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Discussion Module
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Pemba's Song: A Ghost Story Publishing Information: Scholastic Press: New York, 2008 |
Summary:
As fifteen-year-old Pemba adjusts to leaving her Brooklyn, New York, home for small-town Connecticut, a Black history researcher helps her understand the paranormal experiences drawing her into the life of a mulatto girl who was once a slave in her house.
Book Talk:
Pemba had not wanted to move here from her home in New York. But now her mother has a new job and this is their new home.
Something strange has been happening to Pemba since she and her mother moved into the old house in Connecticut. It started the very first night and since then Pemba has strange dreams, hears whisperings, and has even been walking in her sleep.
How do you solve a mystery that is hundreds of years old? What is happening to Pemba and why?
| Subject Headings & Major Themes: | African-Americans |
Awards & Reviews:
Booklist¸ November 1, 2008, p. 34
Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2008
School Library Journal, December 1, 2008, p. 124
Discussion Questions and Ideas:
- Initially Pemba dismisses Abraham as an insignificant “old man.” How does her opinion of him change during the course of the story? What changes her opinion?
- What was life like for Phyllis, the 18th century slave girl, when she lived in the house in Colchester, Connecticut?
- How does music help Pemba connect with her friends in Brooklyn? How does it help her connect with her deceased father?
- How does what Pemba learns about the history of African Americans in Colchester, Connecticut, about the old house she now lives in and about the Colored School change her opinion about moving to Connecticut?
Related Websites:
Author's Website - http://tonyacheriehegamin.com/home.htm
Museum of Connecticut History: http://www.museumofcthistory.org/index.asp
An interview with Marilyn Nelson: http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/authors/experts/nelson.asp
Read-a-Likes:
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson, 2006
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson, 2008
Caesar's Story, 1759 by Joan Lowry Nixon, 2000
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, 2008
The Color of Fire by Ann Rinaldi, 2005
Cold in Summer by Tracy Barrett, 2003
Come Juneteenth by Ann Rinaldi, 2007
Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper, 2006
The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein, 2008
Dominion by Calvin Baker, 2006
Fast Life by Cassadnra Carter, 2007
Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem by Marilyn Nelson, 2004
The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers, 1994
The Intruders by E.E. Richardson, 2006
M+O4evr by Tonya C. Hegamin, 2008
Molly Bannaky by Alice McGill, 1999
My Jim: A Novel by Nancy Rawles, 2004
New Found Land: Lewis and Clark's Voyage of Discovery by Allan Wolf, 2004
Pirates! by Celia Rees (2005 RITBA Nominee)
The Ring of the Slave Prince by Bjarne Reuter, 2003
The Secret of Laurel Oaks by Lois Ruby, 2008
Slave Day by Rob Thomas, 1997
Taking Liberty: The Story of Oney Judge, George Washington's Runaway Slaveby Ann Rinaldi, 2002
Time's Memory by Julius Lester, 2006
War Comes to Willy Freeman by James Collier, 1983
Wolf by the Ears by Ann Rinaldi, 1991
Other Books by the Authors:
Tonya C. Hegamin
M+O4evr, 2008
Most Loved in All the World, 2009
Marilyn Nelson
For the Body, 1978
Hundreds of Hens and Other Poems for Children, 1982 - translated from Danish with Pamela Espeland
The Cat Walked through the Casserole and Other Poems for Children, 1984
Mama's Promises: Poems, 1985
The Homeplace: Poems, 1990
Magnificat: Poems, 1994
The Fields fo Praise: New and Selected Poems, 1997
Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem, 2004
Carver: A LIfe in Poems, 2001
The Cachoeira Tales and Other Poems, 2005
A Wreath for Emmett Till, 2005
The Ladder, 2006
Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies & Little Misses of Color: Poems with Elizabeth Alexander, 2007
The Freedom Business: Including a Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venutre, Native of Africa, 2008
About the Author:
Tonya Hegamin grew up in Pennsylvania and New York and has wanted to be a writer since she was very young. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children from The New School University. About Pemba’s Song, she says, “Marilyn Nelson and I wanted to write a book for a friend of ours, Mr. Abraham Haqq, who, despite seemingly insurmountable odds, has accomplished an incredible amount of research about African-Americans contributions to the historic town of Colchester, Connecticut.”
Marilyn Nelson, writer and poet, was born in Ohio. Her father was a U.S. Airforce serviceman and Marilyn spent much of her early years traveling from one military base to another. She holds a B.A. from the University of California and post graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Minnesota. Her honors include two Pushcart Prizes, two creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, and the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award. Since 1978 she has taught at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, where she is a professor of English.
