Day 6 of Summer 2019 #Bookaday Challenge: The Lions of Little Rock

Vlog Transcript Below

Slide 1: Hi! My name is Kate Narita, and this is day 6 of my summer 2019 #Bookaday challenge. Today I will be talking about The Lions of Little Rock. Each spring my students have civil rights book groups.

Slide 2: Up until this year, the hardest book we read was Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood which is an excellent book. This year I had a group of very bright students, and I wanted to give them a greater challenge. Luckily, my students support me through Scholastic Books and I was able to use bonus points to buy six copies of The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine.

Slide 3: This is an excellent book to teach kids about the civil rights era. It talks about what happened in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1958, the year after The Little Rock Nine. I had no idea that the high schools were closed for a year because they refused to integrate. I really learned a lot from reading this book. Another reason why this book appealed to me is because it talks about “race mixing.” In the beginning of the book the main character’s mother is very against this idea. I have a personal connection to this because my biological children are half-Japanese. Whenever anyone talks about “race mixing,” it catches my attention. Finally, this book centers around the idea of “passing as white.” If you are interested in your students learning about that concept, this is a great place to start.

Slide 4: If they want to continue thinking about the idea of “passing as white,” they should read The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson. This is an outstanding novel, it’s tons of fun, and your students will learn so much from reading it.

Slide 5: Another reason why I automatically connected to the main character in The Lions of Little Rock is because she wants equity for females. Back in 1958 there were no female astronauts, and that’s what she dreams of becoming. I highly suggest you have a copy of Almost Astronauts by Tanya Lee Stone in your classroom. Once upon a time I had a copy of Almost Astronauts in my classroom. But one of my very bright female students took it home. I hope one day she’ll use it to get herself into space.

Slide 6: Sometimes you want to talk to students about a topic but a novel doesn’t work for various reasons, then you should check out Counting on Katherine. It won a 2019 Mathical Honor Prize for a great math book just like 100 Bugs! and you should check out Hidden Figures. These two books will help you discuss why there weren’t any female astronauts and definitely not any female astronauts of color when we first made it to the moon.

Slide 7: Earlier on the blog I talk about how The Benefits of Being an Octopus is a great resource to have for your writer’s workshop because you can talk about the power of metaphor in writing. The Lions of Little Rock is also a great resource to have in your writer’s workshop tool bin. Not only can you use it to talk about the power of metaphor in writing, but it is also an excellent example of how skilled writers use the beginning of the story to hold the end of the story. So, in The Lions of Little Rock Marlee is standing on top of the high dive in the beginning of the book. She can’t jump, she has no friends and her older sister has to help her down the ladder. Once again at the very end of the book she’s standing on top of the high dive. I won’t say what happens, but you can probably guess. This is an excellent way to show how a character changes from the beginning of a novel to the end of a novel in a way that’s easy for your students to grasp.

Slide 8: Finally, one other reason why I really enjoyed The Lions of Little Rock is that the main character compares the people in her life to various types of drinks be it a soda or a glass of milk. This comparison made me think of Lisa Graff’s fantastic novel A Tangle of Knots. A Tangle of Knots is magical realism. It’s not about civil rights, historical fiction or non-fiction; however the main character compares the people in her life to various types of cakes. So if your students liked that aspect of The Lions of Little Rock, they should definitely check out Lisa Graff’s A Tangle of Knots.