Black History Part 2

The second part of the Lakeview bibliography for Black History Month is entitled Pre-Twentieth Century. It started out as a Civil War era list but grew beyond the war period itself to include slavery, the underground railroad and blacks of any country up to the twentieth century. Books in this section range from the story of a seventeenth century Spanish slave painter to Jean duSable, the black explorer who is a founder of Chicago to the autobiography of Booker T. Washington.

A couple of the most interesting new nonfiction books in this section are Up Before Daybreak, an overview of the history of the cotton industry in the United States, and The Underground Railroad in Illinois, which traces the abolitionist movement in Illinois and the passengers, stationmasters and conductors in our state.


A fascinating new fiction book is Show Way, by Jacqueline Woodson. In this book Woodson shares her family's tradition of a quilt called Show Way because it was a secret map that "showed the way" for slaves escaping from the South. Woodson brings the quilt up-to-date by showing her daughters their part in the quilt as a continuing family history.

It's Black History Month!

In recognition of this special honored month, the Lakeivew IMC has prepared a bibliography that covers all aspects of Black History through nonfiction, biography, and fiction books. There are links to this bibliography (in two parts) on the Lakeview IMC webpage. Find the section of the webpage for IMC Links and right in the middle of the top row you will find those links.

Part 1 of this list is divided into two section. The first section lists books about Africa, its countries, cultures, famous people, and novels. Here you will find several of the holiday books from the Fiesta series. These books delve not only into the holidays and festivals, but also aspects of the country's culture like languages, food, songs, and religions.

One of the most interesting biographies I ever read is included in this section. At Her Majesty's Request, by Walter dean Myers, is a fascinating story about a young African princess who is saved from being executed by a British naval officer. Brought back to England the girl's story reaches the ears of Queen Victoria who then provides for the girl's upbringing in England. This book is currently on the bulletin board behind my desk and is available for check out.

The second section of the bibliography started out on the American Civil War, but has grown beyond that to include books that cover non-African blacks up to the twentieth century. Part 2 of the bibliography covers non-African blacks in the twentieth century and beyond. I'll describe some of the most interesting books in these sections in the weeks ahead.

Suspense in a Future World

Edward Bloor's new book Taken takes you to the year 2035, a time when the crime rate, especially for kidnapping, is so high that those who can afford it live in gated communities and have security guards accompany their children to school. Unfortunately the security around Charity Meyers has collapsed. On New Year's morning she awakes to find herself alone, strapped to a stretcher, and in an ambulance that is not moving. Fortunately she has been trained at school in how to behave during a kidnapping - Remain calm, don't panic. Don't try to escape and wait for your parents to pay the ransom. If this were a normal kidnapping that would probably work, but nothing about this kidnapping is normal. As the hours pass by without any contact with her parents, Charity begins to realize that she will need to do something!
Be careful when you read this book. The ending is almost a Twilight Zone-type ending - it's not what you or Charity expects. Taken is currently available in the New Book section along the nonfiction wall.

Are You Charmed?

When the television series Charmed about the three witch sisters was on the air, I became a big fan. While witchcraft was the underlying theme of the series, it was the relationship between the sisters that kept me interested. They were like real people -- sometimes friends, sometimes enemies. One day in the book store I found a Charmed novel with new adventures of the Halloway sisters. I read it and wanted more. Over time I purchased several of these books. When I finished reading them, I realized that they were not books that I wanted to keep on my bookshelf forever, so I donated them to Lakeview. At first it was just one book, The Legacy of Merlin. (Merlin is another of my favorite characters.) To my surprise the book was seldom on the library shelves. It was so popular that I decided to donated the rest of the titles I had. Now there are five titles in Lakeview's collection and one more on the way. Of these books only one, Charmed Again, is a novelization of an actual television broadcast and therefore, unsuitable for books reports. All the other titles, which you can find by searching the I.P.A.C. for Charmed as a series, are original novels and can be used for book reports. I hope you will enjoy the further adventures of Prue, Piper, Phoebe (and Paige) as much as I do.