"Edith Jackson" by Rosa Guy

Edith Jackson by Rosa Guy, published in 1980, is about Edith Jackson, a 17 year old girl who moves between foster homes while trying to keep her family together. Edith, the main character, takes it upon herself to take care of her sisters and maintain some sort of stability in their lives. However, Edith finds her life to be anything but stable. The book’s characters experience issues surrounding orphans, abortion, accidental death, sexual assault, and death. The themes in the book are quite heavy and may be difficult for students to deal with. Some of the most difficult parts of the novel include Edith identifying her sister Bessie’s body after being in a car accident, and the ending of the novel where Edith makes the decision to have an abortion.  I think another one of the most challenging issue in the novel to work through is the explicit sexual assault that takes place between the characters and their care-givers. In my opinion, it might be too much for a student in middle school to understand. As a whole, I also felt the book did not really take time to dig deeper into the emotions or consequences associated with these heavy topics other than the incidents themselves. One theme that I thought might be interesting to explore with students, though, was the author’s realistic depiction of the failure of American institutions like churches, orphanages, and schools. Although this book highlights these themes very well, there might be another novel out there that explores institution failures in a less salacious context.  As a whole, I feel that this book might be good for an independent study, however, to teach to an entire class might run into serious issues with not only students’ comfort levels, but with parents or administrators. The themes, although potentially applicable to life, are a bit provocative to encourage middle school students to read about and experience. This novel could potentially work in a high school setting where students are more mature and have more background knowledge about the themes presented.