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Toni Morrison Website EvaluatorsBarbara Laurain – South Windsor High School, Connecticut
Kimberly Richey – Belleville East High School, Illinois Website Reviewer and Compiler
Gail Lindenberg – Nogales High School, California Site Ratings 1 = Poor 2 = Fair 3 = Good 4 = Excellent
Beloved Project at Hampshire College
http://beloved.hampshire.edu/ WOW! This is an exhaustively complete treatment of the novel Beloved
and is appropriate for casual readers, teachers and students. Its only drawback is the incredible amount of material here. The site is easily navigated, includes background information on the author, the novel, the movie, slavery in North America, race relations, and the Reconstruction period in American History. It has extensive links and a good bibliography of printed materials for even further research. It includes excerpts from a symposium "Exploring
Beloved." The "Creative Expressions" page has a great deal of model student work which should inspire some great class assignments for high school students. For students studying the novel, the site
provides an easily understood summary of the story, discussion questions, a myriad of analytical material, and background for accompanying projects on the issues raised by the book/film. Further, it has a bulletin
board forum allowing viewers to discuss in the novel and all related information in great detail! The purpose of the site is to engender interest and conversation about Beloved with a connection the
movie. There is an invitation to discuss Morrison and a welcome by the president of Hamphsire College (one of the contributers of the site.). This is and EXCELLENT site which one could explore for hours!
Overall Rating: 4 Anniina's Toni Morrison Page
http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/tonimorrison/toni.htm
This attractive site is great for research on Morrison and her works. Each novel page offers links to scholarly essays, reviews,
interviews with the author and miscellaneous information about the book. It includes respected sources as well as links to student-written essays. While a few of the books have study guide/discussion links, this
site seems best suited for background research, either for teachers preparing to teach units on Morrison's work, or for students preparing analysis for a class assignment. The essays were fairly complex and could
be difficult for some students to comprehend. Beautiful graphics show Morrison's book covers, but some backgrounds are so dark that text and links are difficult to read. The interesting black and white tree
which gives the names of Morrison's major works, (Sula, Tar Baby, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Paradise, The Bluest Eye and Jazz) offers a visual prelude to an appealing website teeming with
information. An e-mail address in Princeton gives further information and 'chats'.
Overall Rating: 4Toni Morrison References on the Internet
http://www.viconet.com/~ejb/intro.htm Created by an undergraduate as part of a class project, this site has basically the same author biography as found in other sites, but also includes a comprehensive
bibliography of secondary sources, links to other Morrison sites of interest, and links to sources on African American literature. The author posted three of his own essays which are pretty good analyses of the
novels covered. I especially enjoyed his article comparing jazz music and its improvisational nature to the structure of Jazz. He has a discussion forum/bulletin board for viewers to interact about
Morrison's work, but apparently it is inactive since no entries have been posted since 1997. This is a good site for upper high school or undergraduates to start researching. It is well organized, easy to
follow and the articles aren't too complex. The site is not attractive but does possess information that is not found in other sights. It is worthwhile to both students and teachers.
Overall Rating: 3
EducETH- Morrison, Toni
http://educeth.ethz.ch/english/readinglist/morrison,toni.html The site begins with an
appealing visual of Toni Morrison. A reading list section gives titles of her books and the author section includes nine articles about the author and other general topics and themes in her books. The three major works
pages include a synopsis of the story, information about the viewpoints that can be explored in each text and essay. There are also lists of discussion questions. A very interesting aspect of this site is a section
where students may respond to the novels write about topics they would like to discuss. This site is valuable for both teachers and students because of the variety of information presented. Only three of her
novels are covered, Bluest Eye, Sula, and Tar Baby. For those works, it has a short synopsis, comments from teachers and students, and an option for teachers to submit lesson plans and teaching
ideas. At the end of the site, there is a bulletin board for viewers to post requests for more information and ideas, but viewers must release their own e-mail in order to receive responses directly from other
viewers of the site. Students should be cautioned about giving this information in such a public forum.
Overall Rating: 2 |
