Module 2-Novel by Jacqueline Woodson-TWU-Multicultual Literature

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Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award

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Woodson, Jacqueline. 2000. MIRACLE'S BOYS. Waterville, Maine: Thorndike Press. ISBN 9780786234769.

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I have seen this book on my high school library book shelf for a year, and now I am thrilled that I have had the opportunity to read this story. It is amazing and very moving. It is about true brotherly love. There are three brothers and both parents have died, leaving them alone. The oldest brother, Ty'ree, is highly intelligent and received a scholarship to a prestigous school, but he gave it up to help raise his younger brothers. Charlie, the middle brother got into legal trouble and has spent time in a juvenile facility. The youngest boy Lafayette is just a young boy trying to figure out out to get along in a world without his mom. Charlie, returning home from the juvenile facility, has turned to torturing Lafayette, and making him believe that he caused his mother's death. Lafayette calls him Newcharlie because of this awful new person that he has turned into.

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Ty'ree works hard to make a decent home for the brothers and to provide the parental guidance that they need. There is not much money from his low paying job, but if they are careful, they can make it each month.

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There are lots of layers to this book, and it is sad, but the story of survival is strong as these boys each have to find their own way to make it in the world. All three of the boys have issues that they must work through, and it is tough for all of them. They are in a situation that they did not choose to be in, and they just have to make the best of it. But it is so hard for each of them.

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Jacqueline Woodson is an excellent African American author. She writes wonderful stories that are poignant and really get under your skin, making you think about things in a really deep way. This is a story of suffering and survival, but also one of success. They face their problems head-on and deal with them. Sometimes this is not pretty, or neat and tidy, but they do make progress. Each of the boys change in the story in a positive manner, and that is something wonderful about this book.

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One of the cultural markers that she uses in this book are language patterns.

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"Yal'll don't go to church no more?" Aaron nosed.

"Church is for little boys, little mama's boys. I look like a little mama's boy to you?"

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Another marker is the physical description of the characters. "I'd never been called beautiful by anybody, and after Aunt Cecile said that, I went into the bathroom and checked myself in the mirror. Ty'ree always said I looked like our daddy. He was dark and curly-headed with brown eyes. My eyes are more black than brown, and my hair's more kinky than curly. Ty'ree makes me keep it cut short, sort of a fade. And when it's real short, you can see where it starts out as curls. I looked at myself in the mirror and tried to smile like Ty'ree, but one of my front teeth overlaps the other in a way that makes me look a little bit meaner than I actually am. Still, maybe Aunt Cecile was right. Maybe I was beautiful underneath it all. "

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This is a great book to do a book talk or even create a book trailer, to create interest in it. I think kids need to be told a little about it so that they will make the decision to read it. It can be offered to either boys or girls, but I think that boys will especially enjoy it. It it really a guy's book and shows how guys deal with problems. It is an easy read, and should not be intimidating to reluctant boy readers.

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From Publishers Weekly
Once again, Woodson (If You Come Softly; From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun) reveals a keen understanding of the adolescent psyche via the narration of a winning seventh-grader. Lafayette, whose mother has recently died, is worried that some day he will be separated from his two older brothers: high-school-graduate Ty'ree, who gave up a scholarship to MIT to take care of his younger siblings; and Charlie, the rebellious middle boy, who, after spending more than two years in a correctional facility, has returned home cold and tough. (Lafayette calls him "Newcharlie," because his brother, with whom he was once so close, now seems unrecognizable to him.) Viewing household tensions and hardships through Lafayette's eyes, readers will come to realize each character's internal conflicts and recognize their desperate need to cling together as a family. The boys' loyalties to one another are tested during a cathartic climax, though it is resolved a bit too easily, and Lafayette's visions of his mother aren't fully developed or integrated into the plot. Gang violence and urban poverty play an integral part in this novel, but what readers will remember most is the brothers' deep-rooted affection for one another. An intelligently wrought, thought-provoking story. Ages 10-up.