Al Capone

I was reflecting on our previous discussion of Al Capone and of literature featuring disablities (for lack of a better term) in general. It really seems to me like it is the forgotten area of multicultural literature. I tried to reflect on my own reading as a student in elementary school and while I can recall reading books about people of various races, I cannot ever remember reading any sort of book that had people in it with disabilities. In fact, the only book I can remember at all had a main character that was blind, but that was a book I bought and read on my own outside of school. In high school, students that had severe physical or emotional learning disabilities were really kept separate from the rest of the students. They rode a separate bus and had their own classroom. This complete separation is really not beneficial to anyone. Students initial curiosity can lead eventually to discrimination. That is why it seems so important to include books featuring characters like this in them. In Al Capone the sister was not the main character, but it captured her life in a way that did not make her awkward or weird. The important part of the book was the relationship between two siblings. It is important for students to see that all people have qualities that make them unique and we should embrace that instead of being afraid of it.