Mystery and Mayhem

For the last six years I have used Robert McCammon's Boy's Life ($7.99; ISBN# 0671743508) to emphasize social unrest, violence and loss of innocence in the 1960s to my sophomore English students.

The story is centered on 12-year-old Cory Mackenson and his hometown of Zephyr, Ala., a white community that abuts the neighboring town of Bruton, a black community. The conflict is introduced when a non-racial murder occurs, and speeds up with an intricate plot centered on vivid racial issues.

My students, through McCammon's words, learn of the brutality of historical events including the bombing of the Birmingham 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four young black girls. The image of this senseless deed stays with Cory throughout the story. A similar act of terror is uncovered during the series of events in this story.

The real comprehension of the adolescent novel happens from written responses in the form of essays. Essay topics include prompts, such as:

• Analyze the plot to bomb the Community Center in Bruton and the actual events that happened in Birmingham, and show their correlation. How is the rationale of those accused similar?
• The scenes of violence in Boy's Life show the reader that even though Zephyr was a small town with a penchant for violence, the ugly side of humanity can permeate any area. Explain how some of the conflicts in the novel could have been rectified with simple conversation.
• More than 40 years have passed since the incidents in the story occurred. Have we become more tolerant of each other? Are we more accepting of those who are different? Have we learned to overcome our fears, biases and timidity to certain issues? What do you feel we have learned in the past four decades?

Ultimately, the real power of this reading comes as Cory, struggling to understand the forces of good and evil, arrives at an inner peace and realizes the world is an innocent place if he can let it be. This is a lesson benefiting us all.

Teaching Tolerance Recommends
This Is the Dream ($16.99; ISBN: 0-06-055519-X), by Diane Z. Shore tells the story of America's Civil Rights Movement throughout the South in both art and poetry and is a perfect complement to this lesson.