Zora and Me by Victoria Bon, T.R. Simon

Historical Fiction

Grade Level: 4-7

Interest Level: 4-7

Themes: racism, segregation/Jim Crow south, storytelling, curiosity and imagination, southern roots/life, absence of father’s

Sensitivity Issues: Use of the ‘N’ word, black males die (not graphic)

This book is delightful. The voice of the narrator will draw the audience into the world of the small, all black, community of Eatonville, Florida and Zora Neale Hurston's friends and family. We get a glimpse of how Zora's creative imagination keeps everyone trying to figure out if her stories are truth, lies, or just the way she makes sense of the world. We do learn that early on, Zora is confident of her ability to tell stories and entertain others with them.

This book was written to be read aloud, in true folklore/tall-tale fashion. It has great instructional possibility. The language is rich, the historical facts are compelling, and the dialogue creates humor and suspense. The female leads are strong, and well developed for the books 180 pages. Zora's curiosity, and imagination are central to the movement of the story. The book also contains a biography of Zora Neale Hurston, and a timeline of her life.

The book does have a few sobering moments, as it opens with man being killed by an alligator. Subsequently, we learn that the main characters father left town to find work, and never returned, a traveling man the children meet and befriend is found murdered with his head missing, and then a strange, quiet man who is the subject of Zora's tall-tales dies in his sleep. All of this misfortune concerning the men of Eatonville however, lends itself to many discussion and instruction possibilities, not the least of which is Zora's "coming of age" and learning the truth about life. These truths, include one characters decision to "pass" for white which is the source of both confusion and tragedy. Zora wades through it all within her circle of family, friends and support and does so with audacious determination and curiosity.

Why We Can't Wait 

“Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait”…..When you are fighting a degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness’ – then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.” Why We Can’t Wait, Martin Luther King Jr.

Perhaps it is easy for those who have never struggled to read. Perhaps it is easy for those who know how to sit still, be quiet and listen all day. Perhaps it is easy for those who look, sound and act like the teacher. Unfortunately, too many students understand that “degenerating sense of nobodiness” on a daily basis.  Who are the students in our classrooms who experience that “nobodiness” regularly?

In this text, King explained the urgency felt by those who had endured enough. They had endured enough nobodiness. They had endured enough disrespect, humiliation, violence and despair. There are students that we see everyday who have endured enough. They have endured enough of being told everything that they have done wrong, but little of what they have done right. They have endured enough of not being told the rules to the game that they are losing. They have endured enough of “only” someone’s else story in the book and someone else’s picture on the wall.  We should feel an urgency to be responsive to those who have endured enough.

We are in a “We Can’t Wait” moment, right now. As protests rage on our streets, as the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” grows ever wider, and the options for those ignored and underserved in our classrooms become even more invisible, we can’t wait.

We can’t wait to learn who are students are. We must take an interest in the skills and gifts that they bring to the classroom, especially those that we don’t usually value as “school appropriate” talents and gifts. We should not wait to learn the difference between cultural behaviors and misbehaviors. We cannot wait  to recognize our “first thought” before it becomes a deficit response, and we can not wait to validate and affirm through authentic texts so that EVERY student sees him or herself  when they open the book in class.

Responsive Reads is here because we can’t wait.