Anne Dyson confronts race and racism head-on with this ethnographic study of a child's efforts to belong--to be a child among children. Follow the journey of a small Black child, Ta'Von, as he moves from a culturally inclusive preschool through the early grades in a school located in a majority white neighborhood. Readers will see Ta'Von encountering obstacles but finding agency and joy through writing and music-making, especially his love of the blues. Most attempts at desegregating schools are studied by reducing individual children to demographic statistics and test scores. This book, instead, provides a child's perspective on challenges to classroom inclusion. Ta'Von's journey demonstrates that it is within children's peer worlds--formed in response to institutional policies and practices like desegregation initiatives, standardized testing, and a curricular focus on so-called "basic literacy skills"--that inequity becomes part of the experience of childhood. This book examines policies about literacy testing and teaching, including the potential power of the written word and of the arts.
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