ELEM: Good tear-jerker book

["Marian S. Colclasure" <mcol@RPS.NWSC.K12.AR.US>]

LM_Nettes,
     I just got back from the Oklahoma school librarians' convention
called Encyclo-Media, and I picked up a tear jerker there.  The salesman
said if I read it that night and didn't find myself teary-eyed, then I
could bring back the book and get my money returned.  It was wonderful!

        _Who_Owns_the_Sun_, written and illustrated by Stacy Chbosky.
           Landmark Editions, Inc., c1988.

This book was written and illustrated by a 14 year-old girl, and her last
name, though it looks incorrectly spelled, is Chborsky.

SUMMARY:  A young boy asks his father, "Who owns the sun?"  His father
replies, "Only a fool believes he can own the sun.  Everybody sees the
sun's light, and everyone feels the sun's warmth.  But the sun is too
large, too great for one person to own.  So it shines on the earth and
gives itself to every living thing."

The boy asks other questions like:
        "Who owns the stars, the rain, the wind, the birds, the flowers.
But one day the boy overhears a conversation that the plantation owner is
having with another man.  In that conversation, the boy hears the
statement about his hard working father, "Yes, Big Jim puts all other
field hand to shame; I wish I owned ten more just like him."  The boy is
stunned at hearing this and asks his father about it, then asks if the
man owns him too.  "My father looked directly into my eyes for a moment,
and for a moment after that.  He bent down and put his arms around me and
began to cry."
     The story part ends there, but there is an "AFTERWORD" on the next
page where the narrator (who is the young boy) ends with this statement:
        "My parents hoped and dreamed that the time would come when our
people would not be judged by the color of their skins, but would be
respected for the quality of their thoughts and deeds. I am sure that my
parents would have been pleased - no, overjoyed - if they could have
known that one of their great grandchildren would one day be elected
governor of our state."