Dogsong

Dogsong is about an Eskimo child, Russel Susskit, who finds is life is kind of repetitive and boring. Once he connects with another Eskimo who's name was Oogurk who tells Russel all about how the old ways use to be and Russel gets really excited about the old ways of life. So he embarks on a journey to find and express what life use to be for these Eskimos. Russel gets to also ride on Oogurk's dog sled which is the last dog sled in the village. Russel really learns more about his village and really learns from what happened.

My mother the chearleader

The central idea of  "My Mother the Cheerleader," was that it took some courage to survive if you were colored in the time of this book. A person who showed a lot of courage in this book  was Ruby Bridges. She is a 6 year old who goes to school everyday and gets harassed all the kids at her school. The "cheerleaders" yell stuff at her and even say "2-4-6-8 we don't want to integrate." She shows the true meaning of courage and that is why the central idea is courage.