Courtesy of ReadingGroupGuides.com

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Courtesy of ReadingGroupGuides.com
The Color of Water by James
McBride
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Summary

• Only the highlights!!!

By Diana Mehl
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Summary

• Parallel Story-telling
• Ruth and James
• How Past Reflects Future
• Parents influence childrens lives
• Identity and Race/ Ethnicity Relations
• Black/ White vs. Jewish/Christian
• Tribute to his mothers accomplishments
• Every child (12) went to college

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Summary

• Ruth (Rachel Shilsky) McBride- Jordan
• Jewish Orthodox
• Living in rural Virginia
• Ran away to Harlem
• Married African American Man
• Disowned from family
• Became Christian
• Mother of twelve children

• James McBride
• Biracial Man
• One of twelve Children
• Feared for mothers life
• Red Hook projects in Brooklyn
• Became journalist
• Discovered truth about mother
• Discovered truth about himself

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James McBride (Condensed) Biography

Courtesy of BarnesNobles.com
By Karen Schopf
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Parents

• Mother
• Ruchel Dwarja Zylska (Ruth Jordan McBride)-
  Polish, Jewish, White
• Father
• Reverend Andrew McBride- Baptist, Black
• Step-Father
• Hunter Jordan- Baptist, Black

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Education

• Bachelors in music composition from Oberlin
  College in Ohio
• Masters in journalism from Columbia University
  in New York

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Literary Career Author and Journalist

• Employers
• The Boston Globe
• The Washington Post
• People Magazine
• Rolling Stone

• Books
• The Color of Water A Black Mans Tribute to His
  White Mother
• Miracle at St. Anna

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Musical Career

• Written songs for Gary Burton, Anita Baker,
  Grover Washington Jr., and Everett Harp
• Toured with Michel Jackson and jazz artist
  Little Jimmy Scott.
• Wrote a jazz, hip-hop musical entitled Bobos
• Directed Lady Day a musical about Billie
  Holiday
• Wrote scores for All Roads Lead Home and Harlem
  Kids Symphony.
• Written several childrens songs, including some
  for the television series Barney.

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Awards (Partial List)

• Alton B. Jones Foundation Grant for Bobos
• American Arts and Letters Richard Rogers Awards
  (1996)
• Stephen Sondheim Award (1993)
• Anisfield Wolf Book Award (1997)

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Review

• My perspective on The Color of Water

By Molly Desmond
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Review

• Engaging and inspirational, James McBride
  creates an emotional, autobiographical piece
  highlighting the transcendence of racial and
  religious issues through a journey of
  self-discovery. With sequential chapter
  juxtapositions of James voice along side the
  echoes of his mother McBride creates a parallel
  that mirrors the histories of both mother and
  son. It is through these seemingly contrasting
  experiences that James is able to uncover their
  shared pains and rise above his personal trials
  through his mothers strong example.

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Review cont.

• Through the trinity of family love, education,
  and Christianity voiced daily by his mother,
  James is able to embrace her doctrine that race
  is subsidiary to the ideals that make an
  individual righteous. Through this eloquent work
  of truth and discovery, James McBride exposes a
  reflection between mother and son, a reflection
  between family and faith and a belief of why God
  is the color of water.

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History

• Understanding the context

By Maryanne Marlow
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HISTORY

• Malcolm X
• Harlem
• Black Power Movement

• The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was one
  of the leading organizations advocating Black
  Power. (Source J.C. Albert and S.E. Albert,
  eds., The Sixties Papers Praeger, 1984, 105)

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HISTORY

• The Great Depression
• Jewish Immigration
• Jewish African-Americans

• Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother,"

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Supplementary Materials for James McBrides The
Color of Water

• Be Prepared for Gallons and Gallons of Useful
  Information

Mr. Anthony J. Curtis
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Novels for Students

• Zack by William Bell
• A high school senior takes a road trip to find
  out about his African-American identity from his
  mothers side of the family.
• Jubilee Journey by Carolyn Meyer
• A multiracial teen discovers more about her
  African-American heritage when she visits her
  great-grandmother in Texas.
• I Have Lived A Thousand Years Growing Up In the
  Holocaust by Livita Bittion-Jackson
• Story of a thirteen-year-old girl who grew up
  during the Holocaust and was sent to a
  concentration camp.
• What Are You? Voices of Mixed Race Young People
  by Pearl Fayo Gaglens
• Book with interviews, essays, and poetry from
  over 40 young adults depicting their experiences
  with multiracial identities

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More Reading for Your Students(This is an
English class isnt it?)

• Motibas Tattoos A Granddaughters Journey into
  her India Family Past by Mira Kamdar
• Another Way Home The Tangled Roots of Race in
  One Chicago Family by Ronne Hartfield
• Depiction of authors life growing in multiracial
  Chicago home
• The House You Pass on the Way by Jacqueline
  Woodson
• Story of a thirteen-year-old daughter of an
  interracial couple

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Novels/Books for Teachers

• Trevors Story Growing up Biracial (Meeting the
  Challenge) by Bethany Kandel and Carol Halebian
• Black, Jewish, and Interracial Its Not the
  Color of Your Skin, but then Race of Your Kin,
  and Other Myths of Identity by Katya Gibel
  Azoulay
• Half and Half Writers on Growing up Biracial and
  Bicultural by Claudine C. OHearn
• Everything You Need to Know About Being a
  Biracial/Biethnic Teen by Nash, Renea D.

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More Novels/Books for Teachers(The More You Know)

• Of Many Colors Portraits of Multiracial Families
  by Gigi Kaeser- depicts the lives of multiracial
  familieslike a scrapbook
• Dreams From My Father A Story of Race and
  Inheritance by Barack Obama
• Life on the Color Line by Gregory Howard Williams
• Jeffersons Children The Story of One American
  Family by Shannon Lanier and Jane
  Feldman-historical materials, interviews, and
  photographs of both families

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Its Showtime Movies

• Mixing Nia-light hearted tale of a biracial woman
  grappling with identity issues.
• Secrets and Lies-story of an adopted upper-class
  black Londoner who seeks out her white mother.

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Now Its Time for the FEATURE PRESENTATION
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Memorable Scenes(Be Prepared I Cried.Yes I
Cried)

• Chapter 6-Sarah Janes Shame
• The end of Chapter 7-What color is Jesus?
• Chapter 14-Boyfriend beats Sarah Jane

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Dialogue.WordsTruth

• Its a sin to be a shame of who you are . . .
• She says nobody is her friend!
• How do you explain to your child she was born to
  be hurt?
• The Lord must have had His reasons!

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Possible Projects/Assignments You Could Use With
this Novel

• Interview parents/guardians and/or
  grandparents-present through a memoir, video
  documentary, or scrapbook
• Diversity Fishbowl-dispel rumors about different
  ethnicities
• Passages-explicate for significance and find song
  lyrics or poems that reflect ideas
• Reading Journal

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Source

• The Writer James McBride New York University
  Writers Institute. 1998. State University of
  New York. ride.html 17 November 2004.