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Scholastic, 1992
Summary: Jimmy's life is disrupted when a stranger, who is his father, comes to take him on a car trip. During their travels Jimmy must face the truth about who his father is, who he is, and what family really means.
Level: RL: 5; IL 6-1
Themes:
family
self realization
death
multiculturalism
crime
Activities:
1. Jimmy and Crab travel halfway across the country. List 10 clues from the book that indicate their route. Give page numbers. Using a road atlas, map a likely route for their trip. Post these maps around the room. Compare other students' work with yours. Are there specific reasons why one route should be better than the others?
2. Jimmy and Crab have very different perspectives on the events in this story. Choose one of these characters and keep a journal of the trip from his perspective. Contrast your journal with that of a student who selected the other character.
3. It becomes evident that Crab has escaped from jail. Find out the penalty for this crime. If Crab needed legal assistance where could he go to find it in your community? Write a page of directions for the different options. Ask a an attorney to edit these directions. (Look into Maine's Pine Tree Legal Services or pro bona publico lawyers.) Give a copy to your school library and the public library.
4. Do a free write on the reasons that Mama Jean let Jimmy go with his father? Did Jimmy want to go? Check with the counselor or authorities in your school and see how they would react to Jimmy's extended truancy. Is there a school policy? How is it communicated to the community? What would the counselors advise Jimmy's parents?
5a. Learn out about W. D. Myers. What events or circumstances in the author's life might have inspired Somewhere in the Darkness? How were writing and reading important to him as a youth? There was an incident about his fifth grade teacher and a comic book that bears repeating. Who would enjoy hearing that story? What would be the best vehicle for passing it along? (Then, do it!)
b. In pairs, design and reproduce a bookmark about Walter Dean Myers. (Something About the Author reprints some excellent quotes by him.) If this is a class project, other students or groups could select a different author.
c. Set up a literature circle in which students will read a number of Myers books. Have them research Myers' life. (Including writing him a well-thought out letter.) Have one student assume Myers' identity and have a "host" interview him (or her!) Videotape a final version for viewing by future classes. After several years, you will have a wonderful collection to use as examples! The teacher or librarian should be available for assisting the team. Provide samples of criteria or standards (see Appendix Maine Sampler III) and to demonstrate how to tailor these to suit the groups' needs. As you are assessing students' work, provide direction for finding the information they might need. (For example, steering studies to a periodical database such as Primary Search to find reviews and articles, by and about Myers.)
6. Check reference books for various definitions of "family." Working with a group, develop a definition everyone feels is adequate. Who makes up Jimmy's family legally? Emotionally? Locate and read some current articles about custody battles. Have your groups debate the custody issue from the perspectives of natural parents, adoptive parents, children and the government. What are three conclusions you can infer from these discussions?
7. How would this story have been different if the main characters had been from another ethnic group? Explain. What clues told you that this story was about African Americans? Do ethnic groups have "common characteristics?" When does a discussion along these lines begin to cross over into stereo-typing?
8. What is a conjure man or woman? What role have they played in the African American experience?
9. On page 132 High John says to Crab, "There's a veil and a cloud. Sometimes a child is born with a veil over its eyes and it can see the other side. Sometimes a man grows a cloud over his eyes and can't see the work of his own hand, or the truth in his own heart." What does this mean? How does it apply to Jimmy and Crab? Support your opinion with events from the story?
10. Voyages of discovery are often used by authors. (Some examples might be Cynthia Voigt's Homecoming, Center Line - Joyce Sweeney, the Odyssey, Gulliver's Travels.) Do you think it is necessary for Jimmy to leave home to learn about himself? for Crab? for you? What did Jimmy learn about himself? Discuss in groups. Use examples from books to support your viewpoints.
11. Walter Dean Myers has also written picture books and some poetry. Share these with a group of younger students.
Resources
More books about young African Americans by Walter Dean Myers:
It Ain't All for Nothin', Viking, 1978.
Me, Mop, and the Moondance Kid, 1988.
Mojo and the Russians, Viking, 1977.
The Mouse Rap, Harper Collins, 1990.
Scorpions, Harper, 1988.
The Young Landlords, Viking, 1979.
Picture books by Walter Dean Myers
The Black Pearl & The Ghost. Illus. by R. Quackenbush. Viking, 1980.
The Dragon Takes a Wife. Illus by Ann Grifalconi. Bobbs-Merrill, 1972.
The Dancers. Illus by Anne Rockwell. Parents Magazine, 1972.
Fly, Jimmy, Fly! Illus by Moneta Barnett. Putnam, 1974.
The Golden Serpent. Illus by Alice & Martin Provensen. Viking, 1980.
Where Does the Day Go? Illus by Leo Carty. Parents Magazine, 1969.
Selected books which explore the father and son relationship:
Bauer, Marion Dane. Face to Face, Clarion, 1991.
DeClements, Barthe. Breaking Out, Delacorte, 1991.
Grant, Cynthia. Keep Laughing, Atheneum, 1991.
Peck, Richard. Father Figure, Viking, 1978.
Voigt, Cynthia. Sons from Afar, Atheneum, 1987.
Other resources:
Commire, Anne. Something About the Author; Vol. 41. Gale, 1985.
Maine Revised Statutes Annotated: Title 15.
1994 Rand McNally Road Atlas.
Pryse, Marjorie and Hortense J. Spillers. Conjuring: Black Women, Fiction & Literary Tradition, Indiana U. Press, 1985.
Rush, Theressa G and others. Black American Writers: Past and Present. Scarecrow, 1975.
Scales, Pat. "Somewhere in the Darkness" Book Links. March, 1993.
Simon, Norma. All Kinds of Families, Albert Whitman, 1976.
Waddell, Charles. The Conjure Woman, U of Michigan Press, 1899.
Prepared by Donna Chale, Warsaw Middle School, Pittsfield, Maine,
with Karole Prouty, Warsaw Middle School.
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