— A U T H O R B I O — — R E A D A L I K E S — James McBride is an author, musician The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and screenwriter. His landmark memoir, "The Color of Water," rested Chronicles the daring survival story of on the New York Times bestseller list a cotton plantation slave in Georgia, for two years. It is considered an who, after suffering at the hands of American classic and is read in schools both her owners and fellow slaves, and universities across the United races through the Underground States. His debut novel, "Miracle at Railroad with a relentless St. Anna" was translated into a major slave-catcher close behind. motion picture directed by American film icon Spike Lee. It was released by Disney/Touchstone in September 2008. James wrote the script for "Miracle At St. Anna and co-wrote Spike Lee's 2012 "Red Hook Summer." His novel, Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks "Song Yet Sung," was released in paperback in January Cloudsplitter is dazzling in its 2009. His latest novel "The Good Lord Bird," about re-creation of the political and social American revolutionary John Brown, is the winner of the landscape of our history during the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction. years before the Civil War, when slavery was tearing the country apart. James is also a former staff writer for The Boston Globe, But within this broader scope, Russell People Magazine and The Washington Post. His work has Banks has given us a riveting, appeared in Essence, Rolling Stone, and The New York suspenseful, heartbreaking narrative Times. His April, 2007 National Geographic story entitled filled with intimate scenes of domestic “Hip Hop Planet” is considered a respected treatise on life, of violence and action in battle, of African American music and culture. romance and familial life and death that make the reader feel in astonishing James is a native New Yorker and a graduate of New York ways what it is like to be alive in that City public schools. He studied composition at The Oberlin time. “Outrageously Conservatory of Music in Ohio and received his Masters in Journalism from Columbia University in New York at age The House Girl by Tara Conklin 22. He holds several honorary doctorates and is currently entertaining” a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York -USA Today University. A novel of love, family, and justice follows Lina Sparrow, an ambitious “So imaginative, you’ll race first-year associate in a Manhattan law firm, as she searches for the "perfect to the finish” plaintiff" to lead a historic class-action lawsuit worth trillions of dollars in -NPR.org reparations for descendants of American slaves. (Source: Jamesmcbride.com, 2016) (Source: NoveList Plus, 2016) — D I S C U S S I O N Q U E S T I O N S — — S U M M A R Y — 1) The novel opens with a newspaper article about the 8) The Old Man attaches significance to several unlikely Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas discovery of an old document -” a wild slave narrative.” objects; among his collection of “good-luck baubles” are the Territory in 1857, when the region is a battleground Did having this context from the onset adjust your feather of the Good Lord Bird and the dried-up old onion between anti- and pro-slavery forces. When John expectations of what would come? Would you have that Henry eats, earning him his nickname. Why does a man Brown, the legendary abolitionist, arrives in the area, an read the novel differently if this article hadn’t been like John Brown accumulate such objects? Why does he call argument between Brown and Henry's master quickly included? them both “good-luck charms” and “the devil’s work”? turns violent. Henry is forced to leave town--with Brown, who believes he's a girl. 2) When they first meet, the Old Man misidentifies 9) Since the publication of this book, repeated comparisons Henry as a girl, forcing “Little Onion” to disguise himself have been made to Mark Twain. Do you see this similarity? Over the ensuing months, Henry--whom Brown as a girl for much of the story. How does Little Onion’s If so, where? Does James McBride’s writing style remind you nicknames Little Onion--conceals his true identity as he attitude toward his disguised identity change of any other authors or books? In what ways is this a struggles to stay alive. Eventually Little Onion finds throughout the novel? How does he use it to his “classic” American story, and it what ways does it feel more himself with Brown at the historic raid on Harpers Ferry advantage? contemporary or otherwise different? in 1859--one of the great catalysts for the Civil War. 3) Discuss the significance of the title. Fred tells Little 10) Loyalty is a major theme in the book. Political beliefs are An absorbing mixture of history and imagination, and Onion that a Good Lord Bird is “so pretty that when man a matter of life and death. Even Little Onion feels conflicted told with McBride's meticulous eye for detail and sees it, he says, ‘Good Lord,’” and that a feather from about whether to stick by John Brown’s side or flee from character, The Good Lord Bird is both a rousing this bird will “bring you understanding that’ll last your him. Where do the major characters’ loyalties lie, with adventure and a moving exploration of identity and whole life.” What role do the Good Lord Bird and its regard to each other and with regard to the cause of survival. feathers play in John Brown’s story? In Little Onion’s? abolition? Are the allegiance lines as cut-and-dried as you (Source: Goodreads.com, 2016) Why is the title appropriate for the novel? might expect? 4) In what ways is this a narrative about Onion? In what 11) The measures that John Brown and his posse take in The ways it is a narrative about larger issues? How do these Good Lord Bird could be seen today as those of two aspects of the novel interact? revolutionaries, even terrorists. What would your response to Brown and his actions have been if you had lived during 5) How familiar were you with John Brown and the that tumultuous era of American history? events at Harpers Ferry before reading the book? Has the fictional retelling changed your perceptions of John (Source: Penguin.com, 2016) Brown as he relates to American history? 6) The novel includes several historical figures-John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman. Does the blending of actual, historical events and figures with the author’s fictional reimagining of them make you rethink history? Explain why or why not. 7) Consider the use of dialect in the novel. The narrator, Little Onion, speaks with a very particular dialect; the Old Man, who constantly refers to the Bible, speaks with a different cadence and rhythm entirely. What roles do speech, dialect, and elocution play in this story? (Drawing of the John Brown Raid, at the Engine House) (The first known portrait of John Brown is a daguerreotype, August 1846) .