Sooner

The plot of Sooner is indeed not a ver normal one. There are two main problems that carry the book, one halfway, the other the rest. These problems, the mystery of Tyler's father and weeding of Tyler's mother and Elway Snepp are not very powerful to say the least. Basically Tyler lives and things happen to him on his quest to cope with the new times. Perhaps it isn't the most regular plot, but it will keep one reading to see what next act Tyler and his family commit. The word selection is reasonable in Sooner. No extraordinary vocabulary exists but Patricia Calvert relays her messages effectively with slight sparkles of brilliance and mystique scattered about the book. For an average young adult the vocabulary definitely shouldn't be too tough, perhaps one might even learn a word or two from Sooner. Since Sooner is historical fiction, historical accuracy is very important. The book's history is extremely accurate but before one reads it one should know that it isn't a history book that has been spiced up, it is a book that has facts and concepts poured into it. Sooner takes a few key concepts like Confederate soldiers not surrendering, hemp becoming a cash crop and blacks being liberated. The author then suffuses them with the plot to have many of the events to revolve around these facts. In this manner Sooner has a good deal of history packed into it, but then again, it isn't a history book to reiterate. It gives the basic concepts of what happened after the Civil War, that of which students could easily remember, an delivers them in an interesting manner. Sooner is the sequel to Bigger and has room for a sequel, with an extremely wide open ending. Patricia Calvert ends the book with Tyler venturing into the frontier, escaping from the perpetual ordeal he would have to endure if he stayed behind with Elway Snepp. Patricia Calvert writes many good books, this is one of them.

I always read children's literature to decide if and how I will use it in my classroom with my 4th/5th graders. I can see that Sooner will be a valuable addition to our bookshelf right next to Bigger. Patricia Calvert creates believable characters who exhibit real emotions when faced with hardships and difficult changes in their lives. Thirteen-year-old Tyler's mother, brother, and sister are left to survive on their own when the father does not return home after the Civil War. They continue to hope that Black Jack Bohanan will come home until a friend brings them a letter Black Jack wrote just before dying. Tyler had already started taking care of everyone and everything, being the head of the household in his father's absence, so he does not understand when his mother begins to ask for and take advice from a neighboring widower. When his mother decides to marry again, Tyler wrestles with a full range of emotions: sadness, anger, jealousy, and confusion. Patricia Calvert gives children the opportunity to identify with the family's problems presented in the book as they get an insightful look into the post-Civil War past.