Cultural authenticity
Blog Post 9
The parker inheritance
Summary
This adventurous and whirlwind tale contains so much. We meet Candice, a young girl who has just moved to Lambert, South Carolina due to her parents divorce. She meets Brandon, her new neighbor. Together they find a letter promising 40 Million Dollars if they can figure out the clues. Along the way they learn about the Washington family, racism in South Carolina, and many other things. The characters learn a lot about their town and themselves throughout the book. The children struggle with identity, fairness, and understanding the way life was all those years ago.
The Author
Varian johnson
Cultural Authenticity
The book The Parker Inheritance does an amazing job of being intentional and authentic. It strays away from blatant stereotypes and tokenism. The author, Varian Johnson, a black man from South Carolina reveals a very accurate depiction using multiple perspectives from the past and present. There is verbal sensitivity with the lack of stereotypical slang and dialogue found in some non culturally authentic texts. This texts also helps disrupt some misconceptions, stigmas, and ideologies that exist about African Americans.
This blurb from his website is another example of the level of quality with this culturally diverse text;
"Varian’s newest novel, The Parker Inheritance, has been called The Westing Game meets The Watsons Go To Birmingham—1963. The Parker Inheritance, released in 2018, reviewed starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Horn Book, and the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, and was named a 2019 Coretta Scott King Honor Book and a 2018 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book among other accolades. "http://varianjohnson.com/bio/)
Other Places to Find Culturally Authentic Texts
References
Boyd, F & Causey, L & Galda, L (2015). CULTURALLY DIVERSE LITERATURE Enriching Variety in an Era of Common Core State Standards. Published by
International Literacy Association.
Johnson, V (2018). The Parker Inheritance. Published by Scholastics.
Laminack, L. L., & Kelly, K. (2019). Reading to make a difference: Using literature to help students speak freely, think deeply, and take action. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.