Day 18 of Summer 2019 #Bookaday Challenge: The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA

Vlog Transcript Below

Slide 1: Hi! My name is Kate Narita. Today is day 18 of my summer 2019 #Bookaday Challenge. I will be talking about The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA by Brenda Woods. I always love it when I find a new author that I’m excited about, and I will definitely be reading more books by Brenda Woods.

Slide 2: In The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA the twelve-year-old main character is Gabriel, and he’s Caucasian. He’s riding his bike one day, and he would have been hit by a car had it not been for an African-American man who pushes him out of harm’s way.

It turns out the African-American man who pushes him out of the way is Meriwether Hunter. As the friendship grows between Gabriel and Mr. Hunter, Gabriel discovers that Mr. Hunter served in WWII in the 761st Tank Battalion, which was a highly decorated battalion. However, not only were African American war heroes not celebrated, they were in danger if they talked about serving in the Armed Forces. This is a very important topic, and I’ve never seen it talked about before in a middle grade novel.

You may remember in Day 6 of my #bookaday challenge that I talked about The Lions of Little Rock. The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA would go well with any of those books, but I want to take some time remind you about three of them.

Slide 3: All three of these books are nonfiction titles. Hidden Figures and Counting on Katherine are picture books and they feature the African-American women who helped us reach the moon.  Almost Astronauts tells the story of thirteen women who tried to be astronauts but were denied the opportunity because of their gender. 

Slide 4: Another nonfiction title that I want to talk about that I did not talk about in day 6 is Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen? This is by another author, Sherri Smith. I also plan to read more of her work which I’ll talk about later on. This is a fantastic book, and I will be getting it for my classroom for a couple of different reasons.

It has these great sidebars. One of the sidebars explains what the Jim Crow Laws are. I think that really important for students to understand those laws when they’re learning about civil rights. It also has two fantastic timelines side-by-side at the back of the book, one for the Tuskegee Airmen and one for the rest of the world. So, students can really see what’s going on simultaneously with these two groups.

Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen? They were an all African-American unit. They flew small planes called red tails, and they protected the pilots who were flying bombers. This is near and dear to my heart because my paternal grandfather, who immigrated here when he was nine-years-old from Mexico, flew in bombers during WWII. Who knows? His life may have been protected by one of these brave men.
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What’s great in addition to the facts about the Jim Crow laws and the timelines is that it really gives readers an introduction to African-Americans in flight. The first African-American who became a pilot was Eugene Bullard in 1917. He actually flew in France and fought against the Germans in WWI. Bessie Coleman was the first African-American pilot. She also learned to fly in France. She became the first African-American female pilot in 1921. This book is a great introduction not only to civil rights but to the great history of service of African-American pilots. 

Slide 5: Next up I want to talk about Dive! By Deborah Hopkinson. This is a nonfiction book geared toward older readers; however, on pages 144-147, she features African-American men who served in the Navy. The first African-American man to earn a Naval Cross in WWII was Dorie Miller. We also learn that there wasn’t an African American commander of a U.S. naval submarine until 1983, Captain Peter Tzomes. There are only a few pages here dedicated to African-American men, but they really highlight their dedication and bravery as well as the discrimination they faced in the U.S. Navy.

Slide 6: Another nonfiction title I want to talk about for older readers is Black Eagles by Jim Haskins. This is a fantastic resource because it tells you when African Americans started flying and takes you up to the 1990’s. The book was published in 1995. So, it doesn’t go any further than that. But once again we learn about Eugene Bullard and Bessie Coleman. Then, it takes us up to the first African-American man in space, which happened in 1983, Lieutenant Colonel Bluford. The first African-American woman traveled to space in 1992, Dr. Mae Jemison. This is another great resource to have in your classroom for your students to learn how African-Americans have served our country in the armed forces.

Slide 7: I always like to throw a picture book in with my text sets as you know. So, I’m going to recommend Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Tallker’s Story. This is not about African-Americans, obviously; however, it is about other minorities who served in the armed forces and were discriminated against. What’s pretty amazing about this picture book is that the Navajo Code Talkers, much like the African-Americans, were told not to talk about their service in the army. So, these people who gave up so much of their lives were unable to be celebrated and could not talk about their service whatsoever at all. In 2001, the Navajo tribe was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Then, in 2013, thirty-three other Native American tribes were recognized for their services in WWI and WWII. Twenty-five of those tribes also received Congressional Medals of Honor, and two more tribes also received Congressional Medals of Honor after 2013.

Slide 8: Right now I want to talk about three historical fiction novels. These are also for older readers. They take place during WWII, and feature the topic of minorities and/or women serving in the armed forces. The first book is Four-Four-Two by Dean Hughes. This tells the story of the dedicated and decorated unit of the Army, 442, that was composed entirely of Japanese-American citizens. Even though it’s historical fiction, you get the gist of what this group of people did for our country.

Slide 9: Finally, I want to talk about two historical fiction novels that feature females in the war. The first one is by Sherri Smith. I haven’t read Flygirl; however, she wrote Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen? which is fantastic. I definitely will be reading Flygirl now that I know about it. Last, I want to talk about Code Name Verity. Again, this is for your older readers, people in high school. This is one of my favorite novels of all time. Every time I read it I am inspired by the characters’ dedication and bravery. Their courage is more impressive than any other character or person I’ve ever read about my entire life. I highly recommend Code Name Verity and I cannot wait to read Flygirl by Sherri Smith.