Biddle+Review+3

Ward, J. (2012). //Salvage the bones : a novel//. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN: 140882700X 2011 Alex Award Winner This book is set in rural Bois Savage, Louisiana, which is outside of New Orleans. The main character is a young African-American female, Esch. She is part of a very poor and large family. Her mother died giving birth to her youngest brother leaving her without a female role model. This leads her to have many issues in her life and intimacy problems with boys. She becomes pregnant by one of her brothers friends and tries to keep it a secret as long as possible. As the book unfolds Hurricane Katrina is moving into the gulf and this leads to even more devastation in Esch’s life, as her family is too poor to evacuate. I liked that the author is super descriptive which created awesome imagery. The cultural aspect of the book painted a picture of what it is like to black and poor in Louisiana. It gives a picture that makes you think of the area as more than Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street. I did not however like the foul language that the author has the characters use but do realize that the book is written in the everyday vernacular of that specific areas culture. This makes the book realistic and appealing to teens. KY.9-12.R.U.EU.2 Students will understand that different purposes to read include reading to acquire new information and reading for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are plays, fiction and non-fiction, classic, and contemporary works, and foundational U.S. documents. YA Fiction I would use this book at a book talk in a library with several other books to specifically push different cultural books. At the book talk, I would bring different cultural food in. For this book, specifically I might bring in jambalaya and etouffee to reflect the Creole culture of the region.
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