The political is personal in this effective introduction to 19th-century society and women’s rights.
Bridie, an Irish orphan fleeing a fate of indentured servitude, meets Rose, a free black girl, as both test the limits of what they can do with their lives.
Bridie’s release from the poorhouse after her mother’s death is not what she had hoped. The Kigleys, a white family, bring her to their farm on trial before contracting her as an indentured servant, but the abuse Bridie suffers at Mr. Kigley’s hands leads her to run away. When she meets Rose, they become (improbably) fast friends, and Rose helps Bridie find work at the home of Mrs. Stanton, an educated white woman with property who organizes conventions for women’s rights. (Knowledgeable readers will identify her fairly quickly as Elizabeth Cady Stanton.) At first confused about Rose’s desire to study science, Bridie discovers a love of typesetting. When Frederick Douglass visits Mrs. Stanton, and Mrs. Kigley and her daughter beg for help escaping their abuser, both girls find themselves tested. The third-person narrative is steeped in historical facts and details, which will particularly fascinate history buffs. Bridie’s well-paced story is engaging enough to carry the multilayered questions of gender, class, and race that are addressed in the text. The combination of plain narration with period dialogue is slightly awkward; without a glossary, young readers may need a dictionary on hand. A historical note providing context discusses Stanton’s racism, which is not addressed in the story.
The political is personal in this effective introduction to 19th-century society and women’s rights. (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-12505-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This 2015 New Visions Award winner offers a complex narrative and inspires readers to check their privilege to address...
Although Kelkar’s debut novel takes place in colonial India in the 1940s, when Indian citizens were fighting for independence from British rule, it is uncannily timely: 10-year old Anjali grapples with issues of social justice in many of the same ways young people are today.
When Anjali’s mother quits her job to become a freedom fighter, Anjali is reluctant to join the struggle, as it means she will have to eschew her decorated skirts and wear home-spun khadi (hand-woven cotton) instead, inviting the mockery of her school nemeses. But as her relationship with her mother evolves, her experience of and commitment to activism change as well. When her mother is imprisoned and commences a hunger strike, Anjali continues her work and begins to unlearn her prejudices. According to an author’s note, Kelkar was inspired by the biography of her great-grandmother Anasuyabai Kale, and the tale is enriched by the author’s proximity to the subject matter and access to primary sources. Kelkar also complicates Western impressions of Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi—Anjali realizes that Gandhi is flawed—and introduces readers to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, a figure rarely mentioned in texts for young people in the United States but who is best known for campaigning against social discrimination of Dalits, or members of India’s lower castes.
This 2015 New Visions Award winner offers a complex narrative and inspires readers to check their privilege to address ongoing injustices. (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62014-356-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Tu Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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