no matter how smart he was. He wouldn't and couldn't have succeeded because of his identity. It wasn't until he changed from being Reggie to being James Parker that he was actually given opportunities to thrive in the world. He was such an important figure that colleagues asked him to join important organizations, donors asked him to support varies charities, the mayor began to call on him for financial advice, and even the governor, and then United States senators and representatives as well (Johnson, 2018, p. 269). I was amazed at how successful he was now because he identified as a white male. This should say a lot about our ideology and about our society. We're so judgmental that it consumes and dictates our entire vision of the past, present, and future. Yet we pass these down to our children and they, too, unwillingly and unaware take these in and lashes it out without ever thinking about why it is so. Which is why I believe this is where teachers come in and disrupt those thoughts and question them if it's really their beliefs or if they, too, had inherited them. Reggie is an interesting character because even though some may view him as selfish in abandoning his identity and his love ones, some may also see it as the outcome of a pressured society. This is what happens when society pushes and pressures people to a corner where they have no hope and no exit, but to be like the world. Reggie died the day he decided to become James Parker. He hid inside himself so deeply that he had forgotten about the hope that Coach Dub had shown him before he became a player. Reggie was poor. He was abandoned by both his parents and had to live with his sick grandma. They could barely afford food for the table and rent, which is why Reggie couldn't even imagine about going to college. He focused so much on all sorts of jobs to help his grandma that he was not able to excel in academics. Nothing was going right for him, until Coach Dub gave his a purpose and structure to find personal success. He, for the first time, believed that he could be more than just a poor boy from the South, and he was. He proved to everyone that he was better than before, and that he was no longer the poor Reggie boy working odd jobs just to survive. However, that was what brought him down. He grew greedy and wanted more and more, and to become someone "better", which was why he never went to Siohban. It wasn't until his secretary, Beatrix Halliday, told him to "try" and go to her because he owe it to her (Johnson, 2018, p. 270). It was then, after meeting and talking to Siohban, that made him realize that he had hid himself all these years. Instead of empowering the African Americans, he chose to ignore them and flow along with society. Johnson portrayed to us that Reggie is a very "human" character. We, too, can get lost in success and forget who we really are. It wasn't until then that he realized he needed to let this story out. Everyone needed to hear a story from a bigger story. This is why I enjoyed the book so much. I appreciated the artwork/mastermind work that Johnson had put into this book. The puzzling and mystery and history and stories was definitely worth my time in reading this book. The clues about the treasure were just FABULOUS! Who would have thought that "Siohban loves all" would refer to the score of the tennis game. They would call a game score of zero-zero to "love-all", which was a context that I was unaware of till now. Therefore, I really appreciated this work and effort put into making this book possible. Johnson took so many inspirations from events, people, history, to books such as The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, so I really enjoyed this book. Another additional thing I want to add with the stories behind this book, which can also be found on his website, are the real life stories of other African Americans that suffered from ideologies that were presented in this book. I've mentioned a lot of the aspects of this already, but because I wasn't aware of all of these stories, I thought it would be good to include it in here as well. Johnson takes inspiration of injustice, discrimination, and racism from real social justice issues in this world. An excerpt from his website post about this stated: "That scene has stayed with me, but it wasn’t until recently that I began reliving it, over and over and over again. Trayvon Martin. Michael Brown. Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. Sandra Bland. Eric Garner. Why can’t people in power see us in a different way? Why are we always assumed to be the other? A threat? A danger that must be neutralized? " (Johnson, 2019). As I was reading, I wasn't quite aware nor understood what those names meant. So I searched them up and found that they were real people with real social justice issues. All six of those listed on his site were shot and killed by police officer(s). It was heart breaking to hear and read their stories. Below I have provided a link to an article about their story, and a brief description of what happened. Trayvon Martin- 17 years old. Visiting Dad in Sanford, Florida. Shot and died because officer accused him of suspicious action. Officer not charged. Michael Brown- 18 years old, recent graduate. Walking to mother and grandmother's house. Fatally shot by police officer for not getting off the side walk. Officer no guilty. Alton Sterling- 37 years old. Shot and died because officer claimed he had a gun. Officer not charged, but fired. Philando Castile- 32 years old. Shot and killed while being pulled over for brake lights. Officer fired. Sandra Bland- 28 years old. Arrested while traffic stop. Found hanging in jail cell. Officer fired. Eric Garner- 44 years old. Officer tried to arrest for selling illegal cigarettes. Officer used choke hold on him. Couldn't breathe and triggered a heart attack that lead to his death. Officer stripped off of position. With all that being said, I do want to mention that those articles are, again, just a single story of a bigger story. I would encourage you, and students to read from different perspectives about each story to truly understand and see the stories being told. I am not denying the fact that they all died horrible deaths, but in order to avoid forming stereotypes and assumptions, I encourage readers to hear out all points of view before making your final verdict, and that is what this book and Varian Johnson, has taught me, as an educator. That a story is always part of a bigger story. Boyd, F.B., Causey, L.L., & Galda, L. (2015) Culturally Diverse Literature [PDF file] The Reading Teacher, 68(5). DOI: 10.1002/trtr.1326 Johnson, V. (2019). Parker Inheritance. Place of publication not identified: ARTHUR A LEVINE. Johnson, V. (2019). Varian Johnson, Author. Retrieved October 7, 2019, from http://varianjohnson.com/.
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