The book is set in Arizona on and around the Navajo Reservation in the early 1950s. Two pre-teen boys, Tommy and Ben Baker, are forced to spend summers with their strict missionary grandfather Ernest and vicious grandmother Nina. The boys’ father Sam, dominated by his stern parents, cannot deal with conflict or emotions.
The boys’ mother Eileen is a strong, competent woman who must negotiate the hazards of the patriarchal world of mid-20th Century America, and, help her sons navigate a set of unrealistic family rules. An old Navajo parishioner, Chester Yazzie, comes to be a spiritual guide to the boys and, earlier, to a Japanese-American, Kenji Kawasaki, imprisoned in the Leupp concentration camp.
Themes addressed in the novel include bullying, family rules, Navajo culture and history, treatment of Japanese-Americans and subjugation of minorities.
Undeserved Punishment
$15.00
How did these creatures manage to survive the extremes of Alaska’s environment? How were the Alaskan dinosaurs different from their counterparts elsewhere in the world? How have present-day animals and plants adapted to the harsh winters?
Open up to Ron Smith’s world and learn that the answer is not just in what these creatures are – their size or color or type of skin covering – but also in what they do. Smith highlights the most interesting of Alaska’s residents – the towering grizzly as well as the petite pika, the ‘coat-changing’ ptarmigan and the ever-popular salmon – to reveal nature at its amazing best. This insatiably curious scientist asks questions we would never think of to discover the wonder of this wild land. Part of the TPS Alaska series. Look at How Not To Die Hunting, Interior and Northern Alaska coloring book, Undeserved Punishment and Spirit Of The Arctic CD and DVD. Lesson plans, using the Alaska suite of resources, appear in K-12 ELAR and Science programs, and can be found in Texas and National programs. Have students compare the landforms and animals and plants of their State to Alaska.
| Format | Softback Black & White |
|---|---|
| State | Texas, California, National, Alaska |
| STEAM Program | > Mathematics, > Science, > English Language Arts |
| Grade | Middle School, Grade 6, Grade 7, Grade 8, High School, Grade 9, Grade 10, Grade 11, Grade 12 |