Both Blessed and Scarred

That is how I feel after finishing Sharon Draper's YA novel Copper Sun. Blessed to have read such a beautifully written piece of historical fiction charting the devastating passage of Amari into slavery, following the trauma of the middle passage, her purchase by a plantation owner as a birthday present for his 16 year old son, and the inhuman treatment throughout. And yet I am scarred for the same reason. The book is brutal, but it is beautiful too.

I'm glad I read this. I had been putting it off - the book has been on my coffee table for several weeks - because I knew how it would affect me. Like many of us who love to read, I frequently am emotionally involved in my reading. Always have been. Not with everything, of course, but I feel my books. Know my books, know me. Or, perhaps better stated: know my reading, know me.

I will find a way to integrate this book into my teaching someday. I know I will. Visit the author's site - she has assembled a wonderful bibliography of source material about slavery.