Finding Langston

Lesa Cline-Ransome • First-Person Narrative

The Arrow is the monthly digital product that features copywork and dictation passages from a specific read aloud novel (you purchase or obtain the novels yourself). It’s geared toward children ages 11–12 and is an indispensable tool for parents who want to teach language arts in a natural, literature-bathed context.

This guide contains the following features:

• 4 Passages (one per week) for copywork/dictation
• Notes about punctuation, spelling, vocabulary, and literary devices
• 3 Grammar or Punctuation Spotlights 
• Literary Device: First-person narrative
• Writing Activity: A Fresh New Perspective!
• 9 Discussion Questions
• Book Club Party Ideas
• 49 pages
• Publication Date: February 2023

How does the Arrow fit into the Brave Writer complete language arts program? Learn more on our Getting Started page.

All products are digital and downloadable. All sales are FINAL. No refunds.

About the book 

When eleven-year-old Langston's father moves them from their home in Alabama to Chicago's Bronzeville district, it feels like he's giving up everything he loves.

It's 1946. Langston's mother has just died, and now they're leaving the rest of his family and friends. He misses everything--Grandma's Sunday suppers, the red dirt roads, and the magnolia trees his mother loved.

In the city, they live in a small apartment surrounded by noise and chaos. It doesn't feel like a new start, or a better life. At home he's lonely, his father always busy at work; at school he's bullied for being a country boy.
But Langston's new home has one fantastic thing. Unlike the whites-only library in Alabama, the Chicago Public Library welcomes everyone. There, hiding out after school, Langston discovers another Langston--a poet whom he learns inspired his mother enough to name her only son after him. – Amazon

Purchase the Finding Langston novel here.

A note about content
Although this gentle coming-of-age story is ultimately one of hope and understanding, parents should be aware that just before the book’s opening, the narrator’s mother passes away, a fact that’s wrestled with as the story unfolds.