Daisy and the Doll
Michael Medearis, Angela Shelf Medearis
© 2000 by the Vermont Folklife Center

Alec's Primer
Mildred Pitts Walter
© 2004 by the Vermont Folklife Center

You can listen to this episode online!

The Vermont Folklife Center is home to more than 4,000 oral interviews that preserve and document the voices and traditions of Vermont. It's like one great big well, brimming with stories. Camel's Hump Radio presents two of these stories, based on the family history of the Turner family from Grafton, Vermont.

Daisy and the Doll and Alec's Primer were read by Vernice Miller
Vernice Miller is an educator, writer, director and award-winning actor. She is co-founder/artistic director of The Hansberry Project, an emerging theatre company affiliated with the Lark Theater Company. She recently served as guest artist at Public School 183 in Brooklyn, NY, working with fourth and fifth graders. Her theatrical credits include Disorderly Conduct, Salt Chocolate and Frankie's Wedding, Three Sisters and Mother Knot. Her solo Medea has toured internationally, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Miller has appeared in films The Golden Boat for the NY Film Festival and Leo Sonnyboy and has had principal roles on TV's Law & Order and The Sopranos. Her favorite books were the Nancy Drew mysteries.

What do you think?

In Daisy and the Doll, what made Daisy go against her father's advice and make up her own poem?

When Daisy was a little girl, there weren't any radios or TVs or video games. Her family played word games, told stories and made up rhymes and poems for fun. Can you make up rhymes and poems off the top of your head? Give it a try!

Compare the way Daisy is portrayed in the story to the real Daisy you heard during the program. Did the book capture the real Daisy's personality and passion? In what way?

The real Daisy treasured her father's primer. Why was it so valuable to her?

Daisy's father, Alec, was a slave on a plantation. When he was 5 years old, his chores included weeding, watering and harvesting produce in the garden; feeding chickens, gathering eggs and chopping firewood. What kind of chores did you do when you were 5 years old? What chores do you do now?

Slaves were not allowed to read and write. Describe how Alec must have felt when Miss Zephie insisted he learn to read and write. If you were in Alec's place, would you have learned to read?

Why was reading so important to Alec?

What makes Daisy and Alec so memorable?

Which did you find the most intriguing? Describe and compare your own qualities with those of that character. How are you similar? How are you different?

These books were based on oral histories collected by folklorist Jane Beck. They, and almost 4,000 more are archived at the Vermont Folklife Center. What does a folklorist do? Why is their work important?

What do you think is the message the author wants you to take away from these stories? Do you think there's another important message to consider as well?

Fun & Adventure Beyond the Book

If you're captivated by folklore or the idea of studying culture, you'll want to check out the Vermont Folklife Center website.

I bet your family has some great stories to tell! Ask your grandparents what they remember about being a kid. Find out what their favorite toy or game was, or ask about your holiday traditions. You can write the stories down, record them or even use photos to make a multimedia presentation on your computer. Here are some tips to get you started: try these, and these too. Think of what a great birthday or holiday present that would make!

If you are truly serious about recording and crafting oral histories, there's a lot of information out there on how to do so. Our favorite website providing information on how to record and edit audio is transom.org. You can also check with the Vermont Folklife Center, your local arts community and/or cable company to see if they offer any classes in audio or video production.

Learn more about African American history and key milestones in the fight for freedom. Alec Turner also lived in Maine and his memories of working in the slate quarries is part of their 19th century history.

Do you know the song "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"? Did you know that it's about the underground railroad which helped slaves escape to freedom? Slaves used spirituals to combine their cultural heritage with their day-to-day experiences. The songs helped keep alive their hope for freedom, made work more bearable, and at times, even shared their secret plans to revolt. Fisk University's Jubilee Singers were the first to publicly perform the songs of slaves, and the PBS website about them has several spirituals that you can listen to online. The history of spirituals goes hand-in-hand with the history of African Americans. This fascinating website shows how they are linked and provides a list of other resources you can explore.

Francois Clemmons is the Alexander Twilight Artist-in-Residence at Middlebury College, the founder and director of the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble and a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Here's an interview Clemmons gave regarding singing spirituals.



If You Like This Book, Check Out...

Grace Greene, from the Vermont Department of Libraries, says if you liked Daisy and the Doll and Alec's Primer, you’ll probably enjoy these books as well:

Other books by "Daisy and the Doll" co-author Angela Medearis:

Ghost of Sifty- Sifty Sam. Scholastic, 1997.
To win a $5000 reward, a chef named Dan agrees to stay in a haunted house overnight and when he meets a very hungry ghost, he gets more than he had expected.

The Singing Man. Holiday House, 1994.
A couple's youngest son is forced to leave his West African village because he chooses music over the more practical occupations of his brothers, but years later he returns to show the wisdom of his choice.

Too Much Talk. Candlewick, 1995.
A retelling of a traditional West African tale about a king who refuses to believe that yams, fish, and cloth can talk until his throne agrees with him.

Other books by "Alec's Primer" author Mildred Pitts Walter:

Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World. Lothrop, 1986.
Suffering in a family full of females, ten-year-old Justin feels that cleaning and keeping house are women's work until he spends time on his beloved grandfather's ranch.

Suitcase. Lothrop, 1999.
Despite his love of drawing and his feelings of inadequacy as an athlete, sixth- grader Xander "Suitcase" Bingham works to become a baseball player to win the approval of his father.

Companion titles:

Hesse, Karen. Witness Scholastic, 2001.
A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.

Marsden, Caroline. The Gold-Threaded Dress. Candlewick, 2002.
When Oy and her Thai American family move to a new neighborhood, her third- grade classmates tease and exclude her because she is different.

Mochizuki, Ken. Baseball Saved Us. Lee & Low, 1993.
A Japanese-American boy learns to play baseball when he and his family are forced to live in an internment camp during World War II, and his ability to play helps him after the war is over.

Nelson, Vaunda Micheaux. Mayfield Crossing. Putnam, 1993.
When the school in Mayfield Crossing is closed, the students are sent to larger schools, where the black children encounter racial prejudice for the first time. Only baseball seems a possibility for drawing people together.

Taylor, Mildred. The Land. Fogelman, 2001.
After the Civil War Paul, the son of a white father and a black mother, finds himself caught between the two worlds of colored folks and white folks as he pursues his dream of owning land of his own.

Gaeddert, Louann Bigge. Breaking Free. Atheneum, 1994.
In 1800, shortly before his twelfth birthday, Richard is sent to live with his uncle on a farm in upper New York State, where he teaches a young slave to read and encourages her to dream of freedom.

Lasky, Kathryn. A Voice of Her Own. Candlewick, 2003.
A biography of Phillis Wheatley, an African girl brought to New England as a slave in 1761 who became famous on both sides of the Atlantic as the first Black poet in America.

McKissack, Pat. Picture of Freedom. Scholastic, 1997.
In 1859 twelve-year-old Clotee, a house slave who must conceal the fact that she can read and write, records in her diary her experiences and her struggle to decide whether to escape to freedom.

Paulsen, Gary. Nightjohn. Delacorte, 1993.
Twelve-year-old Sarny's brutal life as a slave becomes even more dangerous when a newly arrived slave offers to teach her how to read.