Multicultural Literature Activity
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.
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. |
|