Photography provided by Giphy
Hello everyone! We are back again for day two of the 2019 segment of #DEBlackHistory and today’s topic is Black Writing/Authors.
Photography provided by @K_DougDE
My favorite author of all time is New York Best Selling Author Sharon M. Draper!
I have loved her novels since middle school literally. Draper is a professional educator and five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Literary Award. This particular author was introduced to me during a high school as one of her novels, Romiette and Julio, was a summer reading project assignment.
Romiette and Julio is a great novel about a young female teen in high school who falls for a young male teen at her high school. Their innocent romance, however, runs into opposition from a local gang. Other great reads from Sharon M. Draper include Fire From The Rock, Copper Sun, The Hazelwood Trilogy, and The Jericho Trilogy.
Fire From The Rock
Sharon M. Draper’s 2008 New York Public Library Best Book for the teen age selection, Fire From The Rock was inspired by the true events of Little Rock Nine. If you don’t already know Little Rock Nine was a group of nine (9) young female teens from Little Rock, Arkansas. Their significance in Black History is that they were the first African Americans to attend the then all white public high school by the name of Little Rock Central High School in the United States during the year of 1957.
Copper Sun
Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper won the Coretta Scott King Literature Award as it is about a young girl’s view and perspective after the invasion of slave traders of her African village where she is ultimately shipped off to the Carolinas in the United States as a “birthday gift” for a white slave owner’s 16-year-old son.
The Hazelwood Triology
The Hazelwood Triology by Sharon M. Draper was the next route I went after reading Romiette and Julio back during high school, which extended on into my undergrad years of college. There are three books apart of this set: Tears of a Tiger, Forged By Fire, and Darkness Before Dawn.
Tears of a Tiger is about the death of a high school senior after a car accident. The young man that was the driver of the car faces a hard time of grasping that his friend is no longer with him and he believes the accident is his fault overall. The accident alone, however, begins to show that it has affected everyone at the high school they attend.
Forged By Fire is about poverty and child abuse of a student that attends the same high school as before in Tears of a Tiger. This young man has to stand up for himself against his step father in which things get very seriously and life threatening.
Darkness Before Dawn has to be my favorite out of this set of novels. It is about what happened to the students of the first two novels of the trilogy. Sort of like a round up and conclusion for the trilogy.
The Jericho Trilogy
Even though I enjoyed the first trilogy from Sharon M. Draper, The Jericho Trilogy is my favorite novel series from the award winning author. The three novels included in this series is The Battle of Jericho, November Blues and Just Another Hero.
The Battle of Jericho teaches a lesson on peer pressure in which it is about a hazing incident that went terribly wrong and ultimately became a fatal accident with a local yet popular academic club. Everything seems great going in and they even host multiple charity drives. But behind closed doors there are some serious rituals going on that most students never expected before aspiring to join the club.
Second novel, November Blues, is about the girlfriend of the young man whom was killed in the hazing incident from The Battle of Jericho. The significance of her character is that she is pregnant and doesn’t know how to tell her parents let alone her boyfriend’s parents whom are dealing with the sudden lose of their son, her child’s father, at such a young age.
Last novel of the trilogy is Just Another Hero about the same high school students from The Battle of Jericho and November Blues, but things have become a lot more hostile with the students of the school with their own personal mishaps and problems they have to face on a daily outside of school. Things take a horrible turn for the worse when one of the students brings a loaded weapon to school based off of his own problems at home leaking over into the school.
Photography provided by @K_DougDE
As you can see author Sharon M. Draper’s novels are not only entertaining, but also educational on so many different levels. You can tell she really puts time into her writings and her educational professionalism and knowledge is shown through every novel as well. Check out more reading material from the award winning author in celebration of Black History Month by clicking here.
Have you ever read Sharon M. Draper’s novels or reading material?
Comment below with your thoughts and experiences.
Did you like her novels? Why or why not?
Thanks for reading everyone and stay tuned for day 3 of #DEBlackHistory!
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