Customer Reviews

The Other Side

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What baby boomer cannot relate to a book that portrays the "dividing line" that separated blacks and whites in this country prior to the Civil Rights Movement!!!

This story shows two youngsters, one black and one white, that come to bridge the gap by making a simple gesture of sitting on the fence that comes between their two homes.

Such a simple act has great power and the book is perfect for primary and elementary learners, thought-provoking and beautifully illustrated.

This picture book is an excellent book. It helps explain in simple terms what life was like during the civil war. The story involves two girls, one is white, the other is African American. They live on either side of a fence. Their mothers tell them that they can not cross the fence, the girls listen to their mothers for a while and sit on the fence but never crossing it. After a while the girls eventually cross the fence, and suprisingly no one seems to mind, so they continue their friendship.

This is a touching story about how children don't see black and white, but see potential friendship and possibilities. Two little girls learn how to work around "the fence" that adults have constructed and find a friend. For teachers, this is a fabulous book for teaching questioning strategies in reading. The illustrations are wonderful.

Moving, simple, perfect. It needs to be in every library, and dare I say every home. It is one of those rare read alouds that will hold children ages 5-12 spellbound. A great choice for literature circles, it's especially strong for questioning.

"That summer the fence that stretched through our town seemed bigger. We lived in a yellow house on one side of it. White people lived on the other. And Mama said, "Don't climb over that fence when you play." She said it wasn't safe..." Soon our narrator, Clover, sees a little white girl, Annie, hanging on the fence and staring into their yard, day after day. She was always alone. Finally, one day Clover gets close enough to the fence to talk to the little girl. They exchange names, and smiles, and pretty soon the two are sitting together on top of the fence. "My mama says I shouldn't go on the other side," I said. "My mama says the same thing. But she never said nothing about sitting on it." "Neither did mine," I said. That summer me and Annie sat on that fence and watched the whole wide world around us..." Jacqueline Woodson's eloquent and understated prose captures the feel of the old South in the 1950's, before integration, and is both poignant and uplifting. E B Lewis's elegant watercolors complement the text with expressive heartwarming and lifelike illustrations in soft summer tones. Together, word and art paint an engaging portrait of times gone by with a gentle message that won't be lost on young readers. Perfect for youngsters 7-10, or as a read aloud for younger children, The Other Side is a sensitive and evocative story, told with great insight, wisdom, and truth. "Someday somebody's going to come along and knock this old fence down," Annie said. And I nodded. "Yeah," I said. "Someday."

I used this book last semester for both my seventh grade students, and my team of teachers. The teachers loved the story as well as the delicate illustrations. My seventh grade students listened patiently, seeming to wait for every breath of the story. We analyzed the story and the historical period. I love using picture books for middle school students, and I think this book makes an excellent addition to any bookshelf, old or young!

When reading through this book I was throughly impressed with the authour's talented description of the events that were taking place. The pictures protrayed a great image of actions of the girls. This book is for children who are just learning about how segragation used to be. Parents, this is a amazing book to read to your children, when teaaching them about old times. This book clearly gets the point across in an entertaining manner. I definately reccommend this to younger kids.

The Other Side
By Jacqueline Woodson
The Other Side a story about black kids who don't like white kids. I like this book because it is about
kids getting along with kids. Also, the pictures have a lot of detail. The author sent a lot of messages :
like say hello to a person you don't know, get along don't and be shy. Would you not like white or
black people and why? This book has dark and exciting pictures of American and black people Why
don't they like kids? Is it because they don't look the same?

The illustrator came to our school in Camden, NJ where I teach and that is how I was introduced to this book. The story is wonderful and so are the illustrations. I would recommend this book for every library, every classroom and every home.

Two girls living side by side are separated by a fence and a mama's warning not to venture to the other side. Two girls playing side by side find friendship atop a fence even though other girls cast wary glances at first. What will Mama say when she sees this new friendship? Do fences stand forever? The watercolor illustrations by E. B. Lewis are filled with details: untied shoelaces, a store bought doll, absolute joy at being released to play in the sunshine after several rainy days of staying inside where it's "warm, safe, and dry." I fell in love with this book the first time I read it, and I plan to use it in my classroom. The Other Side is a Book Sense 76 Pick.