Friend & Gold Caddy

I teach a reading methods course in a large university. In an attempt to show them how to weave literature into multicultural and social studies themes I read a significant portion of The Friendship to my students. You could have heard a pin drop. My students were deeply moved by Ms. Taylor's use of language and descriptions of the intensity of the white's hatred of the African Americans. Some of my students were really disturbed by this, and stated they would feel reluctant to read this book aloud in their future classrooms. However, I explained to them that the feelings of indignancy they felt toward the Wallace's, and other prejudiced whites in the story were precisely what Ms. Taylor was attempting to illicit in her writings, and would be exactly what we would want our students to experience. Ms. Taylor's writings are effective because they are so vivid, and obviously so real to her. Because of that, they become real to us.