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Set in Harlem in the 1920s, "Jazz" is the story of Joe and Violet and Joe's love for Dorcus, a girl young enough to be his daughter. This is Toni Morrison's first novel since her Pulitzer Prize-winning "Beloved". She has also written "Song of Solomon", "The Bluest Eye" and "Tar Baby". ... Read more

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The 1993 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Toni Morrison is well established as one of the leading voices in American letters. Even so, her novels are often read narrowly rather than expansively, read as literary artifacts rather than as dynamic cultural texts.

Without ignoring the literary and artistic achievements of Morrison's writing, Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches calls attention to the cultural and political dimensions of her work. Drawing on a diverse range of approaches and theories -- from W. E. B. DuBois to deconstruction and postmodernism, from black feminist criticism to reader response -- these essays investigate such timely issues as debates about canonization, about race and gender divisions in America, about the founding assumptions of African American identity.

Contributors: Barbara T. Christian, Marianne DeKoven, Dwight A. McBride, Patricia McKee, Richard C. Moreland, Toni Morrison, Rafael Perez-Torres, Nancy J. Peterson, James Phelan, Eusebio L. Rodrigues, Judylyn S. Ryan, Caroline M. Woidat

"These essays exemplify the kinds of issues being addressed in the nineties by scholars of Morrison and by the profession more broadly. The topics of the individual essays vary, but read together, they offer valuable insights into why Morrison has become a much celebrated, widely taught author." -- from the Introduction

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In this charmingly subversive reinterpretation of a classic tale, the Morrisons and Pascal Lemaitre take a hilarious look at bullying.

The cocky lion, the self-proclaimed "baddest in the land," believes himself invincible until he gets a thorn stuck in his paw. Only a weak little mouse can help him, but then the lion must indulge the mouse's ridiculous pride and appetite for power.

We, the creators of Who's Got Game?, were inspired by the wonder of Aesop's Fables -- their vitality, their endless demand for new interpretations.In our versions the original stories are opened and their moralistic endings reimagined: the victim might not lose; the timid gets a chance to become strong; the foool can gain insight; the powerful may lose their grip. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. More than a play on these beloved fables, Who's Got Game? is AESOP LIVE!

ALL AGESAmazon.com Review
Novelist Toni Morrison joins her son Slade and illustrator Pascal Lemaitre for a lively interpretation of one of Aesop’s better known fables. The trio, who last teamed up for The Book of Mean People, gives the blustery lion a chance to redeem himself after being fallen by a thorn--and lets readers see what happens when the mouse that rescues him lets his good deed go to his head. The moral of the story? "Listen up!/ Listen up!/ No ifs, maybes, ands, or buts./ The biggest bully in the land/ Does what he likes, takes what he can.../ ...believes the sizes of boots and paws/ are all you need to make the laws./ But strong or weak, big or small,/ A giant or an elf.../ Is he who wants to be a bully/ Just scared to be himself?" Hip kids will nod their heads to the beat of the lion’s strut, and chuckle at Lemaitre’s cartoon-framed illustrations. Hip grownups will let young readers mull over the Morrisons’ (and Aesop’s) message about bullying at their own pace. (All ages) --Emilie Coulter ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Baddest in the Land
Toni Morrison teams up with her son, Slade, to recreate this classic Aesop's fable.In the traditional story, a mighty lion gets a thorn stuck in its paw and must put pride aside to allow a weak little mouse remove it.The Morrison version offers animals that talk in rhyme and comic-strip illustrations. The "baddest lion in the land" struts around the savannah roaring about how powerful he is to the tiger, the hyena, the elephant, and the monkey...until he also gets a thorn stuck in its hind paw.Now the not-so-cocky lion must beg for help. The tiger, hyena, elephant, and monkey all refuse, giving him excuses that are pretty hilarious ("My wife is calling.My mother is sick.My roof is falling.I have fruit to pick.").They leave the poor lion lying in the dirt.Then a tiny mouse squeaks up with an offer to help IF the lion promises not to eat him afterwards.The lion quickly agrees to be "friends forever."Here authors Morrison give the story a twist; the next day the mouse wakes up with new-found power and struts around like HE is the "baddest lion in the land."Of course the tiger, hyena, elephant, and monkey all think this is absolutely ridiculous and laugh at the poor mouse.Morrison concludes the story with a moral in true Aesop fashion.An enjoyable adaptation!

Very good!!
Excellent rhyming. It's a hip-hop update of an Aesop Fable favorite. My son and daughter really enjoyed reading it themselves, and having me read it.

Adding a zany and fun side to the tale
Comic-book-style four-panel color drawings by Pascal Lemaitre provide an inviting format in Toni and Slade Morrison's "Who Got Game?" series. Their retelling of the classic Aesop fable about the lion and the mouse extrapolates quite a bit on the original, adding a zany and fun side to the tale and truly wonderful illustrations.
... Read more

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This is one of six volumes of literary criticism launching the Amistad Literary Series which is devoted to literary fiction and criticism by and about African Americans ... Read more

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Reading, Learning, Teaching Toni Morrison draws on contemporary scholarship and Morrisons own commentary to explicate all of her novels published to date, including her 2008 novel A Mercy. ... Read more

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Toni Morrison has collected a treasure chest of archival photographs that depict the historical events surrounding school desegregation. These unforgettable images serve as the inspiration for Ms. Morrison"s text—a fictional account of the dialogue and emotions of the children who lived during the era of "separate but equal" schooling. Remem-ber is a unique pictorial and narrative journey that introduces children to a watershed period in American history and its relevance to us today. Remember will be published on the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision ending legal school segregation, handed down on May 17, 1954. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

"Separating does not work"
"Separating does not work"
Remember The Journey to School Integration
By: Toni Morrison
2005 Coretta Scott King Book Award
The book is about how the 1950's changed the lives for many young black people that attended a segregated school.Segregation through the school district was legal but were suppose to equal with each other. The black school were quite inferior to those of their white counterparts. The book takes on the perspective of a young black girls speaking on why they don't feel white is any better than them and really do not understand why they are so different. The names of these schools actually had the words colored in the names of their school, Danneel Colored Public School. I guess this was so that no white person dare to try to enroll their children in this school. In May 17, 1954 the supreme court announced a decision in Brown Vs Board Education that separation of school are not equal. A lot of people did not like the decision but eventually were made to comply. There are many pictures in this book that describe the scene without words. The pictures speak for themselves. For instances whites started looting because they did want their white children going to go to school with black children. The whites did not send their children to school due to blacks. Blacks were treated as criminals.Very few accounts in the books where whites are actually being civil to the black community. This book gives you segregation from a child's perspective. It makes it a little more real and a little more sad.

Good History Lesson
I bought this for a local school library and they loved it.The librarian said it was difficult to find books about African American history so I was happy to find this one.

Outstanding collection of photographs!
Toni Morrison has done a fabulous job in making the reader feel like they were a part of the desegregation of schools. In beginning the book with "This book is about you" she opens the door to readers both African American and white.She equally invites the reader to learn that "in every way, this is your story." Young students can feel like a part of the story through the photographs of young children in school learning like they do, playing as they do, and having families just like they have. This would be an excellent addition to any school teacher's collection.

Toni Morrison: an excelent writer and a wonderful human being
Remember, the journey to school integration is both a powerful and beautiful book and a strong reminder of how fresh (should I say present?) discrimination is, and also how the determination and strength to face violence and incomprehension can overcome deep prejudices.
Toni Morrison, (whom I thank every day for opening for me a window into de black world and way of thinking) with her fluent, elegant and sober writing, leads us to remember a time of struggle and advancement into an equal society, which is a goal we are still far from attaining.
This is a book to see, read and keep near at hand in order to be able to keep watch against prejudice and lack of tolerance. We can strive for a better and more just social world.
Javier Olmedo
Mexico City, Mexico

When love was an ember about to billow
When I was younger I used to love going to antique stores to buy old photographs.Usually these stores would have huge bins of old shots of families, individuals, and places.Finding the ones I thought were the most original, I bought them and gave each one its own name and history, entirely of my own making.I could pore over a single photograph for hours, enlivening it with a background that I myself would never be able to prove or disprove.But each photo was a staged affair.Its participants knew that they were being photographed.How different it would be to do the same thing, only with photos that highlighted a particular historical moment in our nation's history.In "Remember: The Journey To School Integration", authorial god Toni Morrison does just that.She takes photos that highlight the struggles and heroism of the civil rights activists (and their children) during the early years of southern integration and gives many of them their own little comment or story.Taken individually the photos are eye-opening affairs, even for adults that lived through those turbulent years.Taken as a whole they tell a tale that we should never forget.

The book is, in its own words, "a unique pictorial and narrative journey that introduces children to a watershed period in American history".In many children's books, such a title would begin with an Author's Note that speaks to adults about what the writer is attempting to accomplish.Morrison takes a different route.She speaks immediately to the child readers of this book."This book is about you", she explains.She tells the kids about this dark period in American history.She gives them a briefing in the history and the multitude of reasons why we shouldnever forget that this occurred.Then the pictures begin.They're all black and white images of a time long past.Segregated schools, dilapidated and far from equal.Small children like Ruby Bridges being led past screaming mobs of white people.Sit-in protesters smashed with eggs and glasses of water by red faced restaurant employees.Some of these pictures are familiar.The white and colored drinking fountains, for example.Some of them you'll have never seen before.White boys chasing a black one on the first day of integration at Central High School.An angry mob overturning a car containing black passengers.Children in Ku Klux Klan robes.But best of all are the photographs of the schoolchildren in the schools.The wary glances shared between white and black students (as displayed on the cover).The hand holding and learning under a single teacher.You can tell by looking that there's still a long way to go but that first step has already been taken.And Toni Morrison has helped to bring you there.

Morrison's words usually fit each picture perfectly.I thought she might have been giving a white boy carrying a boy carrying an anti-segregationist sign with his two friends a bit of a benefit of the doubt when she wrote, "I don't know.My buddies talked me into this".But it's nice of her to show that perhaps not all the white people presented here were evil.She also shows photographs of white people marching in protest with black, so you've a sense that the civil rights movement spanned all races and creeds.Her words give the child reader a chance to think and ponder what they see.Everyone here has a voice.Whether the reader agrees with that voice is not always a given.

"Remember" is an excellent way to introduce kids to a harsh moment in our nation's past.This type of format works perfectly with the subject matter.Better still, this is one way of showing to kids how children were the battleground of one of the nation's most contentious movements.Toni Morrison does their memory proud.A must for every library.
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Customer Reviews (676)

Great Story, Bad Formatting
My biggest complaint with this book was the formatting that was used for the Kindle Edition.Instead of breaking it down into three parts with individual chapters in between, they chose to split the book up into three chapters.This makes it extremely problematic when reading and discussing with a group who is using the book.

Had to close it.
Was enjoying it until Beloved "strangled" on a raisin. After a stupid part like that I had to stop reading it. I assumed Miss Morrison meant choked, and how can a full grown woman choke on something as small as a raisin? Who chokes on a raisin? Couldn't she have just said it was an olive or somethin?

The Story of US
* " Toni Morrison's Beloved is one of the great American novels. Beloved looks beneath the surface of the plantation life. Morrison lets everyone see the horrors of life for African-American people as chattel slaves. She also exposes the horrors for African-American people living in reconstruction. Beloved could easily extend out to Jim Crow living or 21st century living of African-American people in the United States. Beyond the social statements that beloved makes, there is the quality of the literature. Morrison is a world class literary figure that takes the reader on an exhilarating ride through the characters and time in the Nobel Prize winning Beloved." - [...]tales from tim

Past, Present, and Future.
Dealing with the past: In the most abstract, non-contextual, sense, Toni Morrison explores the issue of dealing with the past. Beloved is a story about former slaves. From here, you see the destroyed identities these characters have due to slavery and their own inability to cope with the past and past actions. It inhibits one to form a coherent self-identity, thus an inability to learn how to deal with traumas and go forward. Lastly, there is something to be said about community. Community is needed. It provides solidarity, the connections that people need for social support, whatever it might be. Sethe's past actions cut that support from the community. However, the community is also at fault for their view of Sethe and Baby Suggs. Both sides eventually reconcile and that is what Morrison explores. Dealing with the past: You must reconcile what has happened with what is happening in order to have a better feature. However, you cannot do that without knowing what has happened. This is what the character Denver represents, someone willing to ignore the past and thus unable to reconcile herself and her current situation. When she is confronted with knowledge of the past and learning what has happened instead of ignoring history, she starts to reconcile her family with the community.
In turn, the community begins to reconcile with the residents of 124 and make up for their past mistakes Make no mistake though, this is about the destruction slavery has caused and while sad and depressing, the end provides an idea of hope: That eventually we can reconcile what has happened with what is happening and build a better future. Lastly, I applaud Morrison for her use of the supernatural. Whether drawn from African Culture or use of Christian Symbolism, it adds to the story because it implies there is something greater than ourselves that will make us confront that which we do not want to confront.

Do not buy Audio version if hard of hearing
I tried to listen to the CD version of this book. Morrison reads it herself. She should have hired a professional. I listen to books in my car. There is road noise. Even with my hearing aids and the volume turned to max I could not understand much of what she was saying -- even when the car was stopped. She talks in this breathless, whispering, trailing off at the end of words sort of way. Those of you with hearing issues know what I am talking about. Get the written version if you want to read this book. ... Read more

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It was perhaps the most wretchedly aspersive race and gender scandal of recent times: the dramatic testimony of Anita Hill at the Senate hearings on the confirmation of Clarence Thomas as Supreme Court Justice. Yet even as the televised proceedings shocked and galvanized viewers not only in this country but the world over, they cast a long shadow on essential issues that define America.

In Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power, Toni Morrison contributes an introduction and brings together eighteen provocative essays, all but one written especially for this book, by prominent and distinguished academicians--black and white, male and female. These writings powerfully elucidate not only the racial and sexual but also the historical, political, cultural, legal, psychological, and linguistic aspects of a signal and revelatory moment in American history.

With contributions by:
Homi K. Bhabha, Margaret A. Burnham, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Paula Giddings, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Claudia Brodsky Lacour, Wahneema Lubiano, Manning Marable, Nellie Y. McKay, Toni Morrison, Nell Irvin Painter, Gayle Pemberton, Andrew Ross, Christine Stansell, Carol M. Swain, Michael Thelwell, Kendall Thomas, Cornel West, Patricia J. Williams ... Read more

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Issues just as important today as they were then.
Take one overwhelmingly male-centered and predominantly white society, add huge portions of power, racism, sexism, a misinformed public and gross displays of injustice, and you've got a recipe for the American way.This collection of essays written at the time of the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings holds every bit of relevance now as it did nine years ago. Highlighting earlier civil rights legal battles and connecting their influence to the hearings themselves, each essayist examines in progressive detail just how pervasive--indeed, how dangerously latent--racism and sexism are in our society.How the volatile and often avoided issue of race can blind the equally volative and often dismissed issue of sexism in any race.In these essays, we are given a shockingly clear image of the circus that was the mishandling of the hearings.Explosive, revealling, and thought-provoking, this book yanks the proverbial rose-colored glasses from our collective American conscience and dares us to think for ourselves. ... Read more

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On the occasion of her acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on the sixth of November, 1996, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison speaks with brevity and passion to the pleasures, the difficulties, the necessities, of the reading/writing life in our time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

The Dancing Mind
One of the best speeches you'd ever want to read or listen to....I have listened to it many many times over---exquist writing and insiration.

roma guy

Read.. And Grow
This amazing work is about the pleasure and intellectual stimulation one can find through reading.Dance to a different drum and check this out.

A Different Kind of Dance to a Different Kind of Beat
The fact that the first African-American to win the Nobel Prize for literature is reading this amazing work on the pleasures of intellectual stimulation and growth through reading is really the only qualification it needs to command the highest recommendations. Nevertheless, by moving beyond the sense of awe that Toni Morrison tends to inspire just by being Toni Morrison, one is able to delve into the wonders of her own dancing mind as revealed in this thrilling audio book. Morrison's original and illuminating insights invite readers to enjoy a different kind of aesthetic dance to a different more individually empowered kind of intellectual beat. Here, fascination meets knowledge with significant purpose.

Aberjhani
author of "Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance"
"The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois"
and "Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black"

You can almost hear Morrison's voice reading the speech
"The Dancing Mind" is not your typical book.It is not a fiction book, nor is it really a non-fiction book."The Dancing Mind" is a speech Toni Morrison gave when she accepted The National Book Foundation Medal.This is a very slim volume, coming in at only 17 pages, but it is an opportunity to read something that I never would have encountered anywhere else.

Toni Morrison gave two unrelated anecdotes, but tied them together at the end of the speech.The first was a story of a young man from an affluent family.He grew up being forced to read certain book and participate in certain activities, and when he was finally out of school, he had no inclination to ever read another book.The only experience of reading he had was for an assignment and for a grade, and never for pleasure. The second story was of a woman writer and approached her, telling Morrison of the difficulty of writing honest literature while living in a country that would suppress literature.

The only connection between the two is that the both deal with books, one from the reader's perspective, the other from the author's.Morrison combines these two into a brief discussion on the necessity of reading and writing, and the enjoyment that can be found from each, and how these are necessary despite (or perhaps, because) of how much of an industry books has become.

This is such a short speech that it won't take up much time to read it, and I think I heard the cadences of Morrison's speaking voice while reading the text.I would imagine that hearing Morrison give the speech would be a superior experience over reading it, but I'm glad that I read it.This is an acceptance speech, but it gives an insight into the mind of Toni Morrison.

AMANDATE FOR A NEW PEACE
Acceptance speeches can be dull affairs. Those in attendance are expected to politely tolerate the honorer's remarks as they drone on and on about nothing. Such is not the case with Toni Morrison's acceptance speech for the National Book Foundation Medal. Ms Morrison's words are powerful, poignant and challenging. What she has to say is worth our attention and action.

Entitled, "The Dancing Mind", Toni Morrison's brief speech points out two dangerous environments that readers and writers
face in today's world. The first is the attitude that reading is a means to an end (merely for obtaining a trophy) and the second, that writing is a subversive activity that needs to be suppressed. She shares with us two anecdotes which illustrate these negative environments and issues a challenge to the Book World.

Morrison challenges the book industry to become a conduit of dispensing knowledge to both the entitled and dispossessed. In doing so minds will be able to engage one another. She also puts out the call for the industry to foster a supportive environment for the writer free of private, governmental or cultural controls. Developing such a peace is one in which all of those in the book business should aspire.

Her words forces us to move beyond reading for the purpose of taking a test or because it is a class assignment. We're sensitized to the fact that many writers are under oppressive regimes. A written word from them would mean a death sentence. Our reading and writing is a serious business and we who engage in the free sharing of thought need to take it seriously.

Although this slim volume is only seventeen pages it is well worth having in your collection of Morrison's works. It is also a great gift book for those who want to engage their dancing minds. ... Read more

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With the continued expansion of the literary canon, multicultural works of modern literary fiction and autobiography have assumed an increasing importance for students and scholars of American literature. This exciting new series assembles key documents and criticism concerning these works that have so recently become central components of the American literature curriculum. Each casebook will reprint documents relating to the work's historical context and reception, present the best in critical essays, and when possible, feature an interview of the author. The series will provide, for the first time, an accessible forum in which readers can come to a fuller understanding of these contemporary masterpieces and the unique aspects of American ethnic, racial, or cultural experience that they so ably portray.

This casebook to Morrison's classic novel presents seven essays that represent the best in contemporary criticism of the book. In addition, the book includes a poem and an abolitionist's tract published after a slave named Margaret Garner killed her child to save her from slavery--the very incident Morrison fictionalizes in Beloved. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Morrison's best....a dramatic tale plagued by its past
Toni Morrsion's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Beloved, deals with the self-sacrifice of motherhood, the black experience in America, and an unescapable history which will haunt the bravest at heart.First, shecreates an elaborate, detailed story for the reader and secondly, she spinsthe literary web together by alterating between past and present.Morrisondoes an extraordinary job in portaying the trials and tribulations ofslavery shortly after the Civil War.Also, Toni's greatest aspect andtechnique of Beloved, is her use of the past ruling the present, thisenables the reader to know more about the character than the character mayknow about themself. The theme of the novel which I found mostintriguing was the aura of the book itself.The gothic tale conjured someof the most deep-rooted feelings from my soul.The book is definately amasterpiece of its time and history as well.And it feels extraordinary tohave a piece of history in the palms of your hands. ... Read more

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A traditional yet fresh approach to grasping the power of Morrison's writing

With essays by Yvonne Atkinson, Marc C. Conner, Susan Corey, Maria DiBattista, Barbara Johnson, Cheryl Lester, Katherine Stern, and Michael Wood

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison's novels have almost exclusively been examined as sagas illuminating history, race, culture, and gender politics. This gathering of eight essays by top scholars probes Morrison's novels and her growing body of nonfiction and critical work for the complex and potent aesthetic elements that have made her a major American novelist of the twentieth century.

Through traditional aesthetic concepts such as the sublime, the beautiful, and the grotesque, through issues of form, narrative, and language, and through questions of affect and reader response, the nine essays in this volume bring into relief the dynamic and often overlooked range within Morrison's writing. Employing aesthetic ideas that range from the ancient Greeks to contemporary research in the black English oral tradition, The Aesthetics of Toni Morrison shows the potency of these ideas for interpreting Morrison's writing. This is a force Morrison herself has often suggested in her claims that Greek tragedy bears a striking similarity to "Afro-American communal structures."

At the same time each essay attends to the ways in which Morrison also challenges traditional aesthetic concepts, establishing the African American and female voices that are essential to her sensibility. The result is a series of readings that simultaneously expands our understanding of Morrison's work and also provokes new thinking about an aesthetic tradition that is nearly 2,500 years old.

These essays offer a rich complement to the dominant approaches in Morrison scholarship by revealing aspects of her work that purely ideological approaches have obscured or about which they have remained oddly silent. Each essay focuses particularly on the relations between the aesthetic and the ethical in Morrison's writing and between the artistic production and its role in the world at large. These relations show the rich political implications that aesthetic analysis engenders.

By treating both Morrison's fiction and her nonfiction, the essays reveal a mind and imagination that have long been intimately engaged with the questions and traditions of the aesthetic domain. The result is a provocative and original contribution to Morrison scholarship, and to scholarship in American letters generally.

Marc C. Conner is an assistant professor of English at Washington and Lee University. He has published articles in Studies in American Fiction and Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Understanding Toni Morrison
This collection of literary criticism is one of the best I've read. The new standard it presents as the basis for criticism is aesthetics.There is no jargon in these essays. I was especially pleased to read literary criticism written by women.Most importantly, these essays illuminated Morrison's writing and gave the authenticity of the book back to the author where I believe it belongs. ... Read more