I see teachers using my books in the classroom to introduce historical figures or historical events to their students so my books can be the jumping off point. For example, Birmingham, 1963 might be the jumping off point for a discussion of the Civil Rights Movement. My poems have such a powerful punch that they automatically make kids want to know more.
They want to know, first of all, did this really happen, because today’s kids can’t fathom things like segregation. They can’t believe that America allowed such a system to exist, and rightly so. I’m glad they can’t believe it because it was ludicrous.
Once they read my books, they can then begin to read maybe longer works, novels, for example, chapter books set during the same time or they might do research projects or just social studies, just the social studies core area about the Civil Rights Movement or about segregation or the slavery era and other periods and people that I write about.