University Libraries & EOP Spring Book Clubs: I Am Alfonso Jones
Cover
Discussion Questions
- Medina includes real-life victims of police brutality (such as Eleanor Bumpurs and Amadou Diallo) as the ancestors that help guide Alfonso in the afterlife. What do you know about these ancestors? How do their stories echo Alfonso’s experiences?
- I Am Alfonso Jones highlights the aftermath of Alfonso’s death for his loved ones. How does Alfonso try to help the ones he has left behind? How do they help him on his journey on the Ark of Souls?
- Take a close look at the graphic novel’s illustrations. How do the illustrators Robinson and Jennings use black and white to convey the novel’s actions? Besides color, how are other ways that illustrations are important to understanding Alfonso’s journey?
- Before his death, Alfonso and his classmates are rehearsing a hip-hop version of the classic Shakespeare play, Hamlet. What are the similarities between Hamlet’s plot and the events of Alfonso’s life and death? Are there other classics works that you’re familiar with that resonate with the novel?
- Although I Am Alfonso Jones is fiction, the story reflects a reality for far too many young people. African American youth like Kimani Gray, Rekia Boyd, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, and Tamir Rice also died at the hands of law enforcement. How does the graphic novel humanize Alfonso? How might we retell the stories of victims of violence to emphasize their full humanity? Would you draw a picture, write a poem or story, make a song, or something else? What would you include in your creation?
- How do you define justice? Discuss some examples of the injustices in your community. What do you think racial justice means?
- What is the job of the police? Describe the relationship the police have with the people in your community.
- What do you know about the Black Lives Matter movement? What are some other examples of political activism or social justice movements?
- What do you know about Harlem? The Bronx? Have you been to either of those places? If not, how did you learn about them?
- What is your perception of the American criminal justice system? What experiences have formed your view? What do you know about racial profiling? Police violence?
Discussion questions adapted from The Seattle Public Library's University Branch Teen Book Club Blog
Additional Resources
Other social justice themed graphic novels in the UB Libraries
Yummy by Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor - American Library Association (ALA) Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Nominee A graphic novel based on the life and death of Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, an eleven-year-old gang member from Chicago's Southside who was killed by his own gang members. Eleven-year-old Roger is trying to make sense of his classmate Robert "Yummy" Sandifer's death, but first he has to make sense of Yummy's life. Yummy could be as tough as a pit bull sometimes. Other times he was as sweet as the sugary treats he loved to eat. Was Yummy some sort of monster, or just another kid? As Roger searches for the truth, he finds more and more questions. How did Yummy end up in so much trouble? Did he really kill someone? And why do all the answers seem to lead back to a gang-the same gang Roger's older brother belongs to? Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty is a compelling dramatization based on events that occurred in Chicago in 1994. This gritty exploration of youth gang life will force readers to question their own understandings of good and bad, right and wrong.
ISBN: 9781584302674Publication Date: 2010-08-01Chess Rumble by Three moves is all it takes to challenge the outcome of the game... In Marcus' world, battles are fought every day - on the street, at home and in school. Angered by his sister's death, his father's absence, and pushed to the brink by a bullying classmate, Marcus fights back with his fists. One punch from expulsion, Marcus encounters CM, an unlikely chess master who challenges him to fight his battles on the chess board. But Marcus has some hard lessons to learn before he can accept CM's help to regain control of his life.
ISBN: 9781584302797Publication Date: 2007-11-01March: Book One by #1New York TimesBestseller Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon and key figure of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president. Now, to share his remarkable story with new generations, Lewis presents March, a graphic novel trilogy, in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell (winner of the Eisner Award and LA Times Book Prize finalist for Swallow Me Whole). March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis' lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis' personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement. Book One spans John Lewis' youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall. Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drew inspiration from the 1958 comic book "Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story." Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience, testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard for generations. Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award - Special Recognition #1Washington PostBestseller A Coretta Scott King Honor Book An ALA Notable Book One of YALSA's Top 10 Great Graphic Novels for Teens One of YALSA's Top 10 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults One of YALSA's Outstanding Books for the College Bound One ofReader's Digest's Graphic Novels Every Grown-Up Should Read Endorsed by NYC Public Schools' "NYC Reads 365" program Selected for first-year reading programs by Michigan State University, Marquette University, and Georgia State University Nominated for three Will Eisner Awards Nominated for the Glyph Award Named one of the best books of 2013 byUSA Today,The Washington Post,Publishers Weekly,Library Journal,School Library Journal,Booklist,Kirkus Reviews,The Horn Book, Paste,Slate,ComicsAlliance, Amazon, and Apple iBooks.
ISBN: 9781603093002Publication Date: 2013-08-13March: Book Two by Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, continues his award-winning graphic novel trilogy with co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell, inspired by a 1950s comic book that helped prepare his own generation to join the struggle. Now, March brings the lessons of history to vivid life for a new generation, urgently relevant for today's world. After the success of the Nashville sit-in campaign, John Lewis is more committed than ever to changing the world through nonviolence - but as he and his fellow Freedom Riders board a bus into the vicious heart of the deep south, they will be tested like never before. Faced with beatings, police brutality, imprisonment, arson, and even murder, the movement's young activists place their lives on the line while internal conflicts threaten to tear them apart. But their courage will attract the notice of powerful allies, from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy... and once Lewis is elected chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, this 23-year-old will be thrust into the national spotlight, becoming one of the "Big Six" leaders of the civil rights movement and a central figure in the landmark 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. New York Times Bestseller One of YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2016 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work - Winner 2016 Harvey Award for BestBiographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation - Winner 2016 Harvey Award forBest Graphic Album Original - Winner 2016 Street Literature Book Award Medal forBest Graphic Novel - Winner 2016 Denver Independent Comic & Art Expo Award forBest Work - Mid/Large Press - Winner
ISBN: 9781603094009Publication Date: 2015-01-20March: Book Three by Welcome to the stunning conclusion of the award-winning and best-selling MARCH trilogy. Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, joins co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell to bring the lessons of history to vivid life for a new generation, urgently relevant for today's world. By the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has penetrated deep into the American consciousness, and as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis is guiding the tip of the spear. Through relentless direct action, SNCC continues to force the nation to confront its own blatant injustice, but for every step forward, the danger grows more intense- Jim Crow strikes back through legal tricks, intimidation, violence, and death. The only hope for lasting change is to give voice to the millions of Americans silenced by voter suppression- "One Man, One Vote." To carry out their nonviolent revolution, Lewis and an army of young activists launch a series of innovative campaigns, including the Freedom Vote, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and an all-out battle for the soul of the Democratic Party waged live on national television. With these new struggles come new allies, new opponents, and an unpredictable new president who might be both at once. But fractures within the movement are deepening ... even as 25-year-old John Lewis prepares to risk everything in a historic showdown high above the Alabama river, in a town called Selma. Winner of the 2016 National Book Award for Young People's Literature #1 New York Times Bestseller 2017 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner 2017 Michael L. Printz Award Winner 2017 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal Winner 2017 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction - Winner 2017 Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children's Literature - Winner 2017 Flora Stieglitz Straus Award Winner 2017 LA Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature - Finalist
ISBN: 9781603094023Publication Date: 2016-08-02