Book Journey

Twenty three year old Erin Gruwell was a new teacher in Long Beach, California.  Erin was filled with energy and ideas and was not deterred when she was given the students referred to as the “unteachables”.  Going optimistically head long into the class it did not take Erin long to see the invisible lines drawn between race, color, and social status.

When a picture is passed through the room making fun of a student, Erin brings up how hateful things like this start wars.  Mentioning the Holocaust she is shocked to find that most of the students in her room had never heard of this.  Using her own money, as the school would not provide books for such social outcasts, Erin teaches the students through reads like Anne Frank, and slowly builds the trust not only in her, but in each other.

I always try to read a book before I watch a movie although, such as in this case, it does not happen that way.  When I seen this movie years ago I did not even know it was a book.  The movie was phenomenal and even as I write this review and I think of this powerful story it brings tears to my eyes.

I had purchased the books years back after realizing it was a book and as many of my books do… it sat on the shelf until recently.  Reading this book, was  just as wonderful as the movie.

I can not stand hate.  It is a dirty four letter word.  I can not handle families torn apart and people judging each other for anything.  Having lost all of my immediate family members to tragedies, it breaks my heart to see families choose not to speak to one another over whatever differences they feel they have.

What I wouldn’t give to have one more conversation with my mom.  My dad.  My sister.

I am getting off course, but this book brings out a lot of emotion as I felt again within the pages, the hate, the labels, the teachers who looked at these students as a waste of their time and the schools money.  What Erin does costs her much, but the outcome…. is priceless.  Within this true story you will find the power and passion of one person, who erased the invisible hate lines by daring to cross them and showing love to students that were starving for it.

An amazing and powerful read that if you have not read – I highly recommend you do.  And this week, if you can make the time, I challenge you to rent this movie.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Amazon Rating

Why was The Freedom’ Writers Diary Banned?

On March 11, 2008, an English teacher at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, Connie Heerman, was suspended for a year and a half without pay for using the Freedom Writers Diary in her classroom against the wishes of the school board.^[ Administrators objected to racial slurs and sexual content in portions of the book. Heerman had received permission the previous year to attend a workshop based on the books and obtained permission slips from the parents involved. The school board contends that Heermen did not properly follow the rules to receive permission to use the book. Erin Gruwell commented on the controversy, saying, “The best way to get a teenager to read a book is to ban it. When someone who is a daunting authority figure says, ‘Give us your book’, I think these students [thought], ‘There must be something powerful in these words’.

*FYI.  The Diary of Anne Frank is also a banned book.

(1982) Challenged in Wise County, Virginia due to protests of several parents who complained the book contains sexually offensive passages. (1983) Four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee called for the rejection of this title because it is a “real downer.” (1998) Removed for two months from the Baker Middle School in Corpus Christi, Texas after two parents charged that the book was pornographic. The book was returned after students waged a letter-writing campaign to keep it, and the review committee recommended the book’s retention.

15-year-old Janie Johnson feels plain.  Ordinary.  She wishes she had a better name like her friends Sarah-Charlotte Sherwood and Adair O’ Dell.  Those are names that say something.  She thinks maybe she could start spelling her name with a “y”, like Jayne.  Or two”y’s”, Jayyne.   And maybe her last name could be something cooler, like Johnstone.  How will she ever be anyone as Janie Johnson?

All of this changes when one day at lunch she sees a face on the milk carton of a little three-year old pigtail girl.  The face, is Janie’s face.   She remembers the dress in the picture and suddenly her world is turned upside down.  Is she a missing child?  Are her parents not really her parents?  If she is not Janie Johnson….

then who is she?

The Face On The Milk Carton was a quick and good read.  As I was reading this book I could not help but feel I had seen this somewhere and had a flash back to a younger version of me watching an After School Special about this.  (Anyone remember after school specials?  They were on tv around 4:00 in the afternoon and they were stories with a message. )   Sure enough, I looked it up and this was actually a tv show and seeing the actress that played Janie, it all came back to me.

The book deals with typical teenage angst.   Janie gives me the impression in the beginning of just being bored.  Of course that rapidly changes as she starts to have anxiety over what she discovered on the milk carton and starts to explore what that could possibly mean for her and the people she loves as her parents.

I thought the book was handled well and as I finished it I really had no idea why this book would have made the banned books list.  Other than a brief possible sexual opportunity – which is considered, but declined, there really was nothing in the book.

The books ends suddenly and many questions are still left unanswered.  Apparently to my surprise, the story doesn’t end with this book.  There is a sequel to the  book called “Whatever Happened To Janie?”  AND then it goes on to a third book called “The Voice On The Radio” and concludes this series (4 books now… it is a series) with “What Janie Found“.

I never knew about the other books so that was interesting.  Also interesting is that none of the other books are on the challenged or banned lists.  😀

Why was Caroline B Cooney’s Face On The Milk Carton Banned?

The faintest reference to the idea of sex (a possible first encounter) was all that it took for a challenge to be made to this book. Subsequent protests involved a perceived “challenge to authority” that occurred when Janie becomes to determined to establish her true parentage.

I borrowed this from our local library