Copper Sun
Publication Information
Author:  Draper, Sharon	Illustrator:
Title:  Copper Sun	Date:  2006
Publisher:  Atheneum	City:  New York
ISBN, paperback:  10-0-689-82181-6	ISBN, hardback:
Recommended audience:
ABE/ABLE:   Yes	ESOL:
Family:   Yes	Young Adult:   Yes
Picture:
General Information:
Book Type(s):    fiction, historical fiction
HSE Descriptor(s):    social studies
Summary:
Kidnapped from her African village, Amari survives the horrors of the ocean voyage and slavery at Derbyshire Farms before running away, heading south with an indentured servant and small slave boy. Amari's hope and perserverence help her and two others make the journey to freedom. This well researched book was inspired by Sharon Draper's visit to the slave castles in Ghana. In addition to an afterward highlighting real places used in the fiction, the author provides further resources of Internet sites (listed by topic) and books.
Teaching Ideas:
Readers will want to locate the story historically (colonial) and geographically from Africa to Carolina to Florida. Students could even figure the approximate miles the trio walked--and rode--to freedom. A timeline might help readers keep track of events. Or readers could keep a reading journal of the people who helped Amari along her journey. A discussion of new insights about slavery would provide material for a writing assignment: white Southerners who didn't condone slavery; intimate relationships between slave owners and slaves; role of indentured servants in the South; Spanish view of slavery; and the Utopian community at Ft. Mose. An important topic for discussion is what freedom meant to the players in the story.
Teaching Strategies:
Bleich's Heuristic for Responding to Reading    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/bleichs_heuristic.pdf
Discussion Webs    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/discussion_webs.pdf
DR-TA: Directed Reading Thinking Activity    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/dr_ta.pdf
Helping Students in the Writing Process    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/help_writing_process.pdf
Problem and Solution Outline and Text Frame    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/prob_solution.pdf
Keywords: select any link below for a list of resources which also have that keyword
Emotions-Personal Issues > emotions > determination/perseverance

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