A friend who works with at-risk students voiced concern over several fifth grade girls who were behind in reading, writing, and math. She wondered how they would face academic challenges in middle school. Her students didn't understand why it was important to buckle down and get their work done.
In schools we talk a lot about disabilities, but our students' biggest learning obstacle might be understanding the reason for learning itself. Especially when they suffer from a lack of meaningful goals. Young girls seem particularly vulnerable.
Soon after our conversation I loaned my friend two books I'd recently discovered - Sharon Flake's Money Hungry (Hyperion, $15.99, ages mature 10 and up) and Janet MacDonald's Spellbound (FSG, $16.00; mature 10 and up). Both books have humor, dialect-rich dialogue, and strong female characters that I knew would appeal to these girls. These protagonists come from poor families and have to struggle to accomplish their dreams. These books may be too mature for many ten-year-olds, but these students knew much about difficult situations and had seen first-hand the problems of poverty and early promiscuity.
I suggested she barter read-aloud time for completed assignments. She thought the idea was worth a try. It worked beautifully; her students finished their work quickly and had time to learn a little something about dreams and goals from two literary heroines.
Thirteen-year-old Raspberry Hill is the main character in Sharon Flake's Money Hungry . She's starved for cash and has nickels, quarters and dollars stashed under her bed, shoved in socks, and piled in drawers. Raspberry explains, "Some nights, when I can't sleep, I grab me a fistful and count it till I drop off snoring." Her friends tease her about her greed as she resells pencils and old candy, and then, they begin to distance themselves.
Raspberry's obsession is easily understood when you know she's lived on the streets. Even though she now has a roof over her head and her mom's working two jobs to get them out of the projects, Raspberry remembers her homeless experience all too well. "You know what it's like," she asks her friends, "to eat beans every night for two weeks straight? To drink Kool-Aid without sugar?"
Just when you believe this family will succeed, there comes a heart-breaking climax. Raspberry's mom misunderstands a situation, believes her daughter is guilty of stealing, and throws Raspberry's hoarded cash to the streets. Soon after their apartment is robbed, everything begins to crumble, and it looks as if they'll have to live on the streets again. But friends and community support them and in the end, the author provides hope without an overly-pretty resolution.
Another strong young woman is the heroine of Janet McDonald's Spellbound. As the story opens, sixteen year-old Raven Jefferson wonders if she can get back the deposit she made on her graduation ring, cap, and gown. One night, this usually serious, motivated student went to a party, was wooed by a kind, attractive boy...and now she's got a small baby. Three-month-old Smokey is sweet sometimes, but Raven doesn't see herself as a full-time mother. She quickly discovers that no matter how high her ambitions, how strong her talents and intelligence, she won't be able to get a job without graduating.
Dell, her paralegal sister, is determined to get the bright, funny, Raven back on the college track. She discovers a spelling contest that could win her sister graduation and a four year scholarship. Raven can't spell well, but she doesn't want to be a project girl, like her best friend Aisha, who's now pregnant for the second time.
This is not a problem novel, though Raven's life is fraught with obstacles. The voices are strong and real and Aisha provides needed comic relief. She jokes, for example, about a girl in her gym class, "whose butt jutted out so far, it was like you could deliver food on it. We called her Pizza Delivery Butt." The humor buoys characters until an ending which demonstrates how Raven's hard work pays off.
Reality seems to strike later for young males. It usually occurs when they realize that their young dreams are unrealistic and often unattainable. Helping youth reach dreams and set tenable goals inspired Walter Dean Myers' Handbook for Boys: A Novel (HarperCollins,$15.95; ages 12 and up). The book will work most powerfully for teen readers, especially if it is read aloud and discussed with an adult. Myers, who's had many poignant conversations with young inmates has come to believe that kids who succeed "almost without exception, were actively involved in pursing their dreams" while many others never get the information they need.
Handbook is kind of like Plato's Dialogues goes to the the 'hood. It's really a series of the philosophical discussions about life; the plot, setting and characters are there to provide context. The main character, Jimmy, has committed a crime and decides he'll work at Duke's barbershop and serve six months of being mentored, rather than enter the juvenile system.
Jimmy and Kevin, another boy under Duke's care, call Duke's barbershop the "Torture Chamber", not because of the physical demands, but because Duke continually asks them to discuss life and reflect on their beliefs. While Duke and his barbershop buddies laugh and crack on each other, they also examine the actions of their customers. Pookie, for example, is losing his home and according to Duke, he "is walking through the world with his eyes closed, and then talking about how proud he is of dealing with anything that comes his way...people like that become victims who just go from day to day to see what event they stumble into."
At first Jimmy's got 'tude, but finally these vignettes begin to work on him and he and Duke discuss success and failure, entitlement, sex, choices, responsibility, caring for others and more. Myers doesn't give glib answers; he looks at causes instead of symptoms. Again the ending is realistic, but hopeful. Kevin's going to jail, but Jimmy knows "there's talking and then there's doing. Talk is easy and doing is hard." Jimmy's changed enough to take on that hard work. This book also comes on tape, excellently performed by Peter Francis James (HarperChildren'sAudio, $24.00; unabridged, 4 hours, 3 cassettes).
All three novels show difficult situations and struggling characters, but more importantly, they describe the way young adults can establish and follow doable dreams. Living without dreams, goals, and hope is a far greater disability than struggling with math and writing skills.
Here are other titles to help grow dreams: