Sra: Imagine It!, Themes, Taking a Stand, Ancient Civilizations Ecology, Great Expectations, Earth in Action, Art and Impact, Level 6

Mary Malone

After retiring from her job as a librarian, Malone turned her attention to writing. While she enjoys writing both fiction and nonfiction, Malone has become best known for her biographies. She has written about many interesting people, ranging from presidents Andrew Johnson and James Madison to broadcasters Connie Chung and Barbara Walters. She lives in New Jersey.
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Art and Impact: Theme Connections

Within the Selection

Across Selections

Beyond the Selection

Write about It!

Describe a memorial you would like to create--what it will look like, what materials you will use, and what it will represent.

Remember to look for pictures of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and other memorial works of art for the Concept/Question Board.

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Social Studies Inquiry: Maya Lin: After "The Wall"

Genre

Feature

Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in 1982. The controversy over the design left Lin angry. She was tired of publicity and wanted to hide from it. Lin felt better when the memorial became the most visited monument in the country and one of the nation's most praised works of art.

Lin's next project was a memorial for the civil rights movement. It was built at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama. Lin studied the history of the civil rights movement. She read the works of Martin Luther King Jr. The words of his "I Have a Dream" speech inspired her. King had said that he and other civil rights activists would not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters." The image of water rolling down became part of her vision.

For the Civil Rights Memorial, names and events from the civil rights movement were carved into a dark stone disk. A nine-foot stone wall stands behind the disk, and it includes carved words from King's speech. A thin sheet of water ripples over both pieces.

The Civil Rights Memorial was finished in 1989, and Lin went on to develop a career in both art and architecture. She made sculptures and crafts. She designed buildings and landscapes. She even designed a line of furniture.
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To honor women students, she completed The Women's Table at Yale in 1993. It is another water table. She also worked on the Museum for African Art in New York. Finished in 1992, it earned her an award.

Lin also cares about the environment. In her work, she has used recycled, living, or natural materials. She also sat on the board of the Energy Foundation. Working with the Natural Resources Defense Council, she helped design a paper recycling center in New York City.

Lin has also written a book, Boundaries. It was published in 2000. Lin continues to follow her heart as she creates. Her dedication, vision, and talent make her one of the most important artists in the United States.

Production note: captions with the class attribute value "label" correspond to content that appears in the label contained in this image.

How does the time line help you follow major events in Lin's career?

How does Lin show her concern for the environment in her art?

Choose one of Lin's creations about which you would like to learn more. What resources would you use? How would you present your findings?

Try It!

As you work on your investigation, think about how you can use a time line to organize your information.

* parched

* crane

* alert

* quivering

* mounted

* intact

* specialty

* stern

* solemn

Vocabulary Strategy

Context Clues are hints in the text that help you find the meanings of words. For example, suppose you did not know the meaning of deceitful. You might be able to figure out its meaning from clues in the sentence or paragraph.

Sarah's art teacher had assigned a drawing of an outdoor scene. Sarah could have copied a picture from a magazine. That would have saved time, but it would have been deceitful to say she had drawn it outdoors.

It was a long walk to the marsh. Sarah's throat was parched by the time she reached it. She took a long drink from her water bottle. Looking for something to draw, she spotted a large crane standing in the water. Its eyes were alert and watchful. After a few moments, the crane suddenly dipped its head into the water and came up with a fish quivering in its bill.

Sarah's excitement mounted . She wanted a photo of this moment. Just after she snapped it, she fell, dropping the camera. Examining the camera, she was relieved to find it was still intact .

By this time, the crane had made a meal of the fish. It was standing on one leg, with its head under its wing.

"That is how I will draw it!" thought Sarah. Birds were a specialty of Sarah's, but she had never drawn a crane before.

Sarah sat and sketched the motionless crane. Then she closed her sketch pad and walked home. There, at her desk, Sarah put the finishing touches on the drawing. She wondered if her teacher would like it.

The next day she handed the drawing to her stern art teacher. For a long moment she watched his solemn face as he examined her work. Then the corners of his mouth rose slightly, which was as close as he ever came to smiling.

The teacher nodded and entered a grade in his grade book. Sarah could read it upside down. It was an "A." Even better than the "A" was the teacher's rare smile.

Game

Vocabulary Draw Work with a partner. Write each vocabulary word on an index card. Mix up the cards and place them facedown in a pile. Take turns drawing cards. The partner drawing each card must define the word. Then the other partner must use the word in a sentence. Continue until all the cards have been drawn.

The concept word for this lesson is perseverance. Perseverance is keeping on and not giving up. How does perseverance connect with the theme Art and Impact?

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The Boy Who Drew Cats

retold by Arthur A. Levine

Genre

Comprehension Skill

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Production note: this image crosses the gutter to appear both on page 688 and page 689 in the print version.

Focus Questions

What is the moral of this folktale? How does Takada's warning help Kenji?

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There was a time, long ago, when no winds blew, no rain fell, and the fields of Japan became parched and cracked. In this time lived a boy named Kenji, with his mother and four older brothers. They all worked hard in the fields each day, but there was not enough to eat. Small Kenji was frail, and tired easily. Try as he might, he could never help for long.

"Never mind, little one," his mother Matsuko said gently. "You can draw us some of your beautiful pictures instead." They all knew how much Kenji loved to draw.

So every day he drew cats and birds and bamboo stalks. He drew flowers that bloomed in the dried-out earth. He drew heaping plates of rice.

His brothers watched him draw at the edge of the field. "Make us something gold, Kenji!" they called.

Matsuko's worry mounted. On the farm, she feared, her youngest son would never eat well and grow strong. So she swallowed her sorrow, wrapped up Kenji's things, and took him to the village monastery.

At the dark wooden gate they were met by two priests. One was old and solemn with a beard that hung like an icicle from his chin. The other was younger and quiet too, but light danced merrily in his eyes.

"Please, sirs," Matsuko pleaded, "won't you take my youngest son for an acolyte? He will be respectful, and learn his lessons well."

"Do you wish to be a priest?" the older man asked. And the words fell like sleet on the young boy's ears.

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"I wish not to be a burden," Kenji said, looking down. The older priest frowned, but the younger one whispered in his ear.

"Come," said the younger priest kindly, "my name is Takada." And together they entered the monastery, leaving Matsuko alone on the step.

Kenji struggled to please the priests. Yet the scrolls he copied grew whiskers and wings. And his mind never stayed in the gardens he was supposed to tend.

Instead he would sit near a stream of white pebbles and sketch as he always had. Takada loved Kenji's drawings, especially the ones of cats, so whenever he could, Kenji drew a cat for Takada.

But the older priest, Yoshida, remained stern as stone. It seemed that whenever Kenji stopped work for a moment and picked up his paper, Yoshida appeared overhead like a thundercloud, staring coldly.

One rainy day as Kenji swept the courtyard, he had an idea for a present to give Takada. Quickly he drew a lovely Siamese cat dancing in the rain. A few more strokes gave the cat a partner, and soon the whole page was filled with splashing, frolicking cats. Suddenly a shadow crossed the page.

Takada appeared as Kenji was leaving. They looked at each other sadly. "Farewell, Kenji," Takada said. "You were meant to be an artist, not a priest." Then, from behind his back he brought out a delicate paper box tied in the cloth Kenji's mother had sent with him. Kenji gently untied the knot. The box contained the most beautiful set of brushes and inks he had ever seen. Kenji knew he would cry if he said so much as thank you.

"Go now," said Takada, "but remember this: AVOID LARGE PLACES AT NIGHT -- KEEP TO SMALL."

Kenji wanted to ask what this meant, but he was still too close to tears. So he chanted the warning over and over to himself, down the winding path from the monastery, "Avoid large places at night. Keep to small," puzzling over its meaning.

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Kenji was too ashamed to return to his family's farm. Instead he headed in the opposite direction, hoping to find another temple where he could try again to be an acolyte.

Now it happened that there was a large and wealthy temple high at the top of a nearby mountain, where for months not a soul had entered or left. Villagers whispered that a terrible Goblin Rat, possessed of a magical sword and a fearsome tail, had claimed the temple as his own.

Kenji, however, knew none of this when he discovered the long staircase winding steeply up the mountain.
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He climbed thousands of steps and reached a great gate. Then he caught his breath with a gasp of terror. On the gate, in the faintest of marks, someone had painted the Goblin Rat with his sword raised and the words, "AVOID LARGE PLACES AT NIGHT, KEEP TO SM... . " Whoever had begun the message had not been able to finish.

Kenji looked back, but the sun had nearly set, and he knew he couldn't risk climbing down in the dark. So he turned toward the temple, shaking.

His steps crumbled ash-white leaves at the threshold. They filled the air with dust as he pushed the door open, then settled into an awful stillness. Not a breeze stirred the stench of decay in the air.

At the end of a hallway Kenji saw a candle glowing and he crept toward it on the balls of his feet. When he had almost reached the light, Kenji thought he heard scratching behind him and he hurried into an open room.
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There he found a large hall filled with white screens. They stood in a row like servants, waiting for the priests to file in for prayer. Kenji felt a little better. Maybe someone would return if he just waited a while.

Up and back Kenji paced in front of the tall white screens. Suddenly he remembered Takada's gift. He could decorate the screens while he waited! Then when the priests returned, they would see that he was worthwhile. Kenji began to paint, and what came was truly magical. In honor of Takada he painted cats. Powerful cats with broad, majestic shoulders. Sleek cats with sharp claws and quivering whiskers. Alert cats with twitching tails and watchful eyes. By the time he was done, every screen was filled and Kenji was exhausted.

Sleep pressed against his eyes, but fear kept them open. The priests had not returned, and now he heard the scratching noise again. Takada's warning came back to him with a shiver: AVOID LARGE PLACES AT NIGHT -- KEEP TO SMALL. Kenji spied a small cabinet and squeezed inside. He slid the door shut and slowly, slowly his eyes began to close.

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At sunrise the temple was quiet again. Yet something had changed. It was the breeze! Even before he slid the door open, Kenji could feel a fresh wind sweeping through the rooms, and he could hear the cry of a crane. Still, he was unprepared for the sight that met his eyes when he finally stepped out.

The room was covered with shattered screens. Bits of wood and paper littered the floor. And as Kenji looked closer, he saw that the broken screens were empty and white. Where had all his cats gone? Kenji heard a thump and spun around. In front of him stood the one screen still intact. On it sat the King of Cats, tall and proud, with the sword of the Goblin Rat at his feet.
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Kenji ran to tell the villagers the news, but they were already climbing the steps to the temple. "We felt the breeze! We heard the cranes!" they shouted. "The Goblin Rat must be dead!"
The villagers were so grateful that they invited Kenji to live and paint at the newly reopened temple. There he worked in peace and happiness, becoming a great and famous artist.

And his specialty was cats.

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Meet the Author

Arthur A. Levine

Frédéric Clément

Clément lives in France, where he is a writer, poet, and illustrator. He enjoys drawing elaborate costumes and festive and colorful environments for his subjects.
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Art and Impact: Theme Connections

Within the Selection

Across Selections

Beyond the Selection

Write about It!

Write a list of the qualities a person needs to have to become a successful artist.
Remember to look for pictures of artists working at creating art for the Concept/Question Board.

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Genre

Feature

For centuries, native South Africans worked on their traditional arts. By the 1930s, however, some South African artists had begun to combine African and European styles of art. The rise of apartheid began to affect their art as well. Recently, exhibitions of the work of South African artists have been held that reflect the racial injustice they have endured.

South Africa had a long history of racial injustice. For example, only whites could hold national office or own land. Meaning "separateness," apartheid became law in 1948. Race determined where people could live and work. It also determined their education.

During the 1970s and 1980s, South African artists used their art to speak out against apartheid. Artists organized workshops and shows for their work. However, some of their art was taken out of exhibits or destroyed by vandals.

South African protest art deals with the inequality during the time of apartheid. Many artists, including Gael Neke, made accusations against apartheid activists through their art.

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While no one was formally convicted of killing Biko, artist Paul Stopforth drew his own conclusions. Stopforth made drawings that depicted Biko's body opposite the picture of three stern and threatening faces. The faces belonged to three police officers. The artwork implicates these men in Biko's death.

Apartheid laws were dropped in 1990. Unfortunately, injustice continued even without the laws. Whites and blacks did not have equal status. They were unequal socially, economically, and politically.

Apartheid might be officially over, but there is much work to be done. Artists like Neke and Stopforth help fight injustice by sharing their art with the world.

Think Link

How does the first heading help you understand the rest of the article?

What is protest art? Give examples.

How do you think art about apartheid affected people's view of apartheid and South Africa?

Try It!

As you work on your investigation, think about how you can use headings to organize your information.

by Sandy Asher

Focus Question What does the painting express to the poet/narrator?

"You cannot," it's been said, "separate the dancer from the dance."

Sculptors step away, poets put down their pens; their work endures.

Hands that pluck the strings of a harp are neither instrument nor celestial song.

But no dance exists without its dancer.

To my eye, this line choreographs: glissade, arabesque, tombé, pirouette ...

Strength, balance, energy and rhythm draw me in.

A dance is clearly intended.

Between us appears the dancer.

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York.

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The Weary Blues

by Langston Hughes

Focus Question How does the poet use music to express struggle, both personal and societal, in this poem?

Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,

I heard a Negro play.

Down on Lenox Avenue the other night By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light

He did a lazy sway... .

He did a lazy sway... .

To the tune o' those Weary Blues.

With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made that poor piano moan with melody.

Blues!

Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.

Coming from a black man's soul.

Blues!

In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan --

Ain't got nobody but maself.

I's gwine to quit ma frownin'

And put ma troubles on the shelf."

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.

He played a few chords then he sang some more --

"I got the Weary Blues

And I can't be satisfied.

Got the Weary Blues And can't be satisfied --

I ain't happy no mo'

And I wish that I had died."

And far into the night he crooned that tune.

The stars went out and so did the moon.

The singer stopped playing and went to bed While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.

He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.

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Sometimes you will not know which answer is correct. When this happens, take your best guess.

If a test question is about a story or article you read, you can look back at the text to find the answer. Sometimes you might not be able to decide which answer is correct. When this happens, take your best guess. When you guess, you will be right some of the time.

Try to avoid guessing. It is always better to think about the question, look at the answer choices, and choose the one you think is correct.

Read the sentence below. Think about the answer choice that means the same as essential.

Finding food was essential for the explorers. They were almost out of the supplies they had brought with them.

A enjoyable

B annoying

C mysterious

D necessary

How do you know which answer is correct? Think about the second sentence. It says they were almost out of supplies. The sentence helps you know that the last answer is correct. If you are out of supplies, finding food is necessary or you will starve.

There is one other thing you should keep in mind. Stay with your first answer. Do not change an answer unless you are sure the one you chose is wrong and another answer is better. Changing answers wastes time and can confuse you unless you know another answer is correct.

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