Richard Wright and the Library Card TEACHER’S GUIDE Richard Wright and the Library Card written by William Miller, illustrated by Gregory Christie About the Book SYNOPSIS Genre: Historical Fiction *Reading Level: Grades 3–4 As a child, Richard Wright loved to hear the stories his family told, and he couldn’t wait to learn to read stories on his own. Because his Interest Level: Grades 2–6 family moved often in search of work, Richard had little opportunity Guided Reading Level: Q to go to school. With the help of his mother, Richard did finally learn to read. However, they didn’t have money to buy books, and Accelerated Reader® few libraries in the South in the early 1900s were open to African Level/Points: 4.0/0.5 Americans. At age 17, Richard sought work in Memphis, hoping to make enough money to someday move on to Chicago. He landed Lexile™ Measure: 700L a job as a helper and errand boy in an optician’s office. There he enlisted the aid of a co-worker, Jim Falk, himself an outsider because *Reading level based on the he was Catholic. Falk helped Richard find a way to borrow the books Spache Readability Formula he craved from the library. Richard read everything he could get Themes: Nonfiction, his hands on and knew he would never be the same again. For him, every page is “a ticket to freedom.” Soon after, Richard set off for Overcoming Obstacles, Chicago to make a new life for himself in the North. Friendship, Education, Discrimination, Conflict resolution, Civil Rights Movement, African/African American Interest, Biography/ Memoir, Persistence/Grit, Libraries, The Power of Words/ Books Teacher’s Guide copyright © 2018 LEE & LOW BOOKS. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share and adapt for personal and educational use. For questions, comments, and/or more information, please contact us at [email protected]. Visit us online at leeandlow.com. 1 Richard Wright and the Library Card BACKGROUND Additional LEE & LOW Richard Wright And The Library Card is a Titles based on Historical Figures: fictionalized account of a scene from Wright’s autobiography, Black Boy, published in 1945. Richard Nathaniel Wright was born in 1908 near Midnight Teacher: Lilly Ann Granderson Natchez, Mississippi. Racial segregation was then and Her Secret School written by Janet legal in many parts of the South, and Jim Crow Halfmann, illustrated by London Ladd laws assured the separation of races in many https://www.leeandlow.com/books/ public places. The schools Wright attended were all segregated, and his formal education ended at midnight-teacher ninth grade. Wright moved to Memphis in 1926 and then to Chicago in 1927, where he worked in the Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree post office and also began his career as a writer. written by William Miller, illustrated by In 1940, the publication of Native Son brought Cornelius Van Wright & Ying-Hwa Hu Wright a Guggenheim Fellowship, great acclaim, https://www.leeandlow.com/books/zora- and best-seller status. He went on to write many hurston-and-the-chinaberry-tree other successful books, including The Outsider, Lawd Today, and The Color Curtain, and became an The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de important spokesperson for African Americans. Wright moved with his wife and daughter to Paris los cuentos written by Lucía González, in 1946 and died there in 1960. He is recognized as a illustrated by Lulu Delacre significant literary voice of the twentieth century. https://www.leeandlow.com/books/the- An inspirational story for children of all storyteller-s-candle-la-velita-de-los-cuentos backgrounds, Richard Wright and the Library Card shares a poignant turning point in the life of a Love to Langston written by Tony Medina, young man who became one of this country’s illsutrated by R. Gregory Christie most brilliant writers. This book is the third in a https://www.leeandlow.com/books/love- series of biographies by William Miller, including to-langston Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree and Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery. All focus on I and I Bob Marley written by Tony important moments in the lives of these prominent Medina, illustrated by Jesse Joshua African Americans. Watson To learn more about Richard Wright and his books, https://www.leeandlow.com/books/i-and-i- go to https://www.biography.com/people/richard- bob-marley wright-9537751 or https://www.britannica.com/ biography/Richard-Wright-American-writer. Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery written by William Miller, illustrated by Cedric Lucas https://www.leeandlow.com/books/ frederick-douglass Teacher’s Guide copyright © 2018 LEE & LOW BOOKS. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share and adapt for personal and educational use. For 2 questions, comments, and/or more information, please contact us at [email protected]. Visit us online at leeandlow.com. Richard Wright and the Library Card VOCABULARY BEFORE READING (Language Standards, Vocabulary Acquisition & Use, Strands 4–6) Prereading Focus Questions (Speaking & Listening Standards, (Reading Standards, Craft & Structure, Strand 5 and Integration of Knowledge & Ideas, Comprehension & Collaboration, Strands 1 Strand 7) and 2) (Speaking & Listening Standards, Comprehension & Collaboration, Strands 1 and 2) (Language Standards, Vocabulary Acquisition & Use, Strands 6) The story contains several content-specific and academic Before introducing this book to students, you may wish to develop words and phrases that may be background knowledge and promote anticipation by posing unfamiliar to students. Based questions such as the following: on students’ prior knowledge, 1. Why do you think a library card could help make someone’s review some or all of the future better? vocabulary below. Encourage a variety of strategies to support 2. When you want to achieve something that’s important to you, students’ vocabulary acquisition: how do you put your ideas into actions? What kinds of qualities look up and record word might a person need to achieve an important goal? definitions from a dictionary, 3. The main character in the story you are going to read was born write the meaning of the word in 1908. What was happening in the United States during that or phrase in their own words, time period? What do you know about American History during draw a picture of the meaning the early 1900s? of the word, create a specific 4. What do you know about life for African Americans in the action for each word, list 1900s? What was different then from now? What is the same? synonyms and antonyms, and write a meaningful sentence You may want to have students journal their responses to these that demonstrates the definition questions or pose the final question as a KWL discussion and chart of the word. so that you can refer back to it throughout and after the reading of the book to further their thinking on the topic(s). Content Specific freedom, optician, eyeglasses, Exploring the Book boardinghouse, spines (Reading Standards, Key Ideas & Details, Strand 1, Craft & Structure, Strand 5, and Integration of Knowledge & Ideas, Strand 7) Academic (Speaking & Listening Standards, Comprehension & Collaboration, Strands 1 and 2) rebel, expensive, polished, (Language Standards, Vocabulary Acquisition & Use, Strands 6) errands, approached, cautiously, 1. Talk about the title of the book. Then ask students what they trembling, ignored, suspicious, think this book will most likely be about and whom the book nervously, roamed, toting might be about. What do they think might happen? What information do they think they might learn? What makes them think that? 2. Take students on a book walk and draw attention to the following parts of the book: front and back covers, title page, author and illustrators’ dedications, illustrations, and author’s note at the end. Ask the students if they think Richard Wright and the Library Card is a true story or not and why they think that. Teacher’s Guide copyright © 2018 LEE & LOW BOOKS. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share and adapt for personal and educational use. For 3 questions, comments, and/or more information, please contact us at [email protected]. Visit us online at leeandlow.com. 3 Richard Wright and the Library Card Setting a Purpose for Reading 2. Why couldn’t Richard get a library card? (Reading Standards, Key Ideas & Details, Strands 1–3) (Language Standards, Vocabulary Acquisition & Use, Strands 6) 3. What job did he find? What did he do? Have students read to find out: 4. How did Richard save money? • how the title fits the theme of the story 5. Who did Richard ask to help him use the library? • who Richard Wright was and how he became 6. When the librarian allowed Richard to get a writer books in the library, how did he react? What did • what books meant to Richard Wright and how he do? they influenced his life • what the narrative story arc is 7. Which authors’ books did Richard check out? • how race shaped Richard Wright’s experiences 8. When and where did Richard read? • what was so special and unique about a library card to Richard 9. How did others react to Richard reading? 10. How did the books change Richard’s feelings Encourage students to consider why the author, about white people? William Miller, wanted to share this story with young people. Also encourage students to consider 11. What did Jim Falk do when Richard left for why the illustrator, Gregory Christie, used a Chicago? particular painting style throughout the book. 12. Read the author’s note. Is this a true story? The students can also write down some questions Why or why not? of their own that they think the story might 13.