Education Insights • 2024 • Volume 2 • Issue 1 36 empathy.1 Bishop’s words are exceptionally true when choosing this text as a book to have in your middle school classroom library. Students in all sectors of school whether public, private, charter, or home-school need to see themselves through diverse multicultural books. Most importantly, as Christian educators we could utilize this book as a great resource to shepherd and point students to Christ. The message is clear: even though Isaiah Dunn is portrayed as the hero of the day, he is actually not the ultimate hero. Isaiah is just like everyone else that was born and shaped into sin (Ps. 51:5; Rom. 3:23). The only hero that can ultimately save the day is Jesus Christ alone. Jesus saved the day 2,000 years ago when he would die on an old, rugged cross on a hill called Calvary. Jesus would die for the sins of the entire world, be buried for three days, and rise from the dead (John 3:16; 1 Cor. 15). This book is filled with substantial gospel-centered teaching moments and conversations that can be held during class discussions or instruction. I would highly recommend this book to be used in any middle school English Language Arts classroom. 1 Rudine Sims Bishop, “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors,” Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom 6, no. 3 (Summer 1990): ix-xi, quoted in Kristen Strobbe, “Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors,” Working in the Schools, August 3, 2021, witschicago.org/windows-mirrors-and-sliding-glass-doors.
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