Belle Teal

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Summary: Belle Teal
Review: Belle Teal was an awesome book, I really enjoyed it. It is about this girl named Belle Teal, she lives with her grandma and mom. They are poor. Her and her best friend have been waiting to get Miss Casey to be their teacher. Then they finally got her. They love her very much. The more she started going to school the more she started going to school the more she got more and more friends. One night she asked her mom about negros,but then she changed the subject really fast. She asked that because her best friend, Darryl was black and they didn't want Belle Teal coming to their house very much longer at the beginning. This is the best book I read so far of the civil rights movement. This is only some of it. One story element is the setting. The setting mostly takes place in school with all of her friends.

Rating:
Summary: Belle Teal
Review: I enjoyed reading this story of a young girl, Belle Teal, growing up in the 60's when civil rights movements were taking place and schools were becoming integrated. Seeing things from Belle Teal's point of view gave me a different outlook of people during that time. I was especially surprised to feel her embarassment everyday when she had to walk into school with parents picketing because they did not like the fact that black children would now be attending what was once an all white school district. It was nice to see her befriend Darryl, the new African American boy, despite their racial differences. In the end, it was great to see her befriend Vanessa, another person who at first, Belle strongly disliked because of her differences. I also felt that many young readers could relate to Belle Teal and her family. Belle Teal's mother was struggling to keep her job and her grandmother seemed to be suffering a mild case of alzheimers. Belle had a lot of responsibility in her family, which is one issue that many kids with single parents can relate to. Belle Teal also acts as the heroine in the story when one of her closeset friends is the victim of his father's abusive behavior. Overall, Martin does an excellent job of addressing family, friend, and racial issues throughout this book.

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Summary: Belle Teal
Review: I read this book with my mother and we both enjoyed the book alot, because it was a touching peice about a girl who lives with her mother and grandmother. Other charcters in the book is a rich mean girl but the reason she is mean is because her mother was dead then there is a black boy named Darel, and Darl and Belle become friends. I liked it alot and i enjoyed it with my mom It is interasting and controdersial.

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Summary: Race relations for pre-teens
Review: I was always a fan of Ann M Martin. I really loved Bummer Summer and her other novels long before the Baby-Sitters Club (but I read about 50 of those=). So I picked this up for sentimental reasons at the book fair at the school where I teach.

I was so impressed by the caliber of writing here. Martin realy captured the voice of a rural southern girl in the 1950s! The cadence rang true and was clear and honest.

I thought the story of rcaial tension in a newly segrated school was handled beautifully and might make children that age (5th grade) really think about prejudice and beliefs.

It was poignant, funny, sad. Just a great story. I wish that it hadn't ended with the school Christmas pageant- I want to know how the rest of the year finished up!

This is well worth reading- for all ages!

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Summary: Kept Me Glued
Review: This is one of the best books I have read all year! It is soooo good! Important note: This NOT the Babysitters Club. It's much better. About the book: It takes place in the 1950s or 60s the schools in the south were being desegradated (excuse the spelling) and there this girl Belle Teal, who's white by the way, she can't understand why people don't like the colored student in her 5th Grade class.I would say more but I don's want to spoil the book. So READ IT NOW!!!!!

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Summary: A touching book for young to middle readers
Review: This was a very moving book about a young girl who is growing up in a time when African Americans were first starting to go to the school that the white children go to in America. The plot tells about Belle Teal who starts school in the Fall and expects everything to be the same as the years before she had attended Cocker Elementry School. When saying this, I mean having the same best friend, taking the same bus everyday, having the same life at home. However, this all changes when she steps onto the school bus and finds Vanessa, a girl who thinks she's better than everyone else, and later when she goes into school and finds a colored boy in her classroom. Also, her grandmother is getting older and is slowly losing her memory. All of these events show Belle Teal about growing up and dealing with conflicts along the way. Belle starts out as a child and finishes as a young adult. This was an excellant and touching read to young to middle readers.