Molly Bannaky by Alice McGill and Chris K. Soentpiet, ill. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1999.
ISBN: 0-395-72287-X Subject/Genre: African American History, Biography Grades: 5-8
Like Coretta, watercolor paintings tells the story of a less famous spouse who spurred convention in pursuit of her own beliefs upon arrival in America after a sentence for a small transgression
Curricular connections: Could be easily paired with Coretta for a lesson on women's history month
Q/P: 4/4: The paintings, though well done, are exceptionally dark. Young people looking for a biography for a report will likely be interested.
BVG, 7/21/09
McGill, A. (1999). Molly Bannaky. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 039572287x 4Q/3P
Summary: Molly Walsh is sent from England to the Colonies as an indentured servant. Freed, she stakes her claim and purchases a slave, Bannaky, whom later she frees and marries. Her grandson was Benjamin Banneker, scientist and mathematician.
Media: Watercolor on illustration board
Curricular connections: Grades 5-7. History, biography.
KEM 4/29/08
Molly Bannaky by Alice McGill and Chris K. Soentpiet, ill. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1999. 0-395-72287-X
Annotation: A Story of Benjamin Banneker's grandmother who journeyed from England to Maryland in the late seventeenth century, worked as an indentured servant, began a farm of her own, and married a freed slave.
Media: watercolor on illustration board
Rating: 5th-7th 5Q/5P TOP TEN
Literary Device: Sophisticated Language
Curriculum Connection: Upper elementary; Teaches a part of history not found in textbooks, expanding understanding beyond the core requirements.
Sophisticated Language –
Alice McGill is not afraid to insert many difficult words in Molly Bannaky. She makes the assumption that her young readers can handle it. Examples are: obstinate, manor house, scullery maid, lordship, frothy, seep, boarded a ship, tended, callused . . . . There is not a page without at least two more complex words within the writing.
Identified as potential for Challenge - Encouraging the mixing of the races
Based on a true story, Molley Bannaky was a liberated woman of the 17th Century. After seven years of indentured servitude, she chose to strike out on her own and start a farm. She then had the audacity to marry a black man, a slave no less. I say audacity, not because I feel that way, but others - the challengers - might. I will say it was a bit shocking to turn the page and discover that Molley married her African handyman. It quickly turned to pleasant surprise to learn that a woman from so long ago was such a person of courage.
lvanburen/6-09
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.