_How the Word is Passed_, Clint Smith
Apr. 4th, 2023 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutDon’t even bother reading this. Just go read the book.
Recently, and probably _directly_ attributable to the increased sunshine and general Mad Spring Energy, I cleared a bunch of stuff off my kindle, put a bunch of stuff on my kindle and started reading through the backlog. Because Reasons, I started with Samples. I liveblogged some of this. This book was _so good_ right from the beginning, that I bought the book and continued reading it. There was some drama in my life that temporarily derailed me, and the process of getting back on track involved finding some soothing decluttering books to read, but I _got back to it_, which tells you everything about how awesome this book is. I am very prone to not finishing books in a timely fashion, even when they are good, because Life.
What did I love (yes, all of it, sure, but some details to tempt you to read a book that is All Difficult Material):
Depictions of:
Non-verbals of people he is listening to
His own emotions in response to what he is seeing, learning
His own struggles with expressing (very reassuring when he described his struggles with French while in Senegal)
His own family’s experience of the Jim Crow era, and how he did not know about it until he asked as part of producing this book
The relationships between the various people he talks to over the course of the book
The importance of teacher/teacher, student/teacher relationships (not in a creepy way! In a developing ideas together way)
His respect for, his concern for, his _care_ for children — he takes them and their concerns and their emotions seriously, and not just children _now_, but children _ever_, and not just children who are the victims explicitly, but also how children are taught to hate and oppress
There was nothing about this book that I did not love.
Also, once upon a time I loved going to museums. I lost that love a while back, and it has been sputtering back to life slowly. I absolutely have plans to go to Whitney Plantation because of reading this book. And I want to go back to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Soon.
Recently, and probably _directly_ attributable to the increased sunshine and general Mad Spring Energy, I cleared a bunch of stuff off my kindle, put a bunch of stuff on my kindle and started reading through the backlog. Because Reasons, I started with Samples. I liveblogged some of this. This book was _so good_ right from the beginning, that I bought the book and continued reading it. There was some drama in my life that temporarily derailed me, and the process of getting back on track involved finding some soothing decluttering books to read, but I _got back to it_, which tells you everything about how awesome this book is. I am very prone to not finishing books in a timely fashion, even when they are good, because Life.
What did I love (yes, all of it, sure, but some details to tempt you to read a book that is All Difficult Material):
Depictions of:
Non-verbals of people he is listening to
His own emotions in response to what he is seeing, learning
His own struggles with expressing (very reassuring when he described his struggles with French while in Senegal)
His own family’s experience of the Jim Crow era, and how he did not know about it until he asked as part of producing this book
The relationships between the various people he talks to over the course of the book
The importance of teacher/teacher, student/teacher relationships (not in a creepy way! In a developing ideas together way)
His respect for, his concern for, his _care_ for children — he takes them and their concerns and their emotions seriously, and not just children _now_, but children _ever_, and not just children who are the victims explicitly, but also how children are taught to hate and oppress
There was nothing about this book that I did not love.
Also, once upon a time I loved going to museums. I lost that love a while back, and it has been sputtering back to life slowly. I absolutely have plans to go to Whitney Plantation because of reading this book. And I want to go back to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Soon.