Great Book Idea

Posted on September 9, 2005

"The Other Side" by Jacqueline Woodson is a great picture book to use with children when discussing belonging. It depicts a time in our country's past when a small town was divided by a fence. Black people lived on one side and white people on the other. In this story a white girl named Annie begins to sit on the fence and Clover, a black girl, grows more curious about the fence and the girl that sits on it. The illustration by E. B. Lewis are beautiful.

I was also thinking that this book would be a good book to read to older students ( 4th -8th grade) to begin a discussion about the "invisible" fences we build around ourselves and between our "group of friends" and others as we enter adolescence.

If you read it to your class, let me know how it went. Maybe your students could write a reflection to add to the Student Area!