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Zippy & King of the Mild Frontier

My students need 30 copies each of two memoirs: "A Girl Named Zippy" by Haven Kimmel and "King of the Mild Frontier" by Chris Crutcher.

$776 goal

This project expired on November 6, 2009.

Mrs. Carr Mountain View High School

Centreville, VA Grades 9-12

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My English students hail from a myriad of backgrounds, cultures, and walks of life and range in proficiency from emerging English learners to honors-bound students, many with special education needs. We are in search of materials that reflect our many perspectives and experiences, that support our language arts objectives, and that foster lifelong learning. High school is time of self-exploration and an opportunity to cultivate self-awareness. It's a period in which students focus on learning about who they are and on making sense of the world in which they live. The memoirs, A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel and King of the Mild Frontier by Chris Crutcher, contains a wealth of life lessons and support this exploration, while providing humorous non-fiction told in artful prose. The books also pair nicely with Harper Lee's time-honored novel To Kill a Mockingbird, told from the perspective of a child trying to make sense of the world. Our school faces a huge budgetary crisis as a result of the local/national economic downturn. Current constraints do not allow for replacement or repair of titles we already possess, and there is simply no money for additional titles, even ones that would benefit the English program. In the coming school year, my colleagues and I will be allotted just 27 cents per student for classroom materials and supplies, not nearly enough to purchase even a handful of books, much less a class set. Some schools request students purchase individual titles, however many of my students have recently lost their homes or have families struggling just to make ends meet. I can't imagine asking students and parents to purchase books given current conditions. How wonderful it would be to have two memoirs, one female and one male, to spark reading interest! From School Library Journal on King of the Mild Frontier: Up-For those who want to know the real poop behind this popular author's characters (and, to some extent, his character), this is the book you've been waiting for. The cover photo tells it all: a white picket fence in the background, for all the world as straight and orderly and stereotypically 1950s proper as the author's maddeningly rational father, "Crutch," wanted things to appear. But looming in the foreground is toothy, smiling Chris, the short-fused emotional time bomb who regularly exploded into anger and tears. Protective of his alcoholic mom and at almost constant odds with his strict and demanding dad, Crutcher describes incidents and telling episodes from his formative years. His signature wit was sharpened in response to both his feelings of inadequacy and his competitive nature, honed by participation in high school and college sports. He addresses issues about his use of profanity in his writing for teens. Tough and tender reminiscences focus primarily on family, social, and school conflicts, but lessons derived from his career as a teacher, therapist, and writer are also described. Hyperbole lightens the mood as the author portrays himself as a young crybaby, academic misfit, and athletic klutz, utterly without self-aggrandizement. Abrupt transitions, some convoluted sentences, and nonlinear progression may challenge some readers, but the narrative holds undeniable appeal for the author's fans and demonstrates the power of writing to help both reader and writer heal emotional/psychic wounds. From Publishers Weekly on A Girl Named Zippy: It's a cliche to say that a good memoir reads like a well-crafted work of fiction, but Kimmel's smooth, impeccably humorous prose evokes her childhood as vividly as any novel. Born in 1965, she grew up in Mooreland, Ind., a place that by some "mysterious and powerful mathematical principle" perpetually retains a population of 300, a place where there's no point learning the street names because it's just as easy to say, "We live at the four-way stop sign." Hers is less a formal autobiography than a collection of vignettes comprising the things a small child would remember: sick birds, a new bike, reading comics at the drugstore, the mean old lady down the street. The truths of childhood are rendered in lush yet simple prose; here's Zippy describing a friend who hates wearing girls' clothes: "Julie in a dress was like the rest of us in quicksand." Over and over, we encounter pearls of third-grade wisdom revealed in a child's assured voice: "There are a finite number of times one can safely climb the same tree in a single day"; or, regarding Jesus, "Everyone around me was flat-out in love with him, and who wouldn't be? He was good with animals, he loved his mother, and he wasn't afraid of blind people." (Mar.)Forecast: Dreamy and comforting, spiced with flashes of wit, this book seems a natural for readers. Your generous donation to our project will help place these terrific books in my students' eager hands.

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

More than half of students from low‑income households

150 students impacted

Project tagged as

Centreville, VA
Grades 9-12
Literature & Writing
Literacy
Books
More than half of students from low‑income households

Mrs. Carr Mountain View High School Grades 9-12

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

Centreville, VA View local requests

More than half of students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

150 students impacted

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Materials Cost Quantity Total

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana Haven Kimmel • Barnes and Noble $11.16 30 $334.80

King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography Chris Crutcher • Barnes and Noble $7.19 30 $215.70

Materials cost			$550.50
Vendor shipping charges			$55.05
Sales tax			$0.00
3rd party payment processing fee			$13.76
Fulfillment labor & materials			$17.00
Total project cost			$636.31
Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms			$139.68
Total project goal			$775.99

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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This teacher needs your help!

Zippy & King of the Mild Frontier

This project expired on November 6, 2009.

This project expired on November 6, 2009.

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

Project tagged as

Boost your odds

Top rated for efficiency and transparency.

TEACHERS, FEELING INSPIRED?

Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes

Project Activity

Project Activity

DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

Help teachers & students in your hometown this season!
Use code HOME at checkout and your donation will be matched up to $100.