The Parker Inheritance is such a surreal and captivating story about the main character, Candice Miller, traveling to Lambert, South Carolina to stay in her grandmother's old home while her current home is renovated. During her summer vacation to Lambert, her mother informs her of an "embarrassing failure", which ran her mother, Abagail Caldwell, out of town. When Candice hears of the story, she doesn't see the failure which her mother described, she saw it as a mystery that needed to be solved. In the attic, Candice finds the letter that sparked her grandmother's interest. Candice decides it is her responsibility to pick up where her grandmother left off, clear her name of the "embarrassment" and solve the mystery. While solving the case, she is required to dig into some of the town's secret injustices. She learns about the family mentioned in the letter and how they were forced out of town during the Jim Crow laws.
I really enjoyed this read. There was a sense of realism to the story, that it could actually happen today.
The author states that this book was actually based of The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin. In The Westing Game, two kids are incorrectly stereotyped at an airport, leading them to be searched for drugs, solely because of the colors of their skin. After the incident, they try to laugh it off and move on. But is it really a laughing matter? Would it have happened if the two kids were white?
As we have modernized, there are still social injustices happening all around us.
Within the Book
The author tackles so many different topics in this book: gender, race, bullying, divorce, death, and sexuality.
Early on in the book, Candice meets a boy named Brandon. Brandon comments that he likes reading books, much like Candice. But specifically, boy books. Candice takes offense to this and wonders how there could be girl or boy books, they should just be people books.
It is important to note that the main characters in the book are not the typical "white kids". They are both African American. They are lead to the harsh reality of what life was like in the 1950s, during the Jim Crow laws.
Throughout the book, Brandon is beaten-up on and made fun of from other kids, like Milo.
At one point in the book, they insinuate that Brandon must be gay because he had not had a girlfriend.
During the book, Candice's parents were going through a divorce. This is a topic that many students can relate to.
Another topic that some students can relate to is death. Candice has lost her grandmother, Abagail, which was really hard for herself and her mother. She discusses coping and the journey through that path. (Some students may not have experienced death at that point in their life, but they may relate to losing something close to them.)
CULTURALLY DIVERSE LITERATURE
Students should be exposed to "the many different ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, and linguistic groups that make up multiple voices, individual lives, social attributes, and perspectives around the world".
Chimamanda Adichie reviews some of the dangers of "the single story" from any particular group or culture and how is skewed her perception as a reader. She was used to the idea of "white authors", instead of those representing other cultures. This intrigued her and influence her work as an author.
The article also addresses the notion as books as mirrors and windows. It is one thing to simply read the text. But it takes the reader with a critical lense to stop and put themselves into the perspective of the characters in the book and find the deeper meanings.
What are culturally diverse texts?
Many think of themes centered on race, ethnicity, culture, and languages. Hermann- Wilmarth (2007) and other scholars advocate for expanding the borders of culturally diverse literature beyond race, ethnicity, and language to aspects such as physical and mental disabilities, socioeconomic status, language variations, dialect differences, and religion. Various family structures, such as foster families, and sexual and gender identity are also culturally diverse characteristics included in literature.
Animations, S. T. (2018, May 20). Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZqY9qTwXy0.
Boyd, F. B., Causey, L. L., & Galda, L. (2015). Culturally Diverse Literature Enriching Variety in an Era of Common Core State Standards. The Reading Teacher, 68(5), 378–387. doi: 10.1002/trtr.1326
Johnson, V. (2018). The Parker Inheritance. New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine Books.
Johnson, V. (2019). The Story Behind The Parker Inheritance. Retrieved from http://varianjohnson.com/books/the-parker-inheritance/story-behind-parker-inheritance/.