The Parker Inheritance
Author: Varian Johnson
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Illustrator: ---
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Date: 2018
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About the book:
When Candice is stuck in Lambert, South Carolina for the summer, she is lost on what she can do. While searching for a book in the attic, she finds a puzzle she can't do alone. She works with the neighbor across the street to help complete this puzzle that could help her grandmother's reputation. This book travels between time to tell people's stories that all come together at the end.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
"We hear what we want to hear. We see what we want to see."
-- The Parker Inheritance, Varian Johnson (pg. 265)
There is an ongoing theme throughout this book about the power of perception. Candice and and Brandon were perceived as thieves when they were trying to return to a library. Reggie was perceived as white because his skin was a lot lighter than others. Abigail was perceived as a failure when she made one mistake as the first African American woman city manager of Lambert. The common theme all of these character's have is that they are black. They are perceived in a different way just because of the color of their skin. Varian Johnson tells a multigenerational story of something that is still relevant today. Even after almost 60 years, people still have this conscious or unconscious bias. The author, Varian Johnson has to deal with this bias in his everyday life (Johnson, 2017). He tells the story of how he was picking up his identical twin brother up at the airport. They were randomly selected to be searched because the police believed they were partaking in a drug deal. The police officer's reasoning: they seemed to be meeting for the first time. What Johnson quickly realized, the police officer was searching them because they were black. People quickly label marginalized groups as the enemy when they are seen as different than anything except white. Johnson brings up current events for his motivation of this book. He references Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Eric Gardner, and others who were powerless in a life or death situation just because of the color of their skin.
If you would like to read more about Johnson's reason behind the story click here.
Johnson's use of telling the same story through multiple time periods is a great way of showing the whole story. Fenice B. Boyd, Lauren L. Causey and Lee Galda say, "no group or individual has a single story, and knowing only one story leads to the creation of assumptions and stereotypes" (Boyd, 2015). Johnson is trying to stay clear of creating any stereotypes throughout his book since one of the main themes is the power of perception. Johnson hops between present day and all the way back to 1914. Even though there is a 100 year difference, black people were treated almost the same. No court cases or acts have changed people's biases towards one another.
Enoch Washington 1914
Even after the time of Jim Crow Laws, Enoch was considered a "free man," yet was still unable to live where they wanted and didn't get the same services as white people. He was forced to work at the young age of six to help his family get out of their debt. So was he really "free?"
Chip Douglas 1957
As a white boy, he was still discriminated against since he helped his father coach at the black only high school. If he was seen in a certain area of town hanging out with Siobhan, he would get dirty looks. He wouldn't receive verbal and physical altercations like others, but he was still affected even as a white boy.
Reggie Bradley 1957
As a black boy who didn't look black, he was still discriminated against because he was considered "colored." When he was labeled as black, he would only get a job as a garbage man. Reggie would almost be killed from winning a tennis match just because of the color of skin. When he reinvented himself and put him in a place where he was considered white, he became a millionaire. It obviously wasn't the lack of skill deciding his future career, it was the color of his skin.
Abigail Caldwell 2007
As city manager of Lambert, she overused her powers to complete a "personal mission." She dug up a tennis court in order to find a large amount of money to help the city. People saw that mistake for something larger than it actually was. She was fired immediately and her reputation was forever damaged based on one mistake.
Candice Miller Present Day
As a 12 year old girl in today's society, she was often picked out of a crowd for doing something wrong. When she left Tori's phone inside the high school library, the assistant principal quickly labeled her as a thief. He asked her questions on her purpose and questioned what was in her book bag. If this were a white student, the assistant principal may not have had the same approach.
ALL Types of Diversity
When diversity is seen in a text, it typically includes themes like race, ethnicity, culture, and language (Boyd, 2015). We see a lot of race diversity within The Parker Inheritance. I have covered that in the sections above. The book mainly focuses on the concept of race, but it also includes a topic that is not usually talked about in books, mixed race. Reggie Bradley and even Adam Douglas look like they are white, but they are really part black. They were able to reinvent themselves, but they still had the mindset of being black. They had to stray away from reacting to racist comments and talking with "white man" confidence. Adam Douglas said something that stuck out to me: "We make a lot of assumptions about each other. People don't think you're colored just because of your skin. They think you're colored because your grandmother is dark-skinned, and you attend a Negro school, and a Negro church, and because you're poor." This made me think of the discrimination Chip had to go through just by being around Siobhan in different areas of town. He was white, but people would make assumptions just by the interactions he had with people that look different than him. This quote also explains why Douglas and Reggie were able to reinvent themself and build a life based on their ability to transform from black to white just by their behaviors/environment.
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Johnson is able to intertwine other culturally diversities in this book. We often forget that diverse texts could also include themes like various family structures, sexual and gender identity, physical and mental disabilities, socioeconomic status, language variations, dialect differences, and religion (Boyd, 2015). Johnson included themes of various family structures, sexual identity, and socioeconomic status within the large diversity theme of race.
Family Structure
In most novels, the family structure is a mom, dad, and siblings all in the same household. In Candice's family, she is part of a divorced family. As someone who came from a divorced household, it was nice seeing it in a text. So many people have parents that are divorced, yet usually it is not a theme within a book. The conflicting mindset of picking a house or parent that you want to be with is hard, especially at a young age. I understood what Candice was going through when she wanted to be with one parent because they were close to friends, but at the same time missing the other parent who has moved away. Constantly having to chose a parent is tiring and confusing. This theme is only a small detail in the story, yet you could feel what Candice was going through.
Sexual Identity
Throughout the story, Candice is trying to figure out if Brandon was gay or not. She was in this confused state as a teenager of "if he doesn't like me, does he like girls?" Even though it was never stated, it was a nice touch to have in the story of how you should approach a situation like this. She was sensitive with what she said and never pushed Brandon to talk about it if he didn't want to talk about it. This type of diversity is rarely seen in texts today. One touch that I really enjoyed was Johnson's idea of Candice's dad coming out as gay in the story. Johnson is continuing to follow his theme of the power of perspective. In the story, Candice thought she overheard her dad say something about "Danielle" living with him. She just assumed that her dad was dating someone else, but was somewhat surprised when she found out Danielle was actually Daniel. Candice was hearing what she wanted to hear, but she was not upset when she found out the truth. Johnson is showing the readers the appropriate way to handle a situation like this.
Socioeconomic Status
Candice's family is going through changes and is struggling with money. The focus of finding Parker's inheritance was to help her family keep the house they have. Brandon's family is even helping Candice's family as much as they can by providing food, clothes, and other opportunities. Some students will be going through similar times in their life so seeing this in a book is something that will help them find comfort in familiarity. Nancy Larrick, a poet and critic, says, "if children never see themselves in books, they receive the subtle messages that they are not important enough to appear in books and that books are not for them" (Boyd, 2015). The inclusion of socioeconomic status within the intertwined themes will help students see themselves and grow their self esteem.
"It is important to not just see self and others, but to recognize oneself in others."
(Boyd, 2015)
Preserving the Past
Varian Johnson states in the video above that a major theme in this book is preserving the past. Through various story lines in the book, Johnson doesn't lets almost every character tell their side of the story. Another thing that Johnson included in The Parker Inheritance was actual historical events that people may not know about. Personally reading some of the events, I didn't even know some of the information and had to learn more about it. Here are some examples to look further within:
ALTHEA GIBSON
Althea Gibson was the first African American woman to win Wimbledon. This became a controversy within the story when Dub decides to show this news off to the all white tennis team. It was a great time in history for African Americans because they were showing they are just as good as anyone else. This gave them courage to do other things as well, like challenge a white vs. black tennis math.
BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION
Everyone knows Brown vs. Board of Education was the fight was schools to ban segregation in public schools. Something I didn't know was the five cases that went along within this large case. In the book, Johnson references Briggs vs. Elliott. This case specifically took place in South Carolina, where the majority of this book took place. This was the fight to allow buses to take black children to school. Students were required to walk up to 8 miles to school when buses weren't provided. Learn more about the four other cases here:
Intertextuality is when "no text stands completely on its own, every text is interwoven with other texts, whether by words, illustrations, or various other forms of media" (Ciecierski, 2017). When we are able to provide multiple texts to a student they are able to increase their background knowledge. The text can be as simple as a picture of Althea Gibson or a short excerpt about Brown vs. Board of Education. Students may know a little bit about the event or person, but when we provide extra information through multiple texts or medium, we can connect to the story even more. There are several ways that we can connect to text, but by using the examples above, we can focus on companion texts. Companion texts are where you highly a single story or event within a text. It just helps us comprehend the detail even more.
Evaluate the Quality of Culturally Diverse Books
(BOYD, 2015)
1. Visual and Verbal Sensitivity
Throughout the text, we are visualizing what it might be like to be in the situation of the characters. This concept might be sensitive to the reader's who relate to the story. I believe that because the author has gone through similar situations in his life time because of the color of his skin, this is appropriately sensitive based on the visual aspects of the text. There is only one verbal sensitivity that needs to be noted within The Parker Inheritance. While referencing a racist note written in a yearbook, there is a negative remark about the country Niger being spelled incorrectly. This is something that needs to be mentioned to the reader before continuing the text.
2. Authenticity and Accuracy
It varies on people's backgrounds and experiences, but Johnson does a great job of making this book authentic and accurate about the perceptions in life today and even 100 years ago. He was able to relate his situation of being mistaken as drug dealers at the airport based on him and his brother's skin color to Candice and Brandon's experience at the library. The assistant principle assumed since both kids were black, they were trying to sneak into the school to steal something. He didn't even believe their true story of returning into the school to retrieve Tori's phone.
3. Ideology
Throughout the book, Johnson keeps his ideas relevant and true to what life is like today. He is continuing to follow everyday assumptions about people's lives based on what he has gone through, rather than simple facts. The concept of Civil Rights being passed, yet behaviors and perspectives haven't changed, shows Johnson's ideology throughout The Parker Inheritance.
Works Cited
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).
Ciecierski, L. M. (2017). What the Common Core State Standards Do Not Tell You About Connecting Texts. The Reading Teacher, 71(3), 285–293.
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Johnson, V. (2017, May 31). The Story Behind the Parker Inheritance. Retrieved October 5, 2019, from http://varianjohnson.com/books/the-parker-inheritance/story-behind-parker-inheritance/.