"Educators eager for newfound sequel to ‘Mockingbird’" by Kathleen Burge, Globe Staff February 06, 2015
Generations of teenagers assigned to read the classic coming-of-age book “To Kill A Mockingbird’’ have developed fierce attachments to the book’s narrator, Scout Finch, whose childhood unfolds amid deep racial prejudice in fictional Maycomb, Ala.
Now, with this week’s announcement that Harper Lee will publish a second novel, “Go Set a Watchman,” about the same characters, in the same Alabama town, the English teachers who are the caretakers of Lee’s legacy are giddy about the prospect of new material on Scout and the rest of the 55-year-old novel.
I liked the movie better.
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“Mockingbird” consistently ranks as one of Americans’ favorite books, only a few places behind the Bible. Laura Bush and Oprah Winfrey have lauded its national importance, and even Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski mentioned the book on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” this week, calling it “A Mocking to Remember, or whatever” — he couldn’t quite remember the title.
Must have been too much partying before the parade.
One of Burke’s students, senior Brian Zick, recalls “To Kill a Mockingbird” as the only required reading he loved in seventh grade. On a Skype call with friends this week, news of Lee’s second novel came up. They all were ecstatic.
I liked Bob, Son of Battle.
Zick said he didn’t mind that Scout will be 20 years older in the new book.
“When she was a child, she was relatively innocent and not as well-versed in the politics of the times and societal expectations of the times,” he said. “Being a more experienced adult, I think she could definitely provide some insights into a story that we all know so well.”
Daniel Sigward, who designed a curriculum for teaching Lee’s first novel for Facing History and Ourselves, an educational nonprofit in Brookline, is also intrigued to see what Lee’s second book reveals about her first.
“It just has to lend some insight into the way ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ came together, even if it’s not a major work,” said Sigward, managing editor of content and innovation at the organization.
He added, “even if the new book isn’t a classic of literature, it will be really interesting to see how their lives turned out.”
“Go Set a Watchman” will be released July 14. But from pre-orders, it shot to Amazon’s No. 1 spot within a day after the announcement. “To Kill a Mockingbird” leapt to second place.
Readers are insatiably curious to know more about the people and the place in “Mockingbird,” as if Scout, Jem, and Atticus continued living once the novel ended.
I'm not.
Ajani Martin-Abascal, a ninth-grader at Medford High School, read “Mockingbird” last year, and has been wondering ever since she finished what happened when Scout grew up, especially whether she become a lawyer, like Atticus?
I wasn't.
“I felt like she could because she was so curious and determined,” she said.
Martin-Abascal is eager to read Lee’s second novel, to find out.
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Lee’s first published book tells the story, from Scout’s point of view, of Atticus representing a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.
I'm starting to wonder if the book is appropriate for seventh-graders.
The publisher, HarperCollins, says the new book is set 20 years after “Mockingbird,” when Scout returns to Maycomb from New York to visit her father.
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“To Kill A Mockingbird,” often taught between seventh and ninth grades, resembles the coming-of-age novel by another author who led a reclusive life, J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.”
“Those are books that people read in their formative years,” Sigward said. “And they really, really stick with them, and read them over and over again. A lot of people are really invested in the story and the characters.”
Almost like Mel, who continued his journey down that road. That's why he comes in for such criticism from the Zionist Media Machine.
In “Mockingbird,” Tom Robinson, the black man, is convicted, and later tries to escape from prison by climbing the fence. Prison guards shoot him in the back, killing him. Months later, Scout reports, “Maycomb was itself again.”
But Sigward, whose group sometimes leads discussions on how communities feel after traumatic events, thinks: Was it? Maybe, he said, the new novel will give more information about what happened.
“You can’t help but wonder, ‘Who does she mean by Maycomb? Did it go back to normal for everyone?’ It would be interesting to see if we can glean anything.”
Everybody who loves “Mockingbird,” it seems, has hopes for what Lee’s new book will reveal: Did Scout stay empathetic? What happened to the town? What about Boo Radley?
Who cares?
For that, readers will have to wait until July.
You kids can't stay up that late.
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"Archives render a fuller image of Rosa Parks; Public will get complete access to items in D.C." by Brett Zongker, Associated Press February 04, 2015
WASHINGTON — Beginning Wednesday at the Library of Congress, researchers and the public for the first time will have full access to Rosa Parks’s archive of letters, writings, personal notes, and photographs. The collection will provide what experts call a more complex view of a woman long recalled in history for one iconic image — that of a nonviolent seamstress who inspired others to act at the dawning of the civil rights era.
Related: The New Civil Rights Movement
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Parks’s archive provides scholars and the public with a fuller sense of her life and faith, her personality and her pain, said library historian Adrienne Cannon.
‘‘It’s important because we see Rosa Parks in a kind of almost frozen, iconic image — a hero that is not really real flesh and blood,’’ Cannon said. ‘‘Here we get a sense of a woman that is really full flesh and blood.’’
The collection may surprise people by revealing that Parks had an aggressive edge and supported more radical actions seeking equality over the years, archivists said. She used her symbolic status to support Malcolm X, Black Panther gatherings, and the Wilmington 10 in North Carolina.
Related: X Marks the Spot
‘‘She was so deeply opposed to segregation that as the younger generation came along, she didn’t hold back from them,’’ said Helena Zinkham, the library’s collections director.
The library now holds about 7,500 manuscript items and 2,500 photographs from Parks, including the Bible she kept in her pocket, letters from admirers, and her Presidential Medal of Freedom. A small exhibit is planned for March. All the items will be digitized and posted online....
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If you don't like those agenda-pushing articles of racial division, there is this one:
"Jean Chatzky, the financial editor of NBC’s “Today” show, has made a career of sharing personal finance tips with adults. Now she’s reaching a much younger audience. Chatzky and Time for Kids, a Time Inc. unit, have introduced a magazine to teach financial literacy to children in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. PwC Charitable Foundation, started by the financial consulting firm PwC, is backing the publication. “Kids are very interested in money,” Chatzky said. “What we’re trying to get across to them is money is a tool that they need to know how to manage to succeed in life.” The magazine, called Your $, is distributed monthly to 2 million students nationwide. Each issue will cover an aspect of finance, like budgeting or investing. The January issue used the story of Jeff Xie, who won $75,000 in the “Jeopardy” teen tournament, as a starting point for a discussion on saving for college. February’s issue includes a feature on digital currency like bitcoin. The magazine is part of a broader effort to educate children about money, said Nan J. Morrison, chief executive of the Council for Economic Education. In particular, banks and consulting companies are involved, in part because it is an easy way to buff their brands. Some specialists question whether school is the best place to teach financial literacy, contending that economic values should be taught at home. But Chatzky, a mother of two, said the key is repetition. “You can talk about things in school, but it has to be brought home,” she said."
The same thing was said about lies, and it sure looks like brainwashing to me, same as the piggy bank all kids are taught to love -- bank being the key word there. That's my two cents anyway.
If you don't like those stories maybe you can pick one from here -- even though you know how it ends.
Good night, readers.
