Francie is a young African American girl who is growing up in Noble, Alabama. She lives with her mother and brother after her father has moved to Chicago to start a better life for their family. As she is waiting for her father to "send for them" life has to continue like normal and they must continue to work and attend school. Francie loves school, she loves her teacher, and most of all she loves to read. One day, a boy named Jesse Pruitt arrives to school. He is older and never has been seen before. Soon into his first day, they all become aware that Jesse cannot read. Francie volunteers to tutor him because of her love for school and her need to help people. Shortly after Jesse starts school his father comes and pulls him out so that he can work to help the family more. Later in the book, Jesse is accused of assaulting his boss and is on the run. Francie is one of the only people who believe her friend is innocent and she has to figure out what to do, help her friend and potentially hurt her family and community, or let her friend get caught. This book is full of adventure and hard life choices for Francie. I would high suggest this book for young adults and even middle school. I think that this book is great! I have always known about the prejudice in the world, but this book actually made me feel as if I were apart of it. I was able to really connect with the characters and found myself upset when this book ended! I want to know what happened to the characters! Did they make it to their father and husband in Chicago? Was there another family and that's why it took him so long? What happened to Jesse? Clarissa? Even Holly Grace! ( )

Francie is the story of a young black girl who lives in Alabama. Her father is working in Chicago and sending money home. Francie begins tutoring Jesse, a young man who can't read. His father pulls him out of school and makes him go to work, then the father runs off leaving him on his own and his younger brother and sister in the care of relatives. Jesse is fasely accused of assaulting a man. Francie has to decide whether to risk her family or to help her friend. The lessons about bullying, discrimination, hardship and believing when it is easier to give up are all there in this wonderful book. I found myself getting angry with the way some of the whites treated the blacks. When the sheriff was looking for Jesse he walked into Francie's house to look around without permission. Worse than that, her mother had made a welcom homecake for her father and the sheriff helped himself to a chunk of the cake. I guess my feelings were so strong because I grew up in a non-prejudiced home and the prejudice was evident here. Several of my students read this book for their summer reading project. However, Cheyenne kept insisting I read the book and actually brought hers in for me to borrow. This is a book I must now purchase for my shelves. I have put a piece of paper up for my students to make book recommendations to me since so many of them have read books I haven't and I am learning that this group of kids seems to know what is good. ( )

English, K. (2002). Francie. New York: Sunburst.



0374424594



Set in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Francie lives with her mother and brother in the segregated Alabama while her father works and sends money from Chicago. Francie helps her mother work various jobs and attends school while she dreams of being able to move north and have access to “possibilites”. She faces bullying and many small injustices under segregation. When a teenager she is teaching to read is accused of attempting to murder a white man, Francie faces the choice of whether or not to help him with the risk that will make life become more difficult for her family and all of the other blacks living in her town.



While this well-written book is not a formal mystery, Francie’s love for Nancy Drew novels and her clever ways of getting back at those who torment her add a sense of tension that helps the book feel like a historical mystery.



Also worth noting, Francie does complicate issues of race beyond whites=evil, blacks=victims. There are a few white characters who are presented in a positive light and some black characters who Francie is less than fond of for understandable reasons.



Activities to do with the book:



There are multiple references to other works of literature, including Nancy Drew mysteries, War and Peace and the poems of Langston Hughes that a teacher could base lessons around. A teacher could also emphasize the power of literacy, since many of the supporting characters wish they could read as Francie does.



A teacher could also use this book as a basis for lessons on American history, including information on transportation, economic conditions, criminal justice and segregation.



When discussing segregation, this is a good book to show the subtle forms of racism and discrimination that occurred on a daily basis. A daring teacher could also consider whether some of these small injustices still continue in present-day American society as well.



Another way of connecting this text to recent events is to consider how assumptions over Jesse’s guilt or innocence were divided along racial identity. A teacher could draw parallels to judgments people made about OJ Simpson when he was on trial for murder.





Favorite Quotes:



“I did something to that cat, I admit it. But that cat did something to me first” (p. 3).



"I was innocent, but the world had decided to make me guilty. Why did I feel so guilty?" (p. 61).

“God had blessed me with knowing I could fight my way out of my circumstances, if need be” (p. 63).

For more of my reviews, check out sjkessel.blogspot.com.

Francie’s Daddy has moved to Chicago to work on the Railroad and promises to send for them; those promises keep stacking up with no keeping it in sight. The Weaver’s live in the colored section of Noble, Alabama--Three Notch Road. Francie and Prez’s Mama stands strong against egregious racism and bigotry, but manages through hard work, and clever quick thinking to prevent life in this situation to trod them down. Helping Jesse, the boy Francie decided she would teach to read, when he is, of course, unfairly accused and hunted, brings jeopardy to their family. English does not merely present a black injustice diatribe; there are the Augustines and Clarissas as well, but seeking to explicate life in the South and how it felt to live there from the perspective of a 13 yr. old girl.
If You Liked This, Try: Yolonda’s Genius by Carol Fenner, Winners Take All by Fred Bowen, Once on This Island by Gloria Whelan, Vision of Beauty: The Story of Sarah Breedlove Walker by Kathryn Lasky, The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz.
Awards: Coretta Scott King. ( )