Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library presents
2009
Seattle Reads
m
i
J
y
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by Nancy Rawles
A Reading Group Toolbox
for My Jim
© Liz Amini-Holmes Illustration • www.lunavilla.com
Toolbox contents
About the Author
2
A Conversation with Nancy Rawles
3
My Jim Discussion Questions
9
A Controversial Classic
10
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Discussion Questions
12
Recommended Reading
14
Book Club How-Tos 20
Seattle Reads
24
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My Jim
A Conversation with Nancy Rawles
by Nancy Rawles
From The Very Telling: Conversations with American Writers
S
eattle author Nancy Rawles’ My Jim (Three Rivers Press, 2005) is a harrowing account of
by Sarah Anne Johnson
slavery and a testament to the power of love and longing for freedom, survival of families
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in becoming a professional writer?
and tradition. My Jim re-imagines Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the slave’s
Oh, you know, money is always the challenge, specifically cash flow. Grants and awards help
perspective. The story follows Jim’s family as they struggle to cope with his loss after his escape
tremendously because they provide much-needed funds and encouragement. Fortunately, I love to
down the Mississippi.
teach, and I’ve been lucky to find work teaching writing to school children through various programs
My Jim is told in the voice of Sadie, the wife of Huck’s enslaved traveling companion. The
and organizations that bring the artist into the classroom. Money is a problem for most artists,
novel recasts Jim as more than a runaway drifting down the Mississippi River with a delinquent
especially those of us whose work does not contain much entertainment or commercial value. It
youth, more than the gullible victim and moral father figure to Huck in Twain’s work. In telling the
has other values—educational, literary, civic, social justice—those are not remunerated at the
familiar tale from a different perspective, Rawles considers the shattered families of many slaves.
same rates.
N
Your writing is infused with music, especially My Jim. How does music inform your
writing or creative life?
About the Author
Because I’m a person who experiences the world mainly through my ears, music resonates for
ancy Rawles is an award-winning novelist, playwright, and educator. She lives
me in a way that words do not. For words to enter me deeply, they must have some sort of a
in Seattle’s Mount Baker neighborhood, and currently teaches fifth grade at the
rhythm to them. I try to write rhythmically. Sometimes, I collaborate with musicians. With My Jim,
New School.
I asked musicians, vocalists, composers, arrangers to take excerpts from the text and set them
Rawles worked briefly as a journalist before moving to the theater. She has studied
to music. I did this because I heard music while I was writing. And, of course, music is a primary
playwriting in Chicago, Los Angeles, and in Seattle with The Hansberry Project’s Valerie Curtis-
source of African American history, so you can’t delve into the history without delving more deeply
Newton. “Keeper at the Gate,” her play about the assassination of Seattle Urban League Director
into the music.
Edwin T. Pratt, was published by Fjord Press in 1999.
Rawles grew up in Los Angeles, and her first two books, Love Like Gumbo and Crawfish
You were awarded the Language of Hope Leading Voices Award from the Starbucks
Dreams, are set there. They address issues of race, class, color, and sexual identity as seen
Foundation for teaching writing to young people. What inspires you to teach young
through the eyes of the fictional Broussard family of Compton Avenue in Watts.
people?
My Jim, her third novel, is set in 19th century Missouri and Louisiana. It tells the story
I had a lot of great teachers when I was young. My life would have been impoverished without
of the family left behind when Jim escapes down the river with Huck Finn. Reading and rereading
them. I come from a family of teachers. We think of teaching as a sacred vocation. I’m honored to
Huckleberry Finn, Rawles took note of a brief passage where Huck finds Jim crying, longing
be a teacher.
for and missing his wife and children, which sparked her to create a wife for Jim—Sadie—and
write a literary response to Huckleberry Finn.
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How does your teaching life inform your writing life?
How do your stories or novel ideas come to you, and what do you do to see them
Well, the students always write better stories and poems than I could ever hope to write. So, their
through to a final draft?
work inspires me and keeps me on my toes; I never used to write for young people. But
The stories come in different ways, but they all come from deep inside my head and heart. I’m
teaching makes me want to write work that can be used in the classroom. I hope My Jim will be
trying to figure things out, trying to say a few things about life. Usually, the stories come via
used in classrooms.
the characters and the issues, problems, predicaments they find themselves in. Life is full of
problems, and people all over the world tend to have many of the same problems and challenges,
You’ve written both plays and fiction. How does your playwriting experience inform
so stories are valuable for what they tell us about life. In this country, we tend to value highly
your fiction writing?
entertainment that takes us away from the problems of our lives. That’s not a bad thing, but it
I’m a person with an ear for language, so playwriting and storytelling come naturally to me.
will only get us so far. We need other experiences that carry us more deeply into living, even
I also studied journalism, which teaches you to only quote exceptional speech. This helps when
when that means into the pain that comes with living a full life. There’s comfort in knowing we’re
I write dialogue. I love writing conversations, monologues, verbal duels. It’s a marvelous way to
not alone, that problems are shared. In politics, the challenges of living together as a people are
reveal character.
addressed in a variety of ways. The same is true of art. I have no problem with art being political.
What is the role of autobiography in your work, or how do your own experiences fuel
your creative life?
I think one of the most important roles an artist can play is the role of the dissident.
My Jim is a deeply moving account and recasting of Huckleberry Finn’s Jim. How did
My experiences inspire me, just as other people’s adventures do. If I’ve done something that’s
you prepare yourself for writing Jim’s story? What reading and research did you do
caused me to grow wiser, I like to share that knowledge with people. I guess that’s the teacher
beyond Huckleberry Finn?
in me. I especially like to share what I learn about love, which is the most interesting topic in the
I researched the early life of Samuel Clemens, details of which I included in My Jim. I researched
world. The variations on that theme are endless. I consider all my books to be love stories of one
natural remedies available to a slave doctor in eastern Missouri before the Civil War. I read slave
kind or another.
narratives and interviews with former slaves. I read about Reconstruction in Louisiana. I never get
While the events in my books tend to be fictional, the details of place are usually factual, and
some of the characters are based in actual people or represent composites of people I know. My
tired of learning about history, so I read a lot of things I didn’t need to read, just for the heck of it.
Lewis and Clark, that sort of thing. I read early African American cookbooks.
characters are always familiar to me, like cousins. You know, cousins are very important to me
as an African American. We’ve always adopted lots of cousins. Half-cousins, godcousins, I mean,
cousins are family. So, my characters are like cousins to me, very familiar.
Because I’m a lesbian, I always include gay and lesbian characters in my books. Because I’m
The incantatory voice of Sadie and the colloquial language in My Jim reflect
the uneducated slave’s life. How did you hone your use of this dialect without
overwhelming the text?
African American, my books are mostly about African Americans. Since I grew up in Los Angeles
Ah, the language of the book. Here’s the thing. Part of the conceit of the story is that it’s being
around people of many different cultures, I include characters of different races and cultures in
told to and written down by the narrator’s granddaughter, who’s had some education. So, the
my books and plays. Since my father grew up poor and my mother grew up working class and us
language is written with the skill of someone who’s studied till about third grade during a time
kids grew up middle class, my characters fall somewhere in those categories. I don’t know what
when spelling was drilled. She’s a good speller, this granddaughter, but she hasn’t learned
it’s like having a lot of money, so I don’t write about people with money. It’s not that I think people
punctuation, only periods, and she conflates verb tenses, a common problem. In other words,
with money are all that different, but it’s much harder for me to put myself in their shoes, not to
she uses—because they’re used all the time in speech—words like “ain’t” and “gonna.” Those
mention their cars.
are the reasons Marianne writes the way she does, capturing and, at times, correcting her
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grandmother’s speech, with all the love and protectiveness of a child.
Now, my reasons for the language choices are a little bit different from hers. I was trying
to capture the rhythms of speech and the emotions that fill the spaces between words. I was
trying to give the reader the feeling of listening to somebody talk. And I was trying to accentuate
meaning, which I could do, for example, by using the word “loss” instead of “lost.” As big as
lost is, loss is bigger. I wanted words that would get under the skin. If we are ever to understand
the meaning of slavery in the history of this country, we have to be willing to take a profoundly
emotional journey. The language of My Jim is designed to carry you along to places you wouldn’t
go without a guide.
possess what you don’t love (you can only use it) and when you seek to love, you seek not to
possess but to liberate.
Throughout the novel, small items—a button, a bowl, a knife—take on totemic
significance. In her novel Slammerkin, Emma Donoghue uses a red ribbon that carries
similar weight throughout the narrative. When I asked her about this, she said, “It’s a
useful technique in plays to imbue certain selective props with great emotional value
so that every time they come back on the audience knows what they mean, and to have
the objects turn up in several different contexts.” How did you want these items to
work in the narrative?
My Jim is told in chapters from Sadie’s point of view and chapters from her
granddaughter Marianne’s point of view. How did you develop the structure?
Once I figured out I should write the book as oral history, I needed a way for Sadie to talk
more intimately and extensively than she would talk to an interviewer. Hence, the character of
Marianne, who Sadie loves deeply. Because she believes her time with Marianne is limited, she
has a reason to tell her story in the depth that she does. She wants to give Marianne something
to take with her. She trusts Marianne; she trusts her with her pain and her wisdom. And Marianne
is the only person who truly wants to hear her grandmother’s story. Lots of grandchildren don’t. It’s
too painful. But Marianne understands what she is being given, which is why she writes it down,
even though Sadie tells her there’s no need to do so.
By juxtaposing Sadie’s tale of Jim alongside the contemporary reality of Sadie and
Marianne, in which African Americans are free, you’re able to illustrate both how
connected Sadie and Marianne are to the past and how free they are at the same
time. Did you understand at the outset how this setup would serve you throughout
the narrative?
Yes. I also understood I would be dealing equally with the realities of slavery and freedom,
I wanted to show that Sadie was a dispossessed person for whom possessions take on a special
significance. I also wanted to portray her as a person who has a culturally based spiritual belief
in the significance of objects that connect us to loved ones. I harbor such beliefs. And from
my research, I knew that the few possessions a slave managed to hold onto took on enormous
meaning. This fact was confirmed for me by Mende Nazir [sic], whose book Slave chronicles her
life as an enslaved person in Khartoum and London. She writes about the day her master cruelly
grabbed, pulled apart, and threw away the beaded necklace she always wore, a necklace her
mother made specially for her and her only possession from her Nuba village in southern Sudan.
She felt her master had taken her spirit. That’s the way I imagine I would feel. The objects are a
way to enter the story emotionally. A child’s tooth is a very emotional thing.
In My Jim, you juxtapose contemporary family life between Marianne and her
grandmother with the “family” life of the slaves. Because a slave’s birth family
members were often sold off, slaves created families amidst the peers they lived and
worked with. What drew you to writing about changes in family structures?
It’s such an important part of the story, and such an important part of our story as a people. We’ve
understood the necessity of “making family” for a long time. This was an essential skill. We
and with all the complexity of lives that are mostly lived somewhere in between the two. As a
simply wouldn’t have survived without the ability to love and trust after everything we ever loved
slave, Sadie’s experience of freedom comes through her experience of love. In freedom, she is
and trusted and knew had been taken from us.
held captive by death, which is ever near and strikes with ferocity, as well as by debt, which
threatens her with ruin and a return to slavery.
I was also intrigued by the similarities between the language of love and the language of
slavery—possession, belonging, mine, we are bound. I came to the conclusion that you can’t
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The theme of loss pervades any slave narrative, but here Sadie is able to connect
with Marianne through sharing the story of losing Jim in order to help Marianne make
My Jim
decisions about her future. “You scared to love cause you scared to lose.” Sharing
For Discussion
about loss becomes a way to connect, which is an interesting irony.
1. How do you think Adventures of Huckleberry Finn inspired My Jim? How do they complement
Sharing about loss is a powerful way to connect with anyone, just sitting with them in their loss
and not saying anything. I have listened to people from El Salvador and Cambodia and Iran and
South Africa talk about loss, and I have felt powerfully connected to them through this simple act
of listening, which often involves tears. As a person, I feel that I have to be willing to go there.
Maybe it’s my Catholic upbringing; we were taught to stand with people in suffering, even as the
nuns were hitting us.
one another?
2. Sadie says her things give her power. What do the objects—such as the knife, hat, bowl,
button, tooth, pipe—represent?
3. How does Sadie talk about freedom? How does Jim talk about freedom? What is Rawles
saying about freedom?
4. Why doesn’t Sadie kill Mas Stevens when she has the chance?
What do you hope readers take away from My Jim?
I hope readers will marvel at the fact that some people manage to love in the face of
slavery and genocide. Viktor Frankl’s Holocaust memoir, Man’s Search for Meaning, was as much
an inspiration as Huckleberry Finn, as were the stories I heard from Southeast Asian and East
5. How does Rawles depict the violence of slavery? How did the violence of slavery affect men
and women differently?
6. What enables Sadie to hold on to her strength? How does she hold on to her love for Jim?
How do they each view love?
African refugees.
I also hope readers will take away some knowledge of what slavery is like for ordinary people
who don’t have a chance to escape. This is a contemporary problem, one we have to face today in
addition to facing our own unforgiving history.
7. Talk about Sadie’s relationships with her children. How did slavery affect her relationships
with them? What effect did slavery have on families?
8. What is the significance of the memory quilt?
Interview conducted November 2005
9. Why doesn’t Sadie go with Jim in the end? Why do you think she makes this decision?
Excerpted from the chapter: “Nancy Rawles: I Try to Write Rhythmically,” The Very Telling:
10. Rawles uses the n-word in My Jim. The term continues to draw controversy for its use in
Conversations with American Writers by Sarah Anne Johnson, published with permission of
Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. What is the context for the n-word throughout this book? How did
University of New England Press, Lebanon, NH,© 2006
the word affect your reading of My Jim?
11. How does Sadie’s voice and the style of the writing shape the story?
12. In the beginning, Marianne doesn’t know whether she wants to go with Chas Freeman. How
does hearing Sadie’s story affect her decision and perspective?
13. How does My Jim compare to other slave narratives you’ve read? What did you learn about
African-American history from My Jim?
14. Why do we need to remember slavery? What does slavery mean for our history, and for
America today?
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aspects of the book that seem to undermine that satire, and Twain’s irrepressible sense of irony
A Controversial Classic
ark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has courted controversy and divided
opinion since its publication in 1885. That same year, the Concord Free Library in
Massachusetts banned the book, citing its “rough, coarse and inelegant expressions,” and opining
that “The whole book is of a class that is more profitable for the slums than it is for respectable
people, and it is trash of the veriest sort.”
The San Francisco Chronicle rushed to the book’s defense, suggesting its critics were
representative of “a large class of people who are impervious to a joke.” Fairy tale author Andrew
Lang hailed it as “The Great American Novel,” while Louisa May Alcott advised “If Mr. Clemens
cannot think of something better to tell our pure-minded lads and lasses, he had best stop writing
for them.” Twain seems to have anticipated the book’s mixed reception when he opened it with
the humorous warning, “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted;
persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished…”
In 1935, Ernest Hemingway helped secure the book’s place in the American literary canon
(and many of our schools’ required reading lists) when he proclaimed that “All modern American
literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. … There was nothing
before. There has been nothing as good since.” It is an irony worthy of Twain himself that
the book’s chief claim to greatness, the frank and original use of distinctly American speech
and manners that had been condemned as uncouth fifty years earlier, would fan the flames of
controversy fifty years later, on the very different grounds of racism.
The most commonly cited reason Huckleberry Finn is so frequently found near the top of the
American Library Association’s annual list of most challenged titles in schools and libraries is the
can make it hard to know when to take him seriously.
Especially troubling for contemporary readers is the portrayal of Jim, who can be seen as
both the noblest and most admirable person in the book, and as a childlike and subservient Uncle
Tom; both homespun humorist and wide-eyed minstrel buffoon. And what are we to make of the
last section of the book (which even Hemingway urged readers to skip), in which all of Huck’s
realizations about Jim’s humanity and the inherent wrongness of slavery seem forgotten, replaced
by the cruel and casually racist shenanigans of Tom Sawyer? Are we meant to laugh or to be
outraged at Jim’s predicament, or both? Twain doesn’t say.
Ultimately, the ongoing controversy surrounding Adventures of Huckleberry Finn may prove
to be the best argument for its continued relevance to readers and students today. Nobel Prizewinning author Toni Morrison captures this troubling paradox perfectly in her introduction to
the Oxford edition of the work. She recounts her own feelings of “palpable alarm” upon her
earliest encounters with the book, “a feeling I can only describe now as muffled rage, as though
appreciation of the work required my complicity in and sanction of something shaming.” She
then goes on to praise the book’s “ability to transform its contradictions into fruitful complexities
and to seem to be deliberately co-operating in the controversy it has excited. The brilliance of
Huckleberry Finn is that it is the argument it raises. … For a hundred years, the argument that this
novel is has been identified, reidentified, examined, waged and advanced. What it cannot be is
dismissed. It is classic literature, which is to say it heaves, manifests and lasts.”
Many of the quotations included here can be found in Michael Hearn’s The Annotated
Huckleberry Finn (2001), which makes an excellent introduction to the book’s turbulent history.
novel’s 213 uses of a deeply offensive and disturbing racial epithet referred to as “the n-word.”
The intense pain and divisiveness caused by this term has led to much reasoned discussion and
heated public discourse about whether, when and how the book should be used in schools. Yet
the book’s difficulties for the modern reader cannot be summed up in a single hateful word, and
they are anything but academic.
Written in fits and starts over a decade which saw the initial hopes of Reconstruction eroded
by the establishment of restrictive Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, Huckleberry Finn bristles with
scathing satire of the hypocrisies of Southern ‘sivilization,’ mocking the bloody feuds, religious
hucksterism and entrenched racism that prevailed before and after the Civil War. Yet there are
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
11. The Mississippi River in this book is a powerful symbol that Twain uses to tie themes
together. Why did Twain choose the river rather than, say, a road? What are some of the
For Discussion
A classic picaresque American novel, this is the story of a 13-year-old boy, Huckleberry Finn,
and an escaped slave, Jim, who travel by raft down the Mississippi River in the 1840s. Along the
river’s shores they encounter colorful characters and witness foolish and violent actions by settlers
messages the river carries?
12. Compare Twain’s Jim and Rawles’ Jim. How do you think Twain felt toward him? How does
Jim’s portrayal differ in the two books?
and other travelers. Twain uses satire to challenge the institution of slavery and to poke fun at
those who think they are morally superior to others. Told in dialect, the novel is rich in history,
and has been controversial as well, particularly for its portrayal of Jim and the author’s use of
the n-word. My Jim pays homage to the anti-slavery message of Huckleberry Finn, and adds
layers of depth and complexity to the character of Jim. Both books are enriched by the existence
of the other.
1. Why did Twain write the “Notice” at the beginning of the book? Why tell readers there is no
motive, moral, or plot to the story?
2. Tom Sawyer plays a pivotal role in the story. Why does he behave the way he does, both at
the beginning and at the end? What is Twain saying through Tom’s character?
3. Why does Huck go along with Tom’s elaborate escape plan for Jim? What holds him back at
the end?
4. Do you think that Huck Finn actually changes during the course of the book? Are his actions
what you would expect of a 13-year-old boy?
5. Why does Twain include so many scenes of violence in this book?
6. How do the chapters featuring the Grangerfords and the passages featuring the Duke and
Dauphin relate to the rest of the story?
7. Despite its controversial nature, Huckleberry Finn continues to be a well-read and well-loved
classic. What makes Huck’s adventures so compelling?
8. What is Twain trying to say about moral values? How do his characters illustrate his views?
9. Many of Huck’s adventures, while humorous, have a thematic message about slavery,
growing up, friendship and family. What do you think Twain is saying to his readers?
10. Who are the women in the story and what influence do they have on Huck and Jim?
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Recommended Reading
Perry, Phyllis. Stigmata (1998)
Fiction
ancestors’ lives as slaves. Is she losing her mind or somehow traveling back in time?
After inheriting a handmade quilt, young Lizzie DuBose has terrifying, startlingly real visions of her
Butler, Octavia E. Kindred (1979)
Dana, a 20th century black woman, is mysteriously transported back in time to the antebellum
South, where she confronts firsthand the harsh reality of slavery and the complicated nature of
her own racial heritage.
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
Two runaways, Huckleberry Finn, a teenage outcast, and Jim, a slave, meet eccentric characters
and have various exploits as they journey down the Mississippi. An American classic and a source
of inspiration for My Jim.
Clinch, Jon. Finn: A Novel (2007)
Like My Jim, Clinch’s novel takes a peripheral character from Huckleberry Finn – here it’s Pap,
Huck’s infamous father – and creates a new story that recounts Pap’s troubled life and mysterious
death with harrowing intensity.
Nonfiction
Ball, Edward. Slaves in the Family (1998)
Family history, coupled with extensive research, makes visible the intertwined lives of six
Crafts, Hannah. The Bondwoman’s Narrative (2002)
Originally written in the 1850s, this previously unpublished manuscript is a stirring fictionalized
account of Crafts’ escape from slavery and one of the first novels written by a black woman.
Durham, David Anthony. Walk Through Darkness (2002)
William, an escaped slave, and Morrison, a Scottish immigrant, come from different worlds but
share the same goal: freedom. Their paths cross unexpectedly in the years before the Civil War.
generations of people who lived and labored on South Carolina Ball family plantations.
Broyard, Bliss. One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life: A Story of Race and Hidden Secrets (2007)
The stunning revelation of her father’s true identity leads his daughter on a journey across the
color line and into his hidden past.
DeWolf, Thomas N. Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest
Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History (2008)
Gaines, Ernest J. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971)
Descendants of the DeWolf family discover what it means to face the truth about the Rhode
More than one hundred years of black history, from the Civil War to the civil rights era, is
Island family’s business and its far-reaching effects on their lives and those of Africans captured
recounted through the memorable voice of Miss Jane Pittman, a 110-year-old former slave.
and made into slaves.
Jones, Edward P. The Known World (2003)
Franklin, John Hope. In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South (2006)
When Henry Townsend, a former slave turned slave-owner, dies, his plantation is thrown into
Though enslaved on a Virginia tobacco plantation, Sally Thomas finds a way to own her own
turmoil that profoundly affects all members of the estate – black and white, free and enslaved.
business and purchase the freedom of one of her sons.
2004 Pulitzer Prize winner.
Galland, China. Love Cemetery: Unburying the Secret History of Slaves (2007)
McBride, James. Song Yet Sung (2008)
When an interracial and intergenerational group works to restore a 175-year old African
Pursued by slave-catchers and haunted by disturbing dreams of the future, Liz, a fugitive slave,
American graveyard in rural East Texas, their efforts become thwarted by a legal entanglement
struggles to survive in the perilous swamps of eastern Maryland on the eve of the Civil War.
with landowners.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel (1987)
Harms, Robert W. The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade (2007)
Haunted by the memory of the child she sacrificed when facing re-enslavement years before,
First Lieutenant Robert Durand’s journal provides a detailed account of a 15-month slaving voyage
Sethe believes the mysterious Beloved who appears at her door may be her long-lost daughter.
of the French-owned slave ship as it travels from France to Africa and, finally, to Martinique.
1988 Pulitzer Prize winner.
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Hartman, Saidya V. Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (2007)
Draper, Sharon M. Copper Sun (2006)
In answer to the silences surrounding her own family’s experience of slavery, Hartman embarks
In this compelling and brutal story, two girls, one a slave and one an indentured servant, become
upon a personal journey to Ghana retracing slave routes and facing her own misperceptions of
friends as they try to reach Fort Moses, a colony that frees slaves.
what it means to return “home.”
Ferris, Jean. Underground (2007)
Mack, Angela D. Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art (2008)
Based on a true story, two slaves who work at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky fall in love and help
Artists portray the plantation landscape through contemporary and historical paintings,
other slaves escape on the Underground Railroad.
photographs, sculpture and prints.
Hegamin, Tonya, and Marilyn Nelson. Pemba’s Song: A Ghost Story (2008)
Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship: A Human History (2007)
Pemba doesn’t want to leave her city life in Brooklyn to move to suburban Connecticut—and that’s
On the deck of a slave ship, the lives of ship captains, traders, sailors, and slaves are altered by
before she finds out that her new house is haunted by a former slave.
the force and reach of an economic system in which each plays an integral part.
Lester, Julius. Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue (2005)
Roediger, David R. How Race Survived U.S. History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama
Emma has lovingly raised the Butler children but now she’ll be auctioned off to pay Mr. Butler’s
Phenomenon (2008)
gambling debts in what was one of the largest slave auctions in American history.
Over a span of 400 years, the sharp face of race and its persistent shaping and reshaping of
American identity through revolution, civil rights and civil wars, immigration, and the economy are
digested, analyzed, and discussed.
McCormick, Patricia. Sold (2006)
Lakshmi, 13, is forced to leave her village in Nepal when her stepfather sells her into the
sex slave trade in Calcutta. Lakshmi’s life mirrors the plight of thousands of girls sold into
sexual slavery.
Book for Teens
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Chains: Seeds of America (2008)
Isabel and her sister should be freed when their mistress dies, but an heir sells them to a cruel
New York couple. Isabel attempts to escape during the American Revolution by becoming a
Patriot spy.
Anderson, M.T. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1,
The Pox Party (2006)
During the Revolutionary War era, Octavian and his mother, an African princess, live with a group
of radical philosophers. Octavian realizes he may actually be in captivity—and be the subject of a
scientific experiment.
Mosley, Walter. 47 (2005)
Combining elements of history, science fiction and African-American folklore, this tale of slavery
and resistance features 47, a 14-year-old boy who gains the courage to claim his freedom from a
supernatural being.
Taylor, Yuval, editor. Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves as Told by Themselves (2005)
Excerpts from autobiographies written by young slaves, chronicling life between 1745 and
the 1860s.
Books for Children
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Chains: Seeds of America (2008)
Doak, Robin S. Slave Rebellions (2006)
This volume in the Slavery in the Americas series examines the transatlantic slave trade, the
incendiary Anthony Burns case, and the New York City Draft Riots of 1863.
Isabel and her little sister, Ruth, were promised their freedom, but as the Revolutionary
War begins, they are passed on to cruel, new masters. Isabel decides to wage her own war
against slavery.
Recommended for ages 10 and up.
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Barbour, Karen. Mr. Williams (2005)
Rappaport, Doreen. No More! Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance (2002)
J.W. Williams was born in rural Louisiana in 1929. The story of his life and times is lovingly
This collection of poems, songs, and stories documents the struggles of 11 extraordinary
transcribed and illustrated by family friend and gifted painter, Karen Barbour.
individuals against slavery.
Recommended for ages 4-8.
Recommended for ages 9-12.
Clinton, Catherine. Phillis’s Big Test (2008)
Raven, Margot Theis. Night Boat to Freedom (2006)
In 1772, Phillis Wheatley took a test to prove she was the author of an acclaimed book of poetry.
Twelve-year-old Christmas John rows slaves to freedom by crossing the river from Kentucky
At the time, no one believed that a young African girl was capable of writing such a book. Phillis
to Ohio in the dark of night. When it is his turn to row to safety, he is reluctant to leave his
proved them wrong.
grandmother behind.
Recommended for ages 6-2.
Recommended for ages 4-8.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Elijah of Buxton (2007)
Woodson, Jacqueline. Show Way (2005)
Elijah is the first free child born into a settlement of runaway slaves in Buxton, Canada. When
Soonie traces her family history through the quilts each generation has produced. The “Show
money to pay for a friend’s freedom is stolen, Elijah follows the thief to America and discovers the
Ways” quilts represent life stories of slavery, resistance, courage, and freedom.
horrors of slavery.
Recommended for ages 4-10.
Recommended for ages 9-12.
McCully, Emily Arnold. The Escape of Oney Judge:
Martha Washington’s Slave Finds Freedom (2008)
When Martha Washington moved to Philadelphia during her husband’s presidency, she took her
young slave, Oney, with her. Once there, Oney discovered that not all black people were slaves,
and she found her way to freedom.
Recommended for ages 8-12.
Levine, Ellen. Henry’s Freedom Box (2007)
Henry Brown dreams of a world where his life belongs to him. When his wife and children are
sold and taken away, Henry gets a box and mails himself to freedom.
Recommended for ages 4-8
McGill, Alice. Way Up and Over Everything (2008)
In this retelling of an African American folktale, a slave with magical powers flies away from
oppression and takes his companions with him.
Recommended for ages 4-8.
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Book Club How-Tos
Books that are heavily plot driven and spell out everything leave little to discuss. Most
deas for setting up a book discussion group from the Washington Center for the Book at
mysteries, Westerns, romances and science fiction/fantasy fall in this category.
Try the following types of books:
The Seattle Public Library
• Books with unclear endings.
Getting Started
For example, not everyone agrees about what actually happened in Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of
Before (or at) your first meeting, discuss:
the Woods, James Buchan’s The Persian Bride, or Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping.
• When, where, and how often will your book group meet?
• Books you can read together.
• How long will each meeting last?
You can discuss both books at the same meeting or in separate meetings. Examples: Reading
• Will you serve refreshments?
Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Truth and Beauty by Ann
• What is the role of the leader, or will you even designate a leader?
Patchett and Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy, Persepolis and Chicken with Plums by
• Who develops the discussion questions?
Marjane Satrapi.
• What types of books will you read and discuss: Fiction, memoirs, nonfiction, a combination?
Contemporary works, classics, both?
• Books that raise many, many issues.
Examples: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, Angle of
Repose by Wallace Stegner.
Choosing Good Books for Discussion
Choosing what books to read is one of the most important activities the group will undertake.
Not every member is going to like every book the group chooses. Everyone may read the same
One of the best parts of belonging to a book discussion group is that you will be introduced
book, but in fact, every member is reading a different book. Everyone brings her own unique
to authors and books you’re unfamiliar with, and books that fall outside your regular areas of
history, memories, background, and influences. Everyone is in a different place in his life when he
interest.
reads the book. All of these differences influence the reader’s experience of a book and why she
Remind people that there can be a big difference between “a good read” and “a good book
for a discussion.” (See next section.) It’s always a good idea to select your group’s books well in
advance (at least six months works well). You don’t want to have to spend time at each meeting
may like or dislike it.
See Recommended Books for Discussion: www.spl.org/pdfs/RecommendedBooksforDiscussion.pdf
Reading a Book for Discussion
deciding what to read next.
What makes a particular book a good one for a discussion? Probably the most important
criteria are that the book be well written and that it explores basic human truths.
Look for books with complex, three-dimensional characters who are forced to make difficult
Reading for a book discussion – whether you are the leader or simply a participant – differs
from reading purely for pleasure.
Ask yourself questions, read carefully, and imagine yourself in the story. Think about the style
choices under difficult situations. Try to read with an open mind. Characters don’t have to be
and structure of the book. Does it have personal meaning for you?
likable in order for you to identify and sympathize. Francine Prose, in Reading Like a Writer
• Make notes and mark pages as you go. This may slow your reading, but saves time
(HarperCollins, 2006), writes “masterpieces survive in which all that’s expected of us is that we be
interested in the characters, engaged by their fates, intrigued by their complexities, curious about
searching for key passages later.
• Ask tough questions of yourself and the book. Look for questions that will lead to in-depth
conversations with your group.
what will happen to them next.”
• Analyze themes. What is the author trying to say in the book?
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• Get to know the characters. Consider their faults and motives and what it would be like to
know them. Read portions aloud to get to know the voices of the characters.
• Notice the book’s structure. Do the chapters begin with quotes? How many people tell the
story? Is the book written in flashbacks? Does the order make sense to you?
• Compare to other books and authors. Themes often run through an author’s works.
Comparing one author’s work with another’s can help you solidify your opinions and define
qualities you may otherwise miss.
Sample Discussion Questions
Examine the book
• How does the title relate to the book?
• How believable are the characters? Which character do you identify with?
• What makes the main character sympathetic or unsympathetic?
• Why do certain characters act the way they act? Do they have an ax to grind, a political
ideology, religious belief, or psychological disorder?
• How does the author use certain words and phrases differently than we would normally use
Leading the Discussion
• Have 10-15 open-ended questions that can’t be answered “yes” or “no.” Or ask each group
member to bring one discussion question. Readers will focus on different aspects of the book,
and everyone will gain new insights as a result.
• Let the discussion flow naturally.
• Remind the group that there are not necessarily any right answers to the questions posed.
• Push members beyond “I just didn’t like it” statements. What made the book unappealing? The
style? The pacing? The characters? Books that inspire strong reactions, positive and negative,
lead to some of the best discussions.
• Balance the discussion between personal thoughts and responses to the book. It’s too easy to
them? Does the author make up new words and, if so, why?
• How believable and interesting are the plot and subplots? What loose ends, if any, did the
author leave?
• How is the book structured? Flashbacks? Many points of view? Why do you think the author
chose to write the book this way?
• How does the way the book is arranged help or detract from the ideas it contains?
• What types of symbolism do you find in this novel? What do these objects really represent?
How do characters react to and with these symbolic objects?
• What themes recur throughout the book?
let a group drown in reminiscences. If that’s what the whole group wants to do, that’s fine, but
• How is the setting of the book important to the theme?
keep in mind that then it’s not a book discussion.
Draw conclusions
• What is the great strength - or most noticeable weakness - of the book?
Learning More About an Author
Discussion leaders may want to bring background information about the author and book to a
• What did the author try to do in the book? Was he or she successful?
meeting. Some online resources are:
Think outside the book
• Books in Print
• What is the author’s worldview?
• Booklist Online
• How does this book fit into or fight against a literary genre? Does this book typify a regional
• Literature Resource Center
(Southern, western) novel?
A Seattle Public Library card may be required to access these online databases. See Books &
Reading for more suggestions.
• What, if any, broader social issues does the book address? Does the author take a stance on,
for example, anarchy versus capitalism? How is a particular culture or subculture portrayed?
• Where could the story go after the book ends? What is the future of these characters’ lives?
What would our lives be like if we lived in this story?
• How does this book compare to other books you’ve read? Would it make a good movie? Is
there a film adaptation of this book? What is brought out or played down in the film version?
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Seattle Reads
Books for Book Groups
The Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library invites everyone to take part
in “Seattle Reads,” a project designed to deepen an appreciation of and engagement in literature
through reading and discussion.
Each year the Washington Center for the Book hosts an author for a series of free programs.
Prior to the visit, the Center develops background material and study guides and encourages
book groups and individuals throughout the region to read and discuss the featured book. The
Seattle Public Library also hosts a series of programs, panel discussions, film screenings, dramatic
readings, and other events around the themes of the featured work.
Featured Works
2008: The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (Riverhead Books, 2007)
2007: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books, 2003)
2006: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon Books, 2003)
2005: When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka (Anchor Books, 2002)
2004: Seattle Reads Isabel Allende
My Invented Country (HarperCollins, 2003)
City of the Beasts (HarperCollins, 2002)
Paula (HarperCollins, 1995)
The Infinite Plan (HarperCollins, 1993)
The Stories of Eva Luna (Atheneum, 1991)
Eva Luna (Knopf, 1988)
The House of the Spirits (Knopf, 1985)
Note: The 2004 series featured seven titles from Allende’s body of work
2003: A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead Books, 1999)
2002: Wild Life by Molly Gloss (Mariner Books, 2001)
2001: Fooling with Words: A Celebration of Poets and Their Craft by Bill Moyers (Morrow, 1999)
1999: A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines (Vintage Books, 1994)
1998: The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks (HarperCollins, 1991)
The Washington Center for the Book lends hundreds of copies of the featured book to book
discussion groups during the two months prior to the author’s visit. To request books for your book
group, contact:
Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library
[email protected]
206-615-1747
For more information, contact:
Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library
1000 Fourth Ave. • Seattle, WA 98104-1109
Chris Higashi, Program Manager
[email protected]
206-386-4650
Contributors to this toolbox include Jennifer Baker, Abby Bass, Hayden Bass, Jennifer Bisson,
Ann Dalton, Beth de la Fuente, Chris Higashi, Linda Johns, Jane Lopez-Santillana, Misha Stone,
David Wright
Generous grants from The Wallace Foundation have supported Seattle Reads since its
inception. Thanks to private gifts to The Seattle Public Library Foundation and a major grant from
the National Endowment for the Humanities, Seattle Reads is now an annual program series of the
Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library.
Seattle Reads aims to foster reading and discussion of works by authors of diverse cultures and
ethnicities. The 2009 series is made possible with additional support from KUOW 94.9 Public Radio,
Three Rivers Press, The Elliott Bay Book Co., and University Book Store.
Reading Group Toolboxes
Reading group toolboxes are designed to enhance a book group’s discussion of the author’s
work. Toolboxes are available at all Seattle Public Library locations as well as at many local
bookstores. Toolboxes are also available on The Seattle Public Library’s web site: www.spl.org.
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