A Crack in the Sea & Dreamers
A Crack in the Sea is unlike anything I have ever read. Of course, this is something people can say about any book, but I really mean it about this one. Have you ever read a book that has two different worlds, follows the stories of several characters at once, and makes you feel a sense of adventure and heart-wrenching all at once?
No? Then you haven't read anything like A Crack in the Sea either.
One of the coolest aspects of this book is its historical fiction genre. This book follows the true events of the slave ship, Zong, and the story of its passengers. The slaves and the crew aboard Zong truly did fall ill and missed their destination of Jamaica entirely, making the ship run low on fresh water, food, and other provisions. The crew knew they wouldn't be able to make it to land with enough slaves to make a profit from. So they enacted a plan that would insure they could still be paid: toss the slaves overboard. Instead of following the grim tale that would eventually lead to each slaves' fatal death from drowning, HM Bouwman was able to create a Second World, a way for these slaves and captives to live on and make a better life for themselves.
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Three captives aboard the Zong- Venus, Swimmer, and their Uncle Caesar- save their fellow passengers by using their gifts with water and are able to walk along the ocean floor, into a portal, and are able to bring them all into the Second World. This world is free from harm or danger and people are able to live without fear. However, Swimmer and some of the former captives still wish to find a way back home. Venus, however, is happy living among the island people and makes her home there.
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Thus creates where the story takes place presently- on the island of Tathen and Raft World, where the people are sailing towards the unknown.
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To learn more about the Second World, its inhabitants, its visitors, and the epic stories all these characters have to share, read A Crack in the Sea for yourself.
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Dreamers tells the remarkable, and true, story of Yuyi Morales and her infant son, Kelly, as they ventured from their home in Mexico to the unknown, unfamiliar, and foreign land of El Paso, Texas. Once in America, Yuyi struggled to feel at home. She struggled to find her place, her value, and wondered how she could ever make this place feel like Mexico did to her.
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She was able to find home, interestingly enough, within the public library. Here, she and Kelly began spending the majority of their days reading, looking at illustrations, and exploring books she had never seen before.
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Yuyi writes "One of the most important things I learned at the library is that through books we can find our path and our purpose".
I hope to show my future students one day that they, too, can find their path and purpose inside a book.
Bouwman, H.M. A Crack in the Sea (2017). Penguin Publishing. London, England.
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Morales, Y. (2018). Dreamers. New York City, NY: Neal Porter Books.