This blog post will be examining multiple perspectives and cultural differences and hardships. The book I will be focusing on for this blog is A Crack in the Sea by H.M. Bouwman.
In this blog post I will be examining the book A Crack in the Sea and giving resources on how to use this text to explain the middle passage on multi-perspectives.
A Crack in the Sea by H.M. Bouwman
No one comes to the Second World on purpose. The doorway between worlds opens only when least expected. The Raft King is desperate to change that by finding the doorway that will finally take him and the people of Raftworld back home. To do it, he needs Pip, a young boy with an incredible gift—he can speak to fish; and the Raft King is not above kidnapping to get what he wants. Pip’s sister Kinchen, though, is determined to rescue her brother and foil the Raft King’s plans.
This is but the first of three extraordinary stories that collide on the high seas of the Second World. The second story takes us back to the beginning: Venus and Swimmer are twins captured aboard a slave ship bound for Jamaica in 1781. They save themselves and others from a life of enslavement with a risky, magical plan—one that leads them from the shark-infested waters of the first world to the second. Pip and Kinchen will hear all about them before their own story is said and done. So will Thanh and his sister Sang, who we meet in 1978 on a small boat as they try to escape post-war Vietnam. But after a storm and a pirate attack, they’re not sure they’ll ever see shore again. What brings these three sets of siblings together on an adventure of a lifetime is a little magic, helpful sea monsters and that very special portal, A Crack in the Sea.
*Summary provided by the author on her website. https://hmbouwman.com/books/a-crack-in-the-sea/
Resources to connect to A Crack in the Sea:
*This poem is deep and insightful and shows a first person perspective on what it is like to be refugee and to flee from home. I would advice you to watch this video and/or read the poem before allowing your students to read it due to it's depth.
Click on this website to learn more about Warsan Shire, the author of the poem "Home" https://www.facinghistory.org/standing-up-hatred-intolerance/warsan-shire-home
*This video is a great way to introduce or further explain the slave trade which will anchor A Crack in the Sea. I watched several of his videos while studying for my teacher licensure test. He is very knowledgable and uses visuals to help explain certain issues or topics.
*This video was pulled from a TEDEd talk off of this website https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-atlantic-slave-trade-what-your-textbook-never-told-you-anthony-hazard
I would advice teachers to use this educational video or the one before this one to discuss the middle passage, which is what Venus, Swimmer, and Old Caesar are on when they are captured from their island. This can be a support resource for the book and help explain the real life events that occurred in the book.
This picture is of a semantic map I created of the words Slave and Refugee. This would be a good formative assessment to see what the student's prior knowledge is before starting this lesson. I would advise to do this again once you have taught the lesson to see how the student's map changes after learning more about the topic.
Notes on A Crack in the Sea for teaching and discussion
Characters to keep track of:
Swimmer
Kinchen
Pip
Venus
The Raft King
Caesar
Thahn
Sang
Mai
My notes:
Swimmer is the brother of Venus. He was found in the ocean and adopted by Uncle Caesar. Can talk to sea creatures. A slave.
Venus is the founder of Tathenn (the Islands). Orginally called Water Drinker, changed when she was captured. Found in the ocean with her brother Swimmer. A slave. Can walk underwater. A leader.
Pip is eleven. He is usually described as "not all there." He is Kinchen's little brother. Adopted by old Ren when he was two. Socially awkward. He has face blindness. He can talk to sea creatures and remember exactly what they look like.
Kinchen is twelve. She is Pip's protective older sister. Also adopted by Old Ren when she was three. Very strong willed. Has a white stripe in her black hair so Pip can recognize her.
Caesar is twelve. She was exchanged for Pip. From the Raftworld. Has a gift with the sea. She is now Kinchen's adopted sister. Very talkative and assertive.
Raftworld King is manipulative and demanding. He has only been king for a year. His mother died giving birth to him. He had an adopted mother named Amelia who had a gift with flying. His dad, the king before him, could talk to sea creatures. Amelia flew away and left him when he was five. Believed to have gone back to Africa. He has been trying to find a way there since she left.
Thanh is twelve. He is scatterbrained and daydreamy. He is Sang's brother. War refugee. Lives in Vietnam. Parents were killed. Has a storytelling gift. Fleeing the country with their "uncle", family friend. Thanh means bar in Vietnamese.
Sang is Thanh's sister. War refugee. Parents were killed. Lives in Vietnam. Likes to sew. Is older than Thanh. Patient with him. Fleeing the country with their "uncle", family friend. Sang means to in Vietnamese or with an accent it means shining.
Mai is adopted by Uncle Hung. She is pretending to be a boy on the boat. She is twelve. She was an orphan until adopted. Very skilled. Mai means roof in Vietnamese. Mai can control the ocean when she was in the 1st world and she can stand on top of the ocean in the second world.
I decided to focus on Pip for my character development notes. Pip is an eleven year old boy who was an orphan by the age of two. He has face blindness, meaning he cannot recognize faces and often forgets a person due to this. Due to this he is deemed "not all there" or dumb. People also think he is socially awkward. Before I fully knew about his facial blindness and Pip himself I thought he had autism based off of his sister, Kinchen's description of him. Learning more Pip starts to develop into his own person. When he is taken by the Raftworld King he gets to experience life on his own. The reader realizes that he is spirited and adventurous and was being held back by his label and "disability." Pip is sweet but can also be sassy, especially with the fish. He has a special talent to talk to sea creatures. Once he is at Raftworld he realizes that he is in control due to his talents. He starts to stand up for himself and become more of a leader. Obviously Pip misses his sister and his adopted grandfather, Old Ren, but I think he feels a sense of freedom in a way. His whole life his sister has controlled what he can and cannot do and he is finally able to break free from that. He has never wanted to upset his sister or make her worry more than she already does but he knows that he has a great talent and a sense of adventure that he needs to work out for himself.
Pip's job is to help bring the Raftworld back to Africa to see "help the population problem." He knows that the Raftworld King has different motives. He knows that he must tread lightly on this matter. He has to find a way to change the Raftworld's mind while making him seem like it was his own decision.
Here are some questions that you can give to guide your student's thinking.
● Defining character traits and emotions they exhibit--how do they exhibit these traits and emotions?
● Character's past experiences and how these experiences shape him/her/them?
● Goals/wants/desires—is there anything this character needs to resolve or make better?
● Worries/concerns/problems and how they (attempt to) solve them —what keeps this character awake at night?
● Questions…what questions do they have? What questions do you still have about your character?
Teaching moments:
I would have the students predict what was going to happen after being introduced to all the families. After hearing about Venus and Swimmer, Pip, Caesar, and Kinchen, and Thahn, Mai, and Sang to predict what they think will happen and how they think the families will meet. I have had my own predictions throughout the book and am excited as I read to see if they are right.
I would also have the students compare and contrast the three families in Venn diagrams. There also several similarities between the strong female characters. Venus, Sang, Kinchen and others like Mai and Caesar.
Another thing is to talk prior about orphans, refugees, and slaves. These are three words we hear a lot throughout the book. To have the students make a semantic map on these three words before reading the book and then compare it to one they make after reading the book would be a lesson I would teach.
This being my favorite teaching moment of all is to teach culture. I taught a unit on culture with my students while I student taught before a lesson on Cinderella's around the world. I had a booklet I made to teach compare and contrast, culture, summary, etc. I will attach this under my resource tab. I had my students read an article on culture and answer some questions to get them thinking about what culture is and what their culture looks like. This is a hard thing for some students to grasp. I had some of my friends from around the world send in videos about their culture. I had one friend from Japan, one from Hungary, one from Africa, and one from Brazil. My students were so engaged because they could relate it to something they knew or had experienced. This would be a perfect book to teach about Vietnamese and African cultures. It would also be interesting to think about it from the perspective of when it was written and compare it to their culture now.
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