A striking work that reshapes the narrative around enslavement.
The lineage of a Black family comes to life through powerful poems.
Embarking on genealogical research can be daunting but thrilling. But that is not always the case for many Black families, their heritage interrupted by the enslavement of their ancestors and marred by the atrocities they endured. Carole Boston Weatherford invites readers to explore the past through her own family’s history. Beginning with her adolescent indifference and, later, her determined curiosity, she lays the groundwork for how the Lloyd family’s Wye House, in Maryland, came to be the site of mass cruelty. While the Lloyds passed down property, positions, and people as they amassed wealth, the enslaved began losing parts of their legacies. Writing chronologically, the author pieces together the history of enslavement, her strength and resolve palpable as she tells of her family’s triumphs despite the conditions they were forced to bear. Raw, stark, digitally rendered scratchboard illustrations multiply the depth of her profound words. The imagined thoughts of Weatherford’s kin and the personification of the things—among them Wye House and the Chesapeake Bay—that “witnessed” generations of enslavement will give readers a new perspective and inspire questions similar to those she intersperses throughout.
A striking work that reshapes the narrative around enslavement. (author’s and illustrator’s notes, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 9-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781665913621
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Some readers may feel that the resolution comes a mite too easily, but most will enjoy the journey and be pleased when...
Two sisters make an unauthorized expedition to their former hometown and in the process bring together the two parts of their divided family.
Dooley packs plenty of emotion into this eventful road trip, which takes place over the course of less than 24 hours. Twelve-year-old Ophelia, nicknamed Fella, and her 16-year-old sister, Zoey Grace, aka Zany, are the daughters of a lesbian couple, Shannon and Lacy, who could not legally marry. The two white girls squabble and share memories as they travel from West Virginia to Asheville, North Carolina, where Zany is determined to scatter Mama Lacy’s ashes in accordance with her wishes. The year is 2004, before the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, and the girls have been separated by hostile, antediluvian custodial laws. Fella’s present-tense narration paints pictures not just of the difficulties they face on the trip (a snowstorm, car trouble, and an unlikely thief among them), but also of their lives before Mama Lacy’s illness and of the ways that things have changed since then. Breathless and engaging, Fella’s distinctive voice is convincingly childlike. The conversations she has with her sister, as well as her insights about their relationship, likewise ring true. While the girls face serious issues, amusing details and the caring adults in their lives keep the tone relatively light.
Some readers may feel that the resolution comes a mite too easily, but most will enjoy the journey and be pleased when Fella’s family figures out how to come together in a new way . (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-16504-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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