by Glenette Tilley Turner & illustrated by Samuel Byrd ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 1994
In 1855, a black family seizes a rare opportunity to head north from Missouri. After waiting for Papa (who was recently sold), Luther, Carrie, their parents, and toddler Dilly begin a journey punctuated by narrow escapes and lucky encounters. People on the Underground Railroad hide them or carry them a day's journey; they meet such notables as Frederick Douglass and John Brown. Near Chicago, the older children are separated from the rest lest they be recognized as a wanted family of five; all make for London, Ontario. Carrie and Luther meet a woman who turns out to be an aunt—fortunately, since they don't find their parents for several years. Except for this and Dilly's death, the good luck here is so reliable that, despite offstage dangers, there's not much suspense. The aunt and her husband even buy a farm and harvest a successful crop their first year in an unfamiliar climate. A framing device—Luther, at 101, is telling the story to his grandchildren (!)—provides a possible reason for the lack of real anguish that undermines the story's plausibility. Still, the easily read narrative is an inviting setting for the authentic details, while the reunion makes a heartwarming conclusion. Realistic soft-pencil illustrations make for unusually inviting format. Historical note. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: April 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-8234-1121-4
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1994
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by Augusta Scattergood ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2012
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl...
The closing of her favorite swimming pool opens 11-year-old Gloriana Hemphill’s eyes to the ugliness of racism in a small Mississippi town in 1964.
Glory can’t believe it… the Hanging Moss Community Pool is closing right before her July Fourth birthday. Not only that, she finds out the closure’s not for the claimed repairs needed, but so Negroes can’t swim there. Tensions have been building since “Freedom Workers” from the North started shaking up status quo, and Glory finds herself embroiled in it when her new, white friend from Ohio boldly drinks from the “Colored Only” fountain. The Hemphills’ African-American maid, Emma, a mother figure to Glory and her sister Jesslyn, tells her, “Don’t be worrying about what you can’t fix, Glory honey.” But Glory does, becoming an activist herself when she writes an indignant letter to the newspaper likening “hateful prejudice” to “dog doo” that makes her preacher papa proud. When she’s not saving the world, reading Nancy Drew or eating Dreamsicles, Glory shares the heartache of being the kid sister of a preoccupied teenager, friendship gone awry and the terrible cost of blabbing people’s secrets… mostly in a humorously sassy first-person voice.
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl who takes a stand. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-33180-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
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by Winifred Conkling ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2011
Japanese-American Aki and her family operate an asparagus farm in Westminster, Calif., until they are summarily uprooted and...
Two third-grade girls in California suffer the dehumanizing effects of racial segregation after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1942 in this moving story based on true events in the lives of Sylvia Mendez and Aki Munemitsu.
Japanese-American Aki and her family operate an asparagus farm in Westminster, Calif., until they are summarily uprooted and dispatched to an internment camp in Poston, Ariz., for the duration of World War II. As Aki endures the humiliation and deprivation of the hot, cramped barracks, she wonders if there’s “something wrong with being Japanese.” Sylvia’s Mexican-American family leases the Munemitsu farm. She expects to attend the local school but faces disappointment when authorities assign her to a separate, second-rate school for Mexican kids. In response, Sylvia’s father brings a legal action against the school district arguing against segregation in what eventually becomes a successful landmark case. Their lives intersect after Sylvia finds Aki’s doll, meets her in Poston and sends her letters. Working with material from interviews, Conkling alternates between Aki and Sylvia’s stories, telling them in the third person from the war’s start in 1942 through its end in 1945, with an epilogue updating Sylvia’s story to 1955.Pub Date: July 12, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58246-337-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Tricycle
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
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by Winifred Conkling ; illustrated by Julia Kuo
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by Margot Lee Shetterly with Winifred Conkling ; illustrated by Laura Freeman
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