Takes place on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina. Essie eagerly awaits a visit from her cousin Neeny who has moved from the island to the city. But she’s disappointed to see that Neeny no longer seems interested in the old island life. At book’s end Essie gives Neeny her bed quilt,made from the old clothes of their relatives as a way to keep her remembering.

Summary: Essie is very excited for her cousin Neeny to come visit. She hasn't seen Neeny in oh so long! But when Neeny finally arrives, she is very different from the Neeny that Essie remembers.

Review: I was not particularly impressed by this book. It is set in a time and place very different from my own, with a very different culture, and written in a dialect that is unfamiliar to me. There was a lot that I had to think about before I could even get to the heart of the story, and the pictures were too abstract to offer much help clueing me in to what was happening. The story itself was good, with a message about change that I think almost any reader can relate to, as long as he or she can navigate the cultural and linguistic barriers between he or she and what the narrator is saying.

Central Idea of Neeny Coming, Neeny Going: People change and grow. It is important to try to understand people as they are now, and not get stuck on how they used to be. ( )

Summary:
Essie's cousin is coming back to the island, but she does not want to work. She acts like her life changed but Essie knows no one forgets their roots.

Personal Reaction:
I thought this book was hard to get into. I like the lesson of it, but I do not know if it is interesting enough for younger children.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1) You could have the kids create family trees to remember their roots.

2) You could make a classroom quilt so that each person represents their part of the classroom "family"

Summary

It is set in the 1950’s, Neeny left the island and found a better life for herself. She comes back to visit her cousin, Essie on the island. Essie finds out her cousin has changed and does not care about the island life anymore.

Personal Reaction

In this book it portrays that when people move away things will not always be the same when they returned. It does a good job of showing how people change and they discover they want different things in life as they get older.

Classroom Extension Ideas

1.Have each student draw on a piece of paper and then make a classroom paper quilt of their drawings. It could be of their families or where they live.

2.They could write about how as they got older they wanted different things.

3. You could have the students pick a page out of the book and have them interrupt what is going on just by looking at the picture.

This was a book showing the culture of a family on Daufuskie Island. Essie's cousin Neeny comes from the mainland to visit her family who has a blend of American and West African cultures. Essie is excited that Neeny is coming to visit, but she doesn't realize her cousin has changed so much. At the end of the book, they accept each other's differences and are still happy that they saw one another.

This book is a great tool when showing children how Daufuskie Island was in the 1960s. It's easy for children to point out how things have changed, because people don't live that way now.

After reading this book, you could tell the children about what the island was like with the culture and tell a little background information. You could also have a listening activity where you let the children listen to some West African music and then discuss how they felt when they listened to it.