Clifton, Lucille, Three Wishes. New York: Delacorte Press, 1992.
Three Wishes is a story about a young African American girl named Zenobia. On New Years day she finds a penny with her birth year on it on the ground while out walking with her friend Victor. Zenobia believes in the luck of the penny and that she has three wishes to make on the penny. When she jokingly says that she wished it was warm out on that cold winter day and the sun immediately came out, her and Victor began to think that the three wishes might really come true. However, afterwards in Zenobia’s house when she says she wished Victor would go away her second wish came true. After talking to her mom about what she would wish for Zenobia comes up with her last and final wish on her penny.
This story about wishes and friendship is written by Lucille Clifton using African American Language in both the dialogue and narration of the book. Clifton uses authentic grammatical forms of AAL as she uses words such as “somthin” and “walkin” in her text. This grammatical form of dropping the final consonant of the word, known as final consonant negation is a grammatical form of AAL. The characters in the book are all depicted as African American through the illustrations. Through the illustration the characters appear to live in a middle class neighborhood through the neighborhood depictions and the depiction of the way the characters are dressed in the illustrations. Through the use of authentic AAL in the text and the depictions of a middle class African American family this book appears to go against typical stereotypes of African Americans, and uses authentic language to create a story about friendship. Also, the topic of the book is something that could be relatable to children of all cultures, in that the plot is not culturally specific. However, the use of AAL in the text of the book adds cultural authenticity to the text and the African American characters in the book. For these reasons I believe this book is an example of diverse literature that could be added to a multicultural library.
This story about wishes and friendship is written by Lucille Clifton using African American Language in both the dialogue and narration of the book. Clifton uses authentic grammatical forms of AAL as she uses words such as “somthin” and “walkin” in her text. This grammatical form of dropping the final consonant of the word, known as final consonant negation is a grammatical form of AAL. The characters in the book are all depicted as African American through the illustrations. Through the illustration the characters appear to live in a middle class neighborhood through the neighborhood depictions and the depiction of the way the characters are dressed in the illustrations. Through the use of authentic AAL in the text and the depictions of a middle class African American family this book appears to go against typical stereotypes of African Americans, and uses authentic language to create a story about friendship. Also, the topic of the book is something that could be relatable to children of all cultures, in that the plot is not culturally specific. However, the use of AAL in the text of the book adds cultural authenticity to the text and the African American characters in the book. For these reasons I believe this book is an example of diverse literature that could be added to a multicultural library.
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