The Magic Pencil

By Karen E. Dabney
$1.50 Rating: Not yet rated.
Published: Aug. 12, 2009
Words: 38,721 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781452496078

Short description

Malcolm Bakersfield's new classmate, Nia Stellar is "not your average girl." Exciting and fantastic events occur, seemingly to do with her and a scruffy, used pencil. Nia challenges Malc in many ways and he discovers new abilities and sides to himself. We join him in his quest to find the truth to to the power of the pencil. And, like him, we just may learn a lot about ourselves.

Extended description

The Magic Pencil novel contains something for everyone - young and old - to enjoy. Its deeper secret is to encourage uninspired youth to read and stay in school, especially black male students. The narrator - young Malcolm - is telling the story by "code-switching" and is a character with whom youth will be able to identify. This mirror story imparts many life-lessons to help youth discover ways to improve their lives and encourages them on their journey. The language issue is a large part of what is turning young black readers off from school and should be addressed aggressively, yet differently.

There appears to be no other book written for youth where black language (in this case, African American Vernacular English) versus standard English is dealt with in a way to engage - rather than alienate - them from understanding the validity of either way of speaking. The "talking white" issue, the mainstreaming of black language and the differing attitudes towards using either are discu.. (Read more) The Magic Pencil novel contains something for everyone - young and old - to enjoy. Its deeper secret is to encourage uninspired youth to read and stay in school, especially black male students. The narrator - young Malcolm - is telling the story by "code-switching" and is a character with whom youth will be able to identify. This mirror story imparts many life-lessons to help youth discover ways to improve their lives and encourages them on their journey. The language issue is a large part of what is turning young black readers off from school and should be addressed aggressively, yet differently.

There appears to be no other book written for youth where black language (in this case, African American Vernacular English) versus standard English is dealt with in a way to engage - rather than alienate - them from understanding the validity of either way of speaking. The "talking white" issue, the mainstreaming of black language and the differing attitudes towards using either are discussed.The Magic Pencil advocates being able to speak effectively in the preferred way to communicate in our country is best; but not at the expense of leaving behind the rich - and usually necessary - first/home language, when it is not.

The Magic Pencil has - and will - change lives. The book is what has been coined as "edutainment" as multiculturalism, history, vocabulary building and enjoyment are all included within. The book makes a wonderful and effective teaching tool.
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Tags

education, poetry, black books, history, life lessons, canada, self esteem, decision making, children books, spanish, church, hip hop, sports, divorce, italy, problem solving, social commentary, australia, computer, magical realism, bullying, obama, folklore, placebo, fantasy magic adventure alternate universe realms danger teen, germany, slang, young adult books, south africa, skin color, tween, self reliance, ebonics, black vernacular, blended families, street life, family relationships, mark twain, fathers and sons, martin luther king jr, malcolm x, pele, harriet tubman, entertaining reading, apartheid, gifted, mentor, motown, frederick douglass, african american history, code switching, united kingdom, chess, drummer, gifted children, african diaspora, black america, black author, strong male character, special education, nword, abuse of children and women, children ebooks, dreadlocks, reluctant reader, african american family, selfaware, school adventure, appreciate jazz, ebook fiction, ebook mystery, colloquialisms, self actualization, christmas books, kwanzaa gift book, self determination, joel chandler harris, african american children, contemporary fiction fiction young adult fiction, zora neale hurston, juvenile delinquent, sports coaching, mother and father, jimmy santiago baca, gifted students, abuse of alcohol, online books for children, step brother, education parent, music and culture, education foundation, scrabble, soccers skills and drills, novel about kids, basket ball, african american paranormal, curriculum development, checkers, talented, abused teen, science activities, library books, inspiration consciousness, dropout, poetry in novel, mother and son relationship, coming of age adventure for tweens, self awakening, strong female hero, history or sociology students, inspiration hope dreams motivation wisdom encouragement, journal keeping, celestial bodies, inspiration for teens, novel by female author, racing cars, self confidence and self esteem, toni morrison, soldiers letters, literacy tool, didactic fiction, education system, educational history, paul laurence dunbar, aave, acting white, geneva smitherman, claude brown, karen e, karen e dabney, the magic pencil, dabs and co, nia stellar, malcolm bakersfield, mirror book, standard english, uninspired reader, walter dean myers, sharon flake, support system, jamaican immigrants, sarephina, africaans, negro leagues baseball, the gold and the glory, female race car drivers, break dance, voices of our nations art, vona, hurstonwright, a van jordan, university of detroit mercy, the university of michigan, college for creative studies, the roeper school, peggy mcintosh, joy lawson davis, author writer poet, classic childrens novel, christopher paul curtis, kasey klein, karl c klein, brenda y lewis

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