Draper , Sharon M. Double Dutch . New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 2002. Print.
Double Dutch is about an eighth
grader named Delia. She is an African American girl living in present day. Cincinnati, Ohio. She competes on a double dutch team in the World
Championships with her friends Yolanda and Charlene. Their friend Randy is the
waterboy for the team. During school, they are told that they might have to
pass a standardized test in order to be on the team. Everyone is fine with this
except for Delia. Why? Delia has a secret that no one except her best friend
Yolanda knows, she can't read. She can pick out some words, memorized her
parents' signatures, and learned to get the movie versions of books they read
in class. Still, it will cause some trouble. Randy is also having troubles. His
dad is a truck driver and his mom left them a couple of years prior. Randy is
often left alone to care for himself. Usually his dad is back within a certain
period of time, but now he has been gone for weeks and still hasn't called.
Randy has to sell the VCR and other appliances to pay the rent and buy food,
something no boy should have to go through. Although he is having troubles, he
later tells the coach what is going on and stays with him for a while. The
Tolliver twins are two boys the group goes to school with. Titan and Tabu
Tolliver, and they are as sweet as their names lead you to believe. People say
that these two are evil, that they kill small animals and terrorize their
mother for fun. After an exciting double dutch competition, Delia sees a paper
with a picture of Randy's dad on it. Since she can't read, she doesn't tell
Randy. Also, she assumes her already knows what it is about. Randy finds it and
finds out Delia knew and did not tell him about it. After they fight, secrets
come out and the guilty Delia runs out of the gym. In the end, everyone knows
Delia's secret and Randy's dad turns out to be okay. The major themes in this novel is friendship and the idea that secrets get you into trouble. If someone had known and helped Delia deal with her secret, she wouldn't have hid the fact she saw the flyer from Randy. Also, Randy would've been in a lot safer place if he would have told an adult about his living situation earlier.
In John Noell Moore's book Interpreting Young Adult Literature: Literary Theory in the Secondary Classroom, Moore describes black anesthetics and signifying in books. Everyone that is not in the primary culture has something called a double consciousness. Moore states, " Historically, black Americans have felt a dual identity, the 'twoness' that Dubois describes in the epigraph" (138). This is also seen in Draper's novel. Even though it is set in an African American community, there are characters that show a double consciousness in other areas. Delia cannot read and she is in the eighth grade. The only person who knows is her best friend. To get by in school, she looks up movies of books and learns little words like "the" and "boy". She has to be careful not to read in public or make anyone aware that she cannot read. Randy has no mother, she left a couple of years previously to where the book starts. He has to keep this in mind. During a game of "Yo Mama" jokes, Yolanda says to Randy,"At least I got a mama!" (7). He always has to remember that he is in a single parent household. Also, the jokes are a part of signifying. This is the exchange of boasts or insults as a game or ritual.
In Sharon Stringer's Conflict and Connection: The Psychology of Young Adult Literature, Stringer looks at how YAL interprets friendships. Stringer says," Psychological studies describe how we often attract friends who are similar to us in values, attitudes, and demographic characteristics... Our friends also reflect our inner world. Through the comfort and solace that surface in close relationships, adolescents as well as adults can derive rich learning experiences from their friends" (31). Friendships are important in this book. Even the evil Tolliver twins become friends with Yolanda after the storm because they find something in common, the twins have always liked her. Randy and Delia deal with the choice of threatening their friendship or threatening their secrets.
In John Noell Moore's book Interpreting Young Adult Literature: Literary Theory in the Secondary Classroom, Moore describes black anesthetics and signifying in books. Everyone that is not in the primary culture has something called a double consciousness. Moore states, " Historically, black Americans have felt a dual identity, the 'twoness' that Dubois describes in the epigraph" (138). This is also seen in Draper's novel. Even though it is set in an African American community, there are characters that show a double consciousness in other areas. Delia cannot read and she is in the eighth grade. The only person who knows is her best friend. To get by in school, she looks up movies of books and learns little words like "the" and "boy". She has to be careful not to read in public or make anyone aware that she cannot read. Randy has no mother, she left a couple of years previously to where the book starts. He has to keep this in mind. During a game of "Yo Mama" jokes, Yolanda says to Randy,"At least I got a mama!" (7). He always has to remember that he is in a single parent household. Also, the jokes are a part of signifying. This is the exchange of boasts or insults as a game or ritual.
In Sharon Stringer's Conflict and Connection: The Psychology of Young Adult Literature, Stringer looks at how YAL interprets friendships. Stringer says," Psychological studies describe how we often attract friends who are similar to us in values, attitudes, and demographic characteristics... Our friends also reflect our inner world. Through the comfort and solace that surface in close relationships, adolescents as well as adults can derive rich learning experiences from their friends" (31). Friendships are important in this book. Even the evil Tolliver twins become friends with Yolanda after the storm because they find something in common, the twins have always liked her. Randy and Delia deal with the choice of threatening their friendship or threatening their secrets.
More books by Sharon M. Draper:
- Tears of a Tiger (Simon and Schuster, 1994)
- Forged by Fire (Simon and Schuster, 1997)
- Darkness Before Dawn (Simon and Schuster, 2001)
- Romiette and Julio (Simon and Schuster, 1999)
- Double Dutch (Simon and Schuster, 2002)
- The Battle of Jericho (Simon and Schuster, 2003)
- Copper Sun (Simon and Schuster, 2006)
- November Blues (Simon and Schuster, 2007)
- Just Another Hero (Simon and Schuster, 2009)
- Out of My Mind (Simon and Schuster, 2010)
- Fire from the Rock (Dutton, 2007)
- We Beat the Street (Dutton, 2005)
- Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs: The Buried Bones Mystery
- Ziggy #2: Lost in the Tunnel of Time
- Ziggy #3: Shadows of Caesar's Creek
- Ziggy #4: The Space Mission Adventure
- Ziggy #5: The Backyard Zoo Adventure
- Ziggy #6: Stars and Sparks on Stage (Simon and Schuster, 12965
- Sassy #1: Little Sister is Not my Name (Scholastic, 2009)
- Sassy #2: The Birthday Storm (Scholastic, 2009)
- Sassy #3: The Silver Secret (Scholastic, 2010)
- Sassy #4: The Dazzle Disaster Dinner Party (Scholastic, 2010)
- Teaching from the Heart (Heinemann, 1999)
- Not Quite Burned Out, But Crispy around the Edges (Heinemann, 2001)
- Panic (Simon and Schuster, 2013)
No comments:
Post a Comment