Justice & Forgiveness
The Parker Inheritance is a puzzle mystery book that is marinated in rich history and quite possibly my new favorite book. I could not put it down, it had so many twists and turns in the narrative that kept me wanting more. When a girl named Candice Miller and her mother return to Lambert, South Carolina to stay in her grandmother's old house for the summer, Candice finds a letter in the attic that leads to a summer of adventure. The letter forces Candice and her new friend Brandon to uncover some of the towns dark secrets. Candice's grandmother, Abigail Caldwell, had left the town in shame many years ago for trying to solve the same puzzle. The journey to find the mystery within the letter leads the two kids to learn about a family who had been forced out of town during Jim Crow laws in the 1950s. This book addresses so many important themes that allow for what Boyd, Causey, and Galda suggest in their article, "it is important to not just see self and others but to recognize oneself in others, to understand our common humanity." (2015) While reading The Parker Inheritance students would be able to connect with the characters because of the many elements of adolescent struggle that are portrayed in this story.
Videos to show students prior to reading the book
Themes & Important Topics
Varian Johnson was able to tie in so many important themes and critical topics in a seamless, authentic way in this book. The dynamic characters push for social justice through multiple time periods and scenarios. Each character's story is authentic and affords the reader the opportunity empathetically connect with each issue. As teachers we have a choice, we can either preach to our students the importance of being kind and accepting everyone no matter their race, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity or we can read books such as this one that give students the opportunity to learn about these topics and more in an authentic way. It is up to us as teachers to create a classroom were diversity is celebrated!
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Through Brandon and Candice's father sexuality is portrayed in a way that demonstrates how it may affect younger children. It is never explicitly stated whether or not Brandon is gay, but throughout the book he struggles with bullies who torment him because he loves both reading and sports. Brandon's friend Quincy is discussed throughout the story because he is away for the summer as he as just came out as openly gay and was having a hard time with bullying because of it. Upon their first meeting, Brandon is quick to say that he reads a little of everything, but only boy books. He is self conscious about other peoples view of what he reads. This consciousness may come from his Grandfather, Mr.Gibbs, who they live with and who isn't always so nice to Brandon. He calls him a sissy and does not approve of how much he reads rather than doing "boy things". Within Mr. Gibbs' character a relatable experience is addressed, it is not uncommon for people from older generations to reject new ways of thinking. As a child potentially questioning their sexual identity, with no other male figure in his life, he is of course seeking the approval of his Grandad which is why his comments cut so deeply. As a reader, I connected with this, I often disagree with my grandparents about political topics and want to correct them, but I fall back to respecting them because they are my elder. It is never explicitly stated that Brandon may be gay, but Johnson sets the tone for how things might be if he were. Candice's dad's story is a change of pace, it ties in the affects of divorce on the children and presents a new narrative of a man who has been married to a woman, has a child, and is now gay. Divorce is not uncommon, it is something that so many children are faced with and often aren't quite sure how to react, but the element of her father's sexuality and her acceptance of it provides a new twist to the story when Danielle ends up being Daniel. After the puzzle is solved and Candice and Brandon must decide what to do with their money, they decide to open up a community center for LGBTQIA youth. Candice and Brandon are an inspiration that shows that even as a kid, you can make a big difference.
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"I want you to know there is nothing wrong with Brandon...He's the best thing that ever happened to me this summer. One of my best friends. He is what is good and right with this city. With the world. He is perfect just the way he is." -Candice speaking to Mr. Gibbs about Brandon, The Parker Inheritance
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"In some ways her father was like Reggie Bradley. He got everything he wanted, but at a horrible price. He had to hide his real self." -Candice, The Parker Inheritance
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Another key element to the story is racism, which is depicted from both a historical and contemporary perspective. So many topics are covered from Jim Crow laws to police brutality. The historical portion of the story is set in the 1950's, a time when white and black people could not be seen together, much less attend school with one another. This portion of the book touches on the intense struggles black people faced in the south during this time period. The Washington family was affected by the deep rooted racism so dramatically that they had to leave town just because the tennis team at the all black school, Perkins High, had beat the all white team in a secret game. Enoch Washington, known as Big Dub was brutally attacked after the game, along with one of the players Reggie and all had to flee the city in the best interest of their safety. In the contemporary portion of the book many current day aspects of racism are touched on. For example, when Tori, Brandon's sister drives Candice and Brandon to Columbia to meet with someone connected to the mystery, Candice questions why Tori is driving so slowly and Tori explains her fear of being pulled over because she has seen all of the stories of police brutality toward black people. Another instance of current day racism is when Brandon and Candice are harassed by the principal who does not believe their story of working on a project, they both know why he treated him the way that they did. Both of them go home in silence and are deeply effected by this instance. Couch Douglas and his family throw another view of racism into the story, they are a white family who tries to help the black community. Couch Douglas is the athletic director at Perkins and works closely with Couch Dub and his son happens to be hopelessly in love with Siobahan. Couch Douglas's accepting mantra seems to change in his response to his son wanting to begin seriously pursuing a black girl. He seems to be the only non-racist white person in the story, until it gets personal and his attitude changes quickly. As the book continued, a wrench was thrown into every opinion I had of Coach Douglas. When he helps Reggie, we learn that he is black and had a really tough upbringing until he entirely gave up that part of himself to pass as being white in order to give himself a new life. He helps Reggie do the same and this is when we discover who James Parker is. Both of these men gave up their entire identities in order to have a better life. The parallel that Johnson presents in this book is so powerful, racism has not been left in the past. Things have gotten and are getting better, but we are not where we need to be.
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"She assumed life was easier back then if you were white. You could go to any school, or live in any neighborhood. She thought about how Tori slowed down when she drove, and how Mr. Rittenhauer had accused them of breaking into the school, all because of their skin tone. Life would have been like that for Reginald Bradley too. And probably much worse in the fifties." -Candice's perspective, The Parker Inheritance
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(Boyd, Causey, Galda)
Instructional Value and Potential
Why is it important for people to read this story?
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This book highlights so may relatable view points that children could become quickly invested in which would lead to an empathetic view point toward topics such as racism, sexuality, gender identity, divorce, bullying, and friendship. Varian Johnson wrote this story based on a negative experience he had with a police officer when he and his brother were incorrectly racially profiled at the airport. This is an own voice story, as Varian Johnson is a black man who was experienced racism just as his characters did in the story.
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Students should have accessibility to culturally diverse literature, especially of quality content. The Parker Inheritance meets several of the criteria for excellence described by Boyd, Causey, and Galda. Such as winning several awards such as the Coretta Scott King Award the historical authenticity of the book. The book contains a few real athletes and the secret tennis game is based off of a secret basketball game played by students at North Carolina Central and Duke and mentions one of the real court cases that lead up to putting the case together for Brown v. Board of Education. The ideologies and assumptions in this book are ones that many students could connect with. As stated in the article, Culturally Diverse Literature Enriching Variety in an Era of Common Core State Standards, "Pushing past the “single story” and the “all- white world of children ’ s books” is crucial to shaping a broad collection of books that reflect the multiple ways that students can experience the world to find themselves, and others, in the books they read." (Boyd, 2015) This book gives students the opportunity to experience the world in a new way and gain insight into what it might have been like for these people and connect with the characters and their stories.
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At the end of the book, Varian Johnson shares his writing process and even the drafts for writing the first chapter of this book. This would be so powerful to share with students to discuss that writing is a process, even for people who write for a living. It might also be fun to read the paragraph drafts and ask students to discuss how the book might have continued if that were the actual first chapter. Students could also be invited to create their own first chapter that might change the storyline.
Why should children be exposed to connected texts?
Children have the right to be exposed to connected texts in order to provide a wholistic view of a topic. As discussed by Ciecierski in her article, some benefits of interconnected texts are content knowledge evolution, learning becomes real and relevant, transformation into real readers, and increase in intrinsic motivation for reading (2017). When students read interconnected texts, their motivation lies in the desire to find out more about the topic they have become interested in. There are different types of interconnected texts such as companion texts, corresponding texts, contradictory texts, and cluster texts all of which serve a different purpose for expanding on a text (Ciecierski, 2017). It is important to be purposeful in choosing connected texts because students have been taught to view texts in an isolated manner. "Students’ learning is enhanced when various types of intertextually connected texts are a part of the curriculum. This is in contrast to using books connected in just one way and without deliberate intention." (Ciecierski, 2017) This being said, in my future classroom I will teach connected literature at all times that represents different aspects of diversity, rather than sticking with the norm of teaching one element of diversity at a time.