Through My Eyes

Title: Through My Eyes

Author: Ruby Bridges

Biography #2

Through My Eyes is the courageous tale of Ruby Bridges, one of the first African-American children to integrate into all white schools during the civil rights movement. Recounted by Ruby herself, the story was literally impossible to put down. I was so intrigued and inspired by her struggles and was in tears nearly the entire time. Reading about what this young girl went through and the horrendous things she had to hear and see every day was heartbreaking. In the same breath, it was so amazing to read about the kindness Ruby and her family received during their difficult time. Letters of encouragement and care packages arrived often; Ruby even received a letter from the former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.

Reading this book was especially important to me as a future educator because it really put things in perspective. Though we have come a long way, Ruby’s story isn’t so far in the past that it is no longer relevant. Even with integrated schools, some become highly segregated because of achievement gaps between rich and poor students as well as white and non-white students. I learned so much from reading this book and think children would too. I would use it for students in 4-6 grade and would recommend it to teachers to keep in their classroom library.  

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

Title: Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse

Author: Kevin Henkes

Picture Book #3

I absolutely adored Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes because it was a story about anger and how to properly deal with that complicated emotion. The story begins with the main character, Lilly, explaining about how much she loves school and all of the things she likes about school best. She then goes into discussing her teacher, Mr.Slinger, and how she wants to be a teacher just like him some day. As the reader of the story, I connected with Lilly greatly and reflected on my own feelings as a child when I used to want to be exactly like my teachers. They were always great role models to me and I used to take everything they said and did to heart, which is why I sympathized with Lilly when Mr.Slinger had to reprimand her one day for showing off her purple plastic purse during inappropriate times throughout the day. Out of anger Lilly draws a mean picture of Mr. Slinger and sticks it in his bag at the end of the day only to find that he has written her a nice note saying she may share her purse with the class another day. The rest of the story details how she goes about apologizing for her mistake.

I think this story would be good for young readers because it teaches them about properly reacting when they are mad. Through the story, the children learn how Lilly is sorry for actions against Mr. Slinger and how she shouldn’t have reacted so poorly and so rashly. This would be a good story to use during a unit about emotions with Kindergarten or for a circle time book with the class after an altercation between classmates, a student and the teacher, etc. Moreover, I feel like the students would connect with the main character, Lilly, because she is described as being a student like them. Having a male teacher may appeal to the boys in the room if a story about a plastic purple purse is “too girly” for them to read.