Multicultural Literature Activity

 

Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues

by Harriette Gillem Robinet. New York: Atheneum, 2000.

 

The story is set in Montgomery, Alabama soon after Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. Alfa Merryfield and other African Americans boycott riding the bus and opt to walk to protest the injustice of the law. Alfa, his older sister Zinnia, and their great-grandmother Mama Merryfield struggle to earn a living and keep a roof over their heads. Their rent money keeps disappearing and Alfa doesn’t know who is stealing it. They are also accused of stealing from a white family. Alfa must come up with the rent money and solve both mysteries to clear his family’s name. Alfa adopts Martin Luther King Jr’s nonviolence approach in dealing with situations.

 

About the author: Hariette Gillem Robinet was born in Washington DC on July 14,1931. She writes mainly about young African Americans in historical settings. She feels that African Americans have been left out of history. Mrs. Robinet has won several awards including the Scott O’Dell Award in 1999 for historical fiction for children for Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule. She  was nominated for the Edgar Award by Mystery Writers of America for Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues. Mrs. Gillem has six children and four grandchildren. She and her husband live in Oak Park, Illinois.

 

Pre Reading Activity: Rosa Parks

Read a short biography of Rosa Parks. Selections can be taken from such books as I am Rosa Parks by Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins; A Picture Book of Rosa Parks by David Adler and illustrated by Robert Casilla; Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott by Teresa celsi. They can search for a biography online of Rosa Parks at Biography.com (http://www.biography.com/search/index.html) or use a search engine like Google (www.google.com) to search for Rosa Parks biographies.

 

After Reading Activity: Budgeting

Alfa in Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues is constantly worrying about making ends meet and paying the rent. Imagine yourself in that situation. You have $100 that make up your cost of living package. You will need to itemize, in order of priority (number 1 being most important and 5 being the least), 5 items you consider important. Determine how you will divide up your $100 to cover all 5 items. Fill in the chart below listing the item and how much you are allotting to each. Be sure you include rent and food as two of the items.

 

 

ITEM

 

AMOUNT

1.

 

 

2.

 

 

3.

 

 

4.

 

 

5.