The Other Side

by Jacqueline Woodson

Other authorsE. B. Lewis (Illustrator)
Hardcover, 2001

Status

Available

Call number

361.2

Publication

Nancy Paulsen Books (2001), 32 pages

Description

Two girls, one white and one black, gradually get to know each other as they sit on the fence that divides their town.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Whisper1
What a pure delight to combine the writing of Newbery honor winner Jacqueline Woodson and the award-winning illustrations of E.B. Lewis.

This is a small book that melds the words and images to make a stellar story with a great moral.

From a distance Clover can see a white girl standing by the fence.
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Clover's mother warns not to go near the fence because it isn't safe.

Clover watches the child from the safety of her swing. She watches the girl who jumps and plays in water puddles while Clover is told to stay inside.

One day Clover ventures near the fence and learns that Annie's mother has said the same thing. Her mama told her not to go on the "other side."

The separation of a fence represents 1950's and the ignorance of racism. This is a tale of children who do not listen to words but instead believe with their hearts.

As a compromise the children do not go over the other side, but instead sit side by side on the fence throughout the summer.

Eventually Clover's friends sit on the fence as well.

While small in the number of pages, this is not lacking in the depth of a wonderful story.
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LibraryThing member Kcarline143
Two girls are separated by a fence and their mothers tell me not to go over it. The town is separated by this fence. Eventually e white girl sits in top of the fence and be friends one of the black girls.
LibraryThing member ydraughon
Clover and Annie see each other everyday, but a long fence seperates their lives. They are told not to cross the fence. Eventually they become friends and play together. A good book to use when discussing segregation. Grades K - 3.
LibraryThing member Sondosottallah
This book clearly captures the innocences of children. As a fence separates them, an African American girl and a white girl become curious of each other. The fence represents society at the time, segregating the two races but that does not stop the children from becoming friends. This story exposes
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children to segregation and teaches students acceptance.
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LibraryThing member katiejanelewis
Two girls, one black and one white, live on opposite sides of an old wooden fence. Both are told not to go to the other side, but they aren't sure why. They notice each other, but are told to stay on their respective sides because "that's the way it's always been" (says their mothers). Then one
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day, they meet and agree that their mothers never said anything about SITTING on the fence. So, the girls sit together and form a friendship. And they realize that the color of their skin can't stop them from being friends.
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LibraryThing member caaats
Written by Woodson, Jacqueline and illustrated by Lewis, E.B. The book The Other Side is a short story based on race back when it was a major issue in the United States. Clover is an African-American girl whose land is divided by a white fence and all of the white people in the town live on the
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other side. She continues to see this girl named Annie Paul who sits on the fence all day and night. Clover decides one day to finally go talk to her. They both get along very well and decide to hang out since they don’t have anything better to do during the day. The controversy here is that in the early 1900’s whites and blacks didn’t get along most of the time and for two little girls of different background to be playing together is wonderful. In the end Woodson ironically says, “someday somebody’s going to come along and knock this old fence down.” And Clover said, “yes, someday.” This is ironic because the fence is the main place where the black and white girl hang out implicating that racial discrimination will be destroyed one day as it is now. E.B Lewis made the illustrations light water colored which represents calmness and depicted the girl’s friendly attitudes towards each other.
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LibraryThing member kirkonly
This is an amazing book about a young black girl, clover, who is told not to cross over the fence in their yard. On the other side is a white girl, Annie, who is always playing and asks clover if she could play with her and her friends. Throughout the book Clover watches Annie until they finally
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talk. This is a great book about breaking barriors.

As a student i loved reading this book. The illustrations drew me in and the words kept me reading. This book takes me back to the times when racism was more appart in everyday life than today. I get a glimpse into a child's life and how they saw the color of a persons skin.

As a teacher this is a great book you use in read aloud. We can talk about racism and peoples differences. An activity that i can use with this book is to have my students make their own fence and discuss things that they think are on the other side for them and how they can make that fence go away.
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LibraryThing member mrs.mackey
"The Other Side" is a story of an African American girl who is forbidden by her mother to go to the other side of the fence. Apparantly the white girl that lives on the other side of the fence was told the same thing by her mother too. Both girls stare longingly at each other for about half the
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summer until the white girl sits on top of the fence one day. The African American girl does the same thing. After a few days the other African American girls join them on the fence. The girls spend the rest of the summer on top of the fence having fun and talking with each other.

This is a beautiful story about children found a way to look past racism. I loved the story line of this book. The illustrations really give the story its meaning. I think it is great how these girls were able to look past skin color in a time where that kind of behavior was not acceptable.

For the classroom, I would ask my students if they ever have been affected by racism. I would ask them how they felt about it. I would ask them what they thought of this story. I would explain to them how racism can affect other people.
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LibraryThing member bekstrom
This book is a good example of historical fiction. It is a good story about an African American girl and a Caucasian girl who play on different sides of the fence, but they befriend eachother and sit on the fence talking to one another. This is a fictional plot but the plot is very accurate for the
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time period. It allows the students to have an accurate depiction of the lifestyle between African Americans and Caucasions. I would use this book in an intermediate classroom. The type of media used is watercolors.
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LibraryThing member eward06
This represents Realistic Fiction because the story is true to life. It expresses characters who are each unique. It also makes the reader think about what the right was is to treat people. The main character in this book is a round character because we see much more of who she is as the story
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unfolds. We see her heart. She is revealed through her thoughts, interactions, actions, and appearance. The media represented here is watercolor. It would fit the Primary or Intermediate Levels.
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LibraryThing member dknapp
This book is about a little girl, named Clover, whose mama tells her not to cross the fence because the other side is the white side of town and it is not safe. Throughout the summer, there is a little white girl who comes and sits on the fence and watches her. She asks to join Clover and her
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friends in a game of jump roap but Clover's friend says no before she has a chance to answer. Later on, Clover gets up the courage to go over and talk to the little white girl named Annie. They become good friends and spend alot of time sitting on the fence wondering about someday, somone tearing down the fence.

This book had a good moral to the story. I found it a little different to read as it was told in Clover's voice. It was a good book none the less.
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LibraryThing member ejhamilton
I really enjoyed this book. It taught about how black and whites back in the day had to be seperate and in the book they used a fence to symbolize this barrer between us. The illustrations were handpainted. I would absolutley use this book in my classroom as a history lesson on racial injustice.
LibraryThing member foster7
Told that "it wasn't safe," to "climb over that fence when you play," Clover became curious. She watched the other young girl, on the other side of the fence. One day, they met at the fence line, and introduced themselves. Annie, a white girl, asks Clover, a black girl, to join her on top of the
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fence (since they were both told not to cross it). From that moment, they were friends, and often sat together on the top of the fence. In the end, Annie says that "someday somebody's going to come along and knock this old fence down," to which Clover replies, "Yes, someday." Jacqueline Woodson manages to convey such a powerful story, by simply having two girls sit side-by-side on a fence. Through Woodson's words, we are able to see how cautious the girls were. They spent a great deal of time watching each other. Eventually, when they met at the fence that day, their worlds changed instantly. With ease, they got along and sat together. E.B. Lewis' watercolors further this notion. For the first half of the book, we only see the girls on opposite pages, never on the same page. And, on nearly all of those pages, they are looking at each other. On the day that they meet, we see their two smiles, and soon after, their extended hands, as they both hop up onto the fence. In one picture, where they are sitting together, we can see Clover's mom looking over her shoulder at the girls, as she's hanging laundry on the clothesline. From that simple glance, readers can imagine what the mother is thinking, or at least what the mother is thinking about. Young readers will hopefully identify with the girls, and agree with their points of view, thinking that, of course, the two girls should and would befriend each other.
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LibraryThing member slblack2
This book is about a little black girl whos boundries are to her fence. Everyday alittle white girl sets on the fence and stares. The black girl ask why she can't go past the fence and the mother says that's just the way things are. Eventually, the little black girl goes to the fence and ask the
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girl what she is doing. She tells her she gets on the fence and can see very far. The black girl eventually gets on the fence to and becomes friends.
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LibraryThing member Dportnoy
This book is a fantastic book to read when discussing Martin Luther King Jr. or Black History Month. It is a story where two girls of different races overcome the idea of segregation by becoming friends with each other. They don't believe that the two of them can't be friends because of the color
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of their skin and therefore go against society's norms. It is a great story where we see that children can be so powerful based on their actions.
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LibraryThing member Molly2Faith
This book is about two girls who are neighbors but are separated by a fence. One girl is white and the other girl is black. The black girl watches the white girl with curiosity. The black girls' mom tells her to never cross the fence. However, the white girl ends up sitting on the fence and talking
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with the black girl. They decide that they can sit on the fence together and not get in trouble because they are not crossing the fence. They become really good friends. Great book!
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LibraryThing member amspicer
The Other Side is a beautiful book about a story of two young girls who lived on opposite sides of a fence. One girl was African American and the other girl, Caucasian. Both girls had been told not to cross the fence because it wasn’t safe on the other side. One day the girls decide to approach
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one another which results in a beautiful new friendship. The two girls look past the colors of each others skin and hope that soon, one day, their friendship will be accepted and one day.. Someone will knock down the fence. This is a beautiful story full of symbolism. I would recommend reading this book to an older age group (middle school and above) simply because the hidden message may be to difficult for young ones to understand.
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LibraryThing member aelambert
Clover is curious as to why a fence seperates the town. What is so different between white and black that it has to be divided. Annie starts coming to the fence, she's a white girl so Clover approaches her. Can these two build a friendship that can overcome the racial tension.
LibraryThing member rcohen425
Clover, a young African American girl and Annie, a young while girl, live on opposite sides of a fence. They were both told by their mother's to never to cross the fence. This story deals with issues of segregation and shows children how to overcome difficulties.
LibraryThing member brittneywest
This book represents the ultimate choice of friendship. In the novel, the main character, Clover, lives in a segregated town that is seperated by a fence. Her family warns her not to go across the fence due to the heightened racial tension. However, Clover ultimately meets a white girl name Annie
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and become friends. This book is intended for readers in the 2nd grade and up and can be used to teach diversity in the classroom.
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LibraryThing member Necampos
Such a sweet book and a great read aloud. The book focuses on segregation in American and the innocence of children during that time. Two girls, one black and one white, live on opposite sides of the fence. They one day find that it is okay to sit "on" the fence since their parents always said to
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never "cross" it. The girls became friends and did not even care about their differences. This shows kids that even back then when segregation occurred, there was innocence. These two girls took a risk and should encourage kids to do the same.
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LibraryThing member jmallen
This book is about a young black girl who plays outside during the summer. She always sees a young white girl sitting on the fence alone. Finally, the two girls become friends and sit on the fence together. After awhile, more black kids join them.

This story would be good to read to children to
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teach them about friendship. It could help them see that friends can be different than each other.
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LibraryThing member aabengtson
This would be a wonderful story to use while teaching comprehension. The students are able to relate much of the story to their own life and can also make predictions throughout the story. The story is realistic fiction and contains a story line about two young girls who became great friends over a
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summer.
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LibraryThing member Remugnaini
Summary: Clover, a young black girl, lives near a fence that separates her house from another family's house. Her mother warns her to never climb over the fence, but there's little said as to why she asks her not to. Clover notices a young white girl on the other side of the fence and she watches
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her with curiosity. Eventually, Clover meets the young girl named Annie and works up the courage to sit on the fence. The two girls sit on the fence to talk so that they won't get in trouble. Others judge Clover for this new friendship, but she doesn't care and continues to spend time with Annie.
"The Other Side" is filled with meaningful text and beautiful illustrations that are sure to capture any student's attention. It's a wonderful book that children of all ages will enjoy and want to read again and again. It would be a great book to read when discussing racial barriers or friendship with students.
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LibraryThing member raspringrose
This story is about an African American little girl who is separated from the white side of town by a fence. There is a white little girl who is always sitting on the fence, and she wants to play with the African American children. One day the African American girl sits with the white girl on the
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fence. No one stops them from becoming friends, and all the African American children start to accept the white girl. They all become friends, and the agree that one day there would be no more fences. I really like this book, and it is good for a history lesson.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

32 p.; 11.56 x 10.25 inches

ISBN

0399231161 / 9780399231162
Page: 1.0162 seconds