Noticing Sentences

Description I only see the top of her Sisterlocks. The rest of her is hidden behind her Nikki Giovanni book. Occasionally she goes "Mmm" at some line the same way my grandma does during a sermon. Poetry's Mrs. Murray's religion. p4 Compliments like that are part of the parental responsibilities she took on when she evicted me from her womb. p9 Ever since that boy got killed, my heart races whenever I see a cop. I could've been him, he could've been me. Luck's the only thing that separated us. p237 Society and Expectations   Every single time I get sent to her, she asks me questions that sound like they cam from some "How to Talk to Statistical Black Children Who Come to Your Office Often" handbook. p7 ______________________ "Carrying the torch for Law, huh?" Not really. More like making my own torch and carrying it. I say, "Yeah," though, because that's what I'm supposed to say. It's part of being ro...

Description Now I'm obsessing. And guilty. She has this uncanny gift for delivering guilt tied up in a bow, and without fail, I accept it. p85 I drive through town and the houses that sprouted up overnight where once there were only cornfields. p185 LOL "You know, we're always hearing stories of our girls who live far from their parents and go with thse boys and ... get... into... trouble. Some of them even eat pork." p129 Parents and Kids and Expectations p130 Beautiful "Because it's important. Because a marriage certificate doesn't bestow maturity. And even you have to admit that Maya is much savvier than you were at her age. Let her find her new world, too, as you did all those years ago." p131 mother-daughter relationship p244 (Not including text since it's potentially a spoiler.) That you are here-- that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse . Walt Whitman, Leaves of Gr...

Beautiful Pieces The good Lord's sure weepin at the way His children is bein treated, she says. But for now, there's nothin we can do. p29 The things what we love, we keep buried in our hearts. p53 Aunt Tempie shakes her head. You can't blame the good Lord for what people do. p90 Even if fear steals my soul, I'm never goin to coddle grown people what's got no sense of kindness. p112 _________________ There's a whole beautiful world out there, Grace-- the good Lord made it for everybody. Then why, I wonder, do you work so hard jus to please Master Allen? Why does Jordon have a baby girl he's never goin to see again? p115 ___________________________ Judgin folks by the color of they skin is wrong-- no matter who's doin the judgin. p130 Anyway, I say, jus cause a folk says somethin don't make it true. Skin's got nothin to do with smartness. We both got just as many smart thoughts as Master Al...

Gender and Expectations It was part of that disorienting feeling she'd had for yeas, that feeling that everyone except her had been issued a handbook. Samantha knew it was important to be pretty and cute, but she had no idea how to be those things, or even why she was supposed to want to be. p23 But now being a girl was like being stuffed into a heavy, constricting costume. She could barely breathe in it. The rules of the universe were fixed: You look a certain way and so you have to act a certain way and people are going to treat you a certain way. There was no way to alter it. p24-25 "You're the only one who knows what you feel," Sasha said. "If that's the word for what you feel, then stick with that." p26 p33-35 has a great glossary for gender/ sexuality terms "For how vehemently I felt like I wasn't a girl, I have to say, being a boy isn't super great either," he admitted. "Both sides have such bullshit baggage atta...

Gender Well, and Cansrel had loved attention, Fire thought to herself dryly. More to the point, he had been a man. Cansrel had not had her problems. p181 Expectations It seemed to Fire it was rarely enough one knew a person one wished to marry. how unjust then to meet that person, and be kept from it because one's bed was made of hay and not feathers. p197-198 "Among the wealthy it's the rare skins and furs sold on the black market. With everyone else it's whatever they find clogging the gutters or killed in the housetraps. It all amounts to the same thing, of course, but the rich people feel better knowing they paid a fortune." p205 "It's thanks to them we know the uses for all the strange herbs that grow in the crevices and caves at the edges of the kingdom. Our medicines to stop bleeding and keep wounds from festering and kill tumors and bind bones together and do just about everything else came from their experiments. Of course, they also di...

Power of Kindness She was a legend not only in the school and the community, but in my house, because Bernadette had her the same year as Mr. Mustache bullied her, and Ms. G saved her by being nice, because Ms. G is always nice. p32 Bad dad jokes "Your generation ruined the planet," Bernadette said to Dad as she landed on St. James Place. "I didn't personally ruin the planet," Dad said. "I don't know who told you I did, but whoever it is, is lying." p32 Irony Now there were so many houses I couldn't count them all. During Phase One , they erected a huge sign with a map of numbered building lots and the name of the development, THE ORCHARDS. Of course they had to tear down the actual orchards to build the houses. p48 100 years ago-- p51 prejudice Dreams Discussing what he wants to be when he grows up Something where I could help nature and be cool and nerdy at the same time. Something Ms. G would approve of. Something wher...

****If you have not read the first two books, this will likely contain spoilers for them. I will try and not reveal spoilers for THIS BOOK.**** Expectations When they first arrived, both she and Mirabella had tried to charm Mrs. Chatworth. Arsinoe especially, had been prepared to like or even love her. She was Billy's mother, after all. She had raised a boy who would stand by his friends. So when they met, she expected to find someone like Cait Malone: with a stern face and a stout heart, and strong arms for holding her children. p 41 Not even Mirabella will be accepted as one of them, and Mirabella follows all their rules. p42 ________________________________________ "They would be beside themselves if they knew you had taken off your dress in public." "It wasn't in public. It was in the graveyard, behind a tree. And besides, I had all these clothes on underneath!" p61 __________________________________________ "You will do what all wom...

Toby took another, bigger bite of cake, and began to settle into himself. Somehow, in this place, he felt happier, calmer, than he had in quite some time. As though perhaps the pebble in his shoe had managed to work its own way out. p 55 "All a parent really wants from his child is her happiness. So if you're happy, Toby will be happy, too." p66 "Just remember this," he said. "It's the way we deal with what Fate hands us that defines who we are." p67

Gender and its expectations They would assume she was a boy, because in her plain trousers and hood she looked like one, and because when people were attacked it never occurred to anyone that it might have been a girl. p6 Katsa changed into a blue tunic lined with the orange silk to Randa's courts, and the matching trousers she wore to perform Randa's errands, a costume to which he consented only because she was abusive to any dress she wore while riding. Randa didn't like to think of his Graceling killer doling out punishment in torn and muddy skirts. It was undignified. p34 "You're not an unnatural woman, Katsa. You can fight as other women can't, but you're not so different from other women. You'll want babies. I'm certain of it." p140 "You're welcome to do the hunting yourself. Perhaps I can stay by the fire and mend your socks, and scream if I hear any strange noises." p181 He laughed. "I know you're teasin...

Social Customs I watch the tip of my tie sway to and fro and wonder how humans got to a place where we said, "Whoa. Hold on. Before I can take you seriously, you need to hang a brightly colored strip of narrow pointy cloth around your neck." p5 In general, I'd rather be bitten on the nuts by a Komodo dragon than make small talk. But sometimes you do what you have to do. p7 If Sauce Crew had official positions, mine would be Keeper of the Sacred Traditions. I love the idea of the families we choose having all the features of familydom, including traditions. p63 "Child Protection? My heavens, yes. The sheriff? Many times. But we're talking about a rural county with limited resources. They don't do a thing." p188 We work to make money and then hopefully use that money to buy ourselves memories with the people we love. Simple things like that bring us joy. p197 ___________________ "I thought you're supposed to have your private life fro...

"Tablets IV" by Dunya Mikhail selected stanzas 7 The map of Iraq looks like a mitten, and so does the map of Michigan-- a match I made by chance. 8 If you can't save people, at least don't hate them. (p315) 21 Their stories didn't kill me but I would die if I didn't tell them to you.  (p318) 23 We are not upset when the grass dies. We know it will come back in a season or two. The dead don't come back but they appear every time in the greenness of the grass. (p319) "Concerning the Necropolitical Landscape" by Christopher Soto p338-339 Probably not for use with students. But I thought this poem was beautiful and heartbreaking. from "Under the Knife" by Krista Franklin "Are you...?" and to have to shatter their hopes of Dream Baby, and simultae- ously begin the Emotional Labor of soothing their embarrassment after hearing, "No." Because a woman with a swollen or distended ...

Storytelling is the Krazy Glue that holds us all together. Stories can soar and sing and surprise. And sometimes, when we share out town stories, they do all three at once. Introduction Too often, adults try to suggest that differences in appearance don't matter by pretending they simply don't exist. But you and I know the world looks different. Why? Because we are different. We don't have to define ourselves solely by our differences, but we don't have to ignore them either. Introduction The kid with a squishy nose and strange legs isn't that surprising when you're three years old and you hear stories about talking bears sitting at a table eating porridge. It's only as kids get older that they start to know what's normal and what's not. p87 Frank would stand for hours in the hot Saturday sun, leaning over so he could get a good look at my stance, sometimes standing in front of me, sometimes behind, sometimes beside. He'd watch intently a...