I work at a Kindergarten through eighth grade school, and my 7th and 8th grade students encouraged me to read this story with them to make it more interesting for them. I read for 90 minutes this week by reading the first 5 chapters in this book.
Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs is a very funny book so far. Chapters 1-5 is about a group of middle school aged kids going on a camping trip in the summer to a place called, Camp Cesar. Ziggy, Rahshawn and Rico are the males; Noni is the leader of the girls and boys; she takes them around so that they do not get lost. All the children enjoy listening to Noni's stories of past war heros; she is very educated and makes her stories very interesting to hold their attention. She told them of the story of Tecumsah who ended up being her grand father and how Indian boys had to perform near death tasks to in their pre-teen years to prove they were strong, brave and ready to be a man and head of their Indian tribe. The boys are silly and immature; they still are at the stage in growing up where they are afraid to admit that they like girls. Rashawn has a secret crush on Tiana, and she likes him too. They sit by each other around the campfire while they listen to Noni's story.
After hearing Noni tell of the brave feats of the young Indian braves the boys are getting interested in trying to find ways to challenge and prove their manhood. I wonder what they will come up with.
So far, Ziggy is my favorite character. He is a Jamaican young man that eats weird food like peanut butter jelly sandwiches with pickles on it, and says "yea mon" after everything he says. He dresses terrible as well, nothing he has on matches: red jeans, huge purple coat and green tennis shoes. He seems like the life of the party thus far.
