FOLLOW ME TO READ
Discovering our own identities
Week 4
Red: A Crayon's Story
By Michael Hall
Sparkle Boy
By Leslea Newman
This week we are looking at Red: A Crayon's Story by Michael Hall and Sparkle Boy by Leslea Newman. These two books focus on discovering their own identity and to embrace it.
Red: A Crayon's Story by Michael Hall was an impeccable book. The story follows a red crayon that can't seem to do anything right. It's crayon wrapper is labeled "red" but it's actual color is blue. Every crayon thinks the red crayon should write red. Everyone became frustrated with red because it couldn't produce the color red. There were mean things said about red and everyone doubted the color, even red's parents. The moral of the story is to not judge a human based on their appearance. What matters is what's in the inside. It's like the saying "don't judge a book by it's cover". I really loved this book and I actually got to read it to one of the girls I tutor. I will talk more about my experience later on in this blog.
Sparkle Boy by Leslea Newman is one of my new favorite books! Casey is the little brother to Jessie. Jessie enjoys anything sparkly and so does her brother Casey. Jessie gets annoyed when Casey is interested in her sparkly skirt, nail polish, and bracelet because she believed that boys shouldn't wear sparkly things or skirts, those were girl things. Jessie's parents and Grandma were very supportive when Casey wanted to wear a sparkly skirt, paint his nails a sparkly color, and wear his Grandma's sparkly bracelet. One day Jessie and Casey went to the library and were sitting in the children's section. Some kids called Casey a girl and said that he was Jessie's sister. Jessie explained that he was a boy and the kids made fun of Casey for wearing a skirt. Jessie became very defensive of her brother because she came to the realization of the stereotypes of genders.
Leslea Newman is an admirable author and I can't wait to read more of her books. When thinking about why Leslea wrote this book, I did some research. On her blog she mentioned that someone once asked her “If you had nothing to rebel against and nothing to conform to, who would you be?” Newman decided to write Sparkle Boy in hopes to add to the discussion about the wide spectrum of gender expression. She mentioned "There is no 'right' way to be." I really admire Leslea Newman as an author and person. I can't wait to read this to my own students to crush stereotypes. When readers read this book, they ponder about their own identity. What do I like to do? What do I like to wear? Who do I like to hangout with?
Michael Hall is a children's author and before that he was an award-winning graphic designer. This explains the beautiful illustrations he has created for Red: A Crayon's Story. Some pages are white and some pages are black but the font and color of the font do not change. I think he had some meaning behind this to indicate that whatever color you are, we are all humans. Michael is also dyslexic. He stated that reading was always hard for him. In college he discovered graphic design. He mentioned that it's similar to writing but with shapes and symbols. The story about the red crayon is very heartwarming and makes you smile.
A specific cultural issue that arose in Red: A Crayon's Story was everyone thinking red was something other than what was inside. You see this today in society. People judge other humans based on their skin color, culture, community, hair, the way they dress, etc. As I mentioned before, I read this story to the girl I am tutoring. She is in 3rd grade and asks a lot of questions. The other day I was reading a textbook on Autism for one of my classes. She asked me "what is Autism?" I enjoyed talking to her about it and how not everyone is born the same. When I read her this book, she couldn't help but ask questions at the end. She asked "Why were the other crayons so mean?" I explained to her that sometimes people are mean for no reason. They see what is on the outside and judge someone based on their stereotypes. She was in shock that people did this. This is what I love about children. Their young minds are so pure and honest. When you are young, you don't notice the skin color of your friend. You know that they have a different skin color than you but that doesn't make them any less than you.
A specific cultural issue that arose in Sparkle Boy was that it was not socially acceptable to wear sparkly things when you are a male. Jessie was frustrated with her brother when he loved to wear sparkly things because that's a girl "thing". Newman created a book to express that gender don't have a specific role that they have to acquire. You can be who you want to be.
While analyzing these books, I thought about gender identity and inequalities. Red: A Crayon's Story focused on inequalities which leads to ability spectrum, gender identity, and gender expression. The red crayon was perceived as the color red so his ability was not acceptable to the other crayons. Casey liked to wear sparkly things and was not accepted by the mean boys in the library as a male. While reading Chapter 1 in the textbook Reading to Make a Difference, I learned how to lead discussions with my students about identity. It's important to set guidelines when discussing someone's identity and to create a safe space for your students. It's crucial to help guide the conversation without taking over to help the students realize their identity. Everyone in a classroom is part of a community and it's important to emphasize on empathy with your students.
What's next? I would help guide a discussion with my students after reading these two books to discuss everyone's identities. This conversation will have guidelines, resources, and respect. After the discussion, I would have each child do a journal entry. The students would write about their identity and how that impact their life. Since this is a heavy topic, some students may not want to share during the discussion so the journal entry is a way for me to hear everyone's voices.
References
Hall, M. (2015). Red: A crayon’s story. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.
Newman, L., & Mola, M. (2017). Sparkle boy. New York, NY: Lee & Low Books.
Laminak, L. L. & Kelly, K. (2019). Reading to Make a Difference: Using literature to help students speak freely, think deeply, and take action. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann