Coota and the Magic Quilt Author Event
You Are Invited to an Author Event for Students
When: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 – 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Where: Tobin Community Center, 1481 Tremont Street, Roxbury, MA
Students, teachers, parents, and friends or family members who are interested in books will enjoy this presentation that will share some history about the Underground Railroad, new friendships and civil rights, justice and equality for all.
Heywood Fennell will share with attendees the story behind the story of Coota and the Magic Quilt. Also featured will be Fred Griffeth, Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library narrator, who recorded the audio edition of this title. Fred will talk with attendees about what it is like to narrate a "talking book." Questions are encouraged, and refreshments will be provided.
Co-sponsored by Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library (www.perkinslibrary.org) and Our Space, Our Place (www.ourspaceourplace.org). To reserve your spot at this event, call Rachel Gould at 617-972-7242 or email Rachel.Gould@Perkins.org. Please join us for this magical journey!
Coota and the Magic Quilt by Heywood Fennell, Sr.
Eleven-year-old Coota has thoughts of becoming a rap star that are changed when his mother sends him from Roxbury, Massachusetts to stay in North Carolina to spend time with his grandmother, Miss Mattie. She is a retired school teacher who does not own a television, won't call him by his nickname "Coota" and insists that he read.
In North Carolina, he discovers a slave's diary, and learns from his civil-rights activist grandmother about the Underground Railroad codes sewn into colorful quilts decorating her home. He also becomes a friend of Cheryl, a young girl who is blind but can see the importance of respect and dignity. By the time Coota returns to the "Bury," he is rapping about Harriet Tubman
This is the first book in the trilogy, "The Coota Experiences." The book challenges youth to some critical thinking and to learn the importance of communicating without using racial slurs, ethnic slurs; the importance of building their vocabulary and learning about history. It is a book with positive and revealing thoughts about triumphs over adversity.
This book is for grades 5-8 and older readers. The book is also available through the Perkins Library in uncontracted braille (BRM 1370), jumbo braille (BRM 1371), and uncontracted jumbo (braille BRM 1372). Click here to listen to an excerpt from the book, narrated by Fred Griffeth.
The book has also been published in Spanish, and there is a Teacher's Guide available written by Dianne Christine Yarborough. It can be used to teach not just youth, but adults as well. For more information about these titles, visit http://www.thecootaexperiences.com/.
Heywood Fennell, Sr.
Haywood Fennell, Sr. is a playwright and community activist residing in Boston, MA. He is presently writing the second book in the Coota Trilogy, Coota and the Challenge. Mr. Fennell's goals are to teach the importance of literacy and our history as well as to understand compassionate communications by not using racial/ethnic slurs through critical thinking.
Fennell is the Principal writer of the Coota Literacy Enrichment Pilot Program for youth. He is a Vietnam Era veteran and attended both UMass Boston and Boston University studying Urban Planning.
Click here to listen to an interview with Fennell about the library.
Fred Griffeth
Fred Griffeth is a musician and voice over artist who has been narrating books at the BTBL recording studio for eight years. He has a special interest in black history and has narrated many books by and about African Americans.
Some examples are The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, Stride Toward Freedom by Martin Luther King, Jr., and The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson. He is currently working on Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad by Betty DeRamus.
Fred has also recorded numerous children’s books here at the BTBL. He has read to children in Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston schools, and at the Somerville Public Library as part of the pajama hour program. He lives in Somerville, MA.
Books about the Underground Railroad Available at the Perkins Library
The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton.
RC 33494
Edgar Allan Poe Award. First book in the "Dies Drear Chronicle." African-American teenager, Thomas Small, and his family have moved into the house where Dies Drear once ran an Underground Railroad station. The mansion has hideouts and holds tales of murder and hidden treasure. For grades 5-8 and older readers. Followed by The Mystery of Drear House (RC 26358).
True North: A Novel of the Underground Railroad by Kathryn Lasky.
RC 47692, BR 11892
Narrative alternating between Bostonian Lucy Bradford and Afrika, a Virginia slave, tells how the lives of the two fourteen-year-olds were affected by the Underground Railroad. Lucy recounts her family's preparation for a wedding and her special relationship with her grandfather, while Afrika describes her difficult journey north. For junior and senior high readers.
The Old African by Julius Lester.
RCM 918
Based in part on a legend and in part on an actual event. The Old African, a slave with great mystical powers, works to relieve the suffering of his people. He befriends a young slave boy who has been whipped, and leads an escape through the sea back to Africa. Contains violence and some descriptons of sex.
Underground Man by Milton Meltzer.
RC 35044, BR 8868
Following his conscience, nineteen-year-old Josh Bowen becomes an abolition- ist conductor on the Underground Railroad, an act that leads to his trial and imprisonment. A graphic description of the antislavery movement inspired by the author's research on white abolitionists, especially the life of Calvin Fairbank. For grades 6-9 and older readers.
Trouble Don't Last by Shelley Pearsall.
RC 55900, BR 14427
In 1859, an aging slave forces eleven-year-old Samuel to run away at night from their harsh Kentucky master. They are hungry and frightened of being captured as they journey on the Underground Railroad towards the hope of freedom in Canada. For grades 5-8.
Harriet Tubman: On the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry.
RC 28980, BR 7764
The life of a black slave woman who helped black slaves to freedom by working as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, which transported men and women to the North. For grade 6-9.
The Second Escape of Arthur Cooper by Cynthia Stowe.
RCM 740
Arthur Cooper fled slavery in Virginia when he was a boy. By the time slave catchers find him in 1822, he is living on Nantucket with his wife and young children. His wife keeps house for the Folgers, a Quaker family, and cares for their mother who has been injured. Now it is young Phebe Folger's turn to help the Coopers. For junior and senior high readers.
Seaward Born by Lea Wait.
RCM 858
In 1805, thirteen-year-old Michael works as a slave on the docks and ships of Charleston Harbor. He longs to sail. When his protective mistress dies, his conditions change, and his friend Jim urges him to run away to the North. For grades 6-9.