{"id":418,"date":"2013-01-08T19:20:40","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T19:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/cindy2\/index.php\/2013\/01\/08\/the-power-of-a-book\/"},"modified":"2019-10-23T12:54:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T16:54:42","slug":"the-power-of-a-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/2013\/01\/08\/the-power-of-a-book\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of a Book"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday I walked home with my kindergarten nephew G after school. He was telling me about his day (both real and imagined, that’s how he is) then stopped and asked, “Do you know the song ‘Follow the Drinking Gourd’?”<\/p>\n

I told him I did, and he proceeded to tell me about it. His class had read the picture book and they were singing it in school. Through his snack, he kept asking me questions: Which side were the good guys? Did brother fight brother? What were slaves? Were there slaves in Vermont? Why didn’t the slaves fight their masters?<\/p>\n

\"pink<\/a>I had a copy of Pink and Say<\/em> by Patricia Polacco, so we read it. It took us almost an hour. “Wait,” he would say. “I have a question.” He had lots. Why didn’t Pink’s mother follow the drinking gourd? Why was it against the law to learn to read? Why? Why? Why?<\/p>\n

At the end of the book, I read the closing words that ask the reader to say Pink’s name before shutting the book and vow to remember him.<\/p>\n

“Are we going to do that?” G asked.<\/p>\n

“Sure,” I said.<\/p>\n

He hopped off the couch and stood very straight. “Aren’t you going to do it with me?” he said. “You have to do it with me.”<\/p>\n

I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do. We needed to say Pink’s name and remember him. But I stood up next to him.<\/p>\n

“Let’s do it together,” he said. He stood up as tall as a five-year-old can. We said “Pink” together, and with one arm in front and one arm in back, he took a deep bow.<\/p>\n

He will remember Pink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I walked home with my kindergarten nephew G after school. He was telling me about his day (both real and imagined, that’s how he is) then stopped and asked, “Do you know the song ‘Follow the Drinking Gourd’?” I told him I did, and he proceeded to tell me about it. His class had … Continue reading “The Power of a Book”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1207,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions\/1207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}