Piecing Me Together

A Quiltwork of Reflections by Padua Students on Summer Reading

During what has been a tumultuous year for our local and global community, Padua’s Summer Reading Committee began to rethink how this program could contribute to the goal of ensuring our students, faculty and staff are more empathetic to the issues facing our sisters of color and how we can collectively work towards furthering diversity and inclusivity on Broom Street.
 
In early Spring of 2020, the committee selected “Piecing Me Together,” an award-winning teen novel by Renee Watson. Ms. Watson is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, and activist. Piecing Me Together (Bloomsbury, 2017) received a Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor.

Piecing Me Together is the story of Jade, a young African American woman who attends private Catholic School on the other side of town, making her question why she’s always being told she needs to leave where she lives.
Jade learns to express sorrow and success throughout her artwork.The following pages of student reflections speak best to the impact this year's summer reading had on our students.

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SOME STUDENT REFLECTIONS

What I liked most about the book is the theme. It included many themes such as race, privilege and friendship. Renée Watson showed us how race and class can influence and impact on what you get. This book also made me think and read about another person's perspective, Jade. How the problems she was facing in the book are realistic and people face those problems a lot to this day. This book can help our school understand others' perspectives more so we can grow together.
 
- Audrey Lyons

Through Jade we all learn to appreciate others talents and to use them for good. Lastly, we learn that we must use each opportunity given to us even if it is not what we originally had hoped for. Our community could learn many lessons through this book that are relevant to our daily lives.
 
- Maddie Klapinsky

In real life now, there are a lot of people who are avoiding the “uncomfortable conversations” that really do need to be had. Racism is real. If someone were to get offended by something you didn’t find offensive, it is important to learn how a saying or an action may be offensive to someone else.
 
- Sydney Williams




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