The True King

Challenging, Fascinating
Fun, Intriguing,
Must-read

Sunjata Warrior King of Mali

By:Justine and Ron Fontes

Illustrated by: Sandy Carruthers

Hello everyone, welcome to the next edition of Little Reader’s Paradise, for this week I read my first ever graphic novel and must say it was a lot more engaging and required a lot more mental processing than I would’v thought originally.  The book was titled Sunjata Warrior King of Mali and the reason this book was such a stimulating read that required my full attention was because it used a lot of African terminology, more specifically western African, such as Mansa (king) and Griot (a storyteller) and even the traditional West African names require a lot of focus because they’re names that you would never really hear in America like Dankaran, Sumangura, and even the main character Sunjata.  While on the outside one may think that this book isn’t great for enhancing their reading ability since it’s a graphic novel the reality is this is the perfect book to enhance their phonics ability, their comprehension ability, and even their ability to follow a story because of how much they need to go back in the reading and re-read pages to build the connections of the characters and determine how the information all links together

This book is perfect for independent reading if the students have a good grasp on their comprehension ability however for any students who are struggling with their comprehension ability then it may benefit to do this book as a small group reading where the students write out on paper who the characters are and map out the connections and the events of the story.  While the debate over whether or not graphic novels enhance a reader’s cognitive ability I can without a doubt say that this book does.

Lexile Reading Score: 580

Recommended Grade Level: 4-5

Before the Reading

A great way to go through this book before the reading is to engage them with the vocabulary that they’re about to interact with.  A great way to encourage this is by making up a word scavenger hunt with the main vocabulary that they’re going to be using and even the names they’ll be reading about.  With the word scavenger hunt you can pick a nice day outside or in your school library, gym, or even your classroom and hide letters around for words that are equal to the number of teams of students.  An example would be in a class of 16 you make 4 teams of 4 and pick four words to have students look around for.  Make sure that there is an equal number of hiding spots, this could be done by sometimes putting multiple letters in one spot.  Then have the students do a scavenger hunt to find all the letters and put them together to make their word.  For an extra challenge tell them what there is but don’t give them the spelling.

During the Reading

Since this book will likely be read as an independent read as it is a graphic novel I highly recommend utilizing the directed note-taking activity with your class.  The key to this activity is having the students guide their own note-taking based on their own questions and what they believe to be important.  In this activity, students cut a paper in half by drawing a line down the middle, on the left side of the page they should write any key words they see, questions they have, or important concepts they notice.  Then on the right side they should write the definition/answer/explanation to the left side.  You will need to model this activity and even go about reviewing their notes and guiding their note-taking strategy and thought processing to make sure they're properly using this technique.  Also, if you have them reading it in a small group work have the students review their notes after each marked section of the text and share what they wrote so they all narrow their notes down on a "final copy" (if you have them re-write the information it will stick in their mind better) so that they have what they believe to be the most important information from the reading.

After the Reading

One of the keys in this novel is the fictional aspect of it with sorcerers and a woman turning into a buffalo (even if the rest of the story is true it just shows how they believed heavily in magic back then) and so it's a perfect opportunity to add a more creative and even entertaining activity to finish out the book.  Have the students re-read the text and then write a story that continues on for any of the characters, this could be Sunjata's griot Dugha, Mansa's eldest son Dankaran, or even Sunjata if they want to.  In their story they must reference back to the story in at least three instances and they must involve at least one other character who was in the original story.  Otherwise they can write whatever they want and by iving them this freedom of choice they will have a lot more motivation to review the literature and write a strong narrative piece, they'll even have fun while doing it.

Great Electronic Resources

http://vafriendsofmali.org/education/teaching-timbuktu/teaching-the-community/what-made-sunjata-great/

This is a good website to have students go to if they want any information on the full story of Sunjata.  They can also use this website for research if they want to learn more about what happened to Sunjata after defeating Sumanguru

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOS78ul1_rA

This is a rare video of the history of Sunjata done with music and told in a manner similar to how a Griot would've sung and told the story.

Vocabulary words to go over

• prophecy = a person's destiny, what they are meant to do in life
• Bala = xylophone made of wooden slots on a bamboo frame
• Dalilu = magic power
• Datu = dried hibiscus blossoms and leaves used to flavor sauces
• Mansa = King
• Griot = A storyteller
• Naamu = I hear you/yes