Set in south Louisiana and inspired by the ghost stories surrounding the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, this tale alternates between the voices of Lila, a modern teenager from Albuquerque, and Daphne, the ghost of a slave girl. Lila, with help from her brother Gabe and new friend Sal, debunks the long-held belief that Daphne poisoned and killed the mistress of the plantation and her two daughters. Daphne finally learns what exactly happened that fateful day as Lila pieces it together through both logical and supernatural means, and Daphne secures Lila’s help fulfilling a promise she’d made to the mistress of the house when she was alive. The story contains some dark truths about slavery—including repeated sexual assaults on Daphne and the slicing off of her ear as punishment for eavesdropping—without describing them too graphically. The characters are, for the most part, well-rendered and likable, although the behavior and dialogue of the contemporary cast at times feels a bit contrived. Fans of Mary Downing Hahn will love this one. (Horror. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1366-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Starscape/Tom Doherty
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
A deeply satisfying story of longing and hard work fulfilled, inspired by an obscure historical photograph. Bee loves the railroad: the sound and color, the sweep past the wide world into the cities, the wonderful engine names, such as True Heart and the Coyote Special. When her parents die, she finds that, with eight siblings to care for, loading freight for the Union Pacific in Cheyenne in 1893 pays far better than taking in wash. She’s strong, and gets hired to load the trains. But what Bee loves most is to pepper Ole Pete, the engineer, with questions; he lets her drive the train a bit, back it up, and couple it to other cars. When Bee gets the chance to drive a train, she takes two of her female crew to stoke the engines, “blowing my whistle for all the sky to hear.” The language is homespun and direct, with Bee’s desire and love for the railroad clear. The text faces the full-page illustrations; occasional double-page spreads float the text on top of the image, as in one dramatic scene where ghostly wagon trains parallel the train on its run. The mixed media paintings have a burnished quality, while the textures are beautifully tactile. The text never mentions Bee’s gender, but Moss provides a note about her inspiration and preserves another tessera from the mosaic of women’s history. A rousing and romantic tale. (Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201344-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Adler (also with Widener, Lou Gehrig, 1997, etc.) sets his fictional story during the week of July 14, 1932, in the Bronx, when the news items that figure in this tale happened. A boy gets a dime for his birthday, instead of the bicycle he longs for, because it is the Great Depression, and everyone who lives in his neighborhood is poor. While helping his friend Jacob sell newspapers, he discovers that his own father, who leaves the house with a briefcase each day, is selling apples on Webster Avenue along with the other unemployed folk. Jacob takes the narrator to Yankee Stadium with the papers, and people don’t want to hear about the Coney Island fire or the boy who stole so he could get something to eat in jail. They want to hear about Babe Ruth and his 25th homer. As days pass, the narrator keeps selling papers, until the astonishing day when Ruth himself buys a paper from the boy with a five-dollar bill and tells him to keep the change. The acrylic paintings bask in the glow of a storied time, where even row houses and the elevated train have a warm, solid presence. The stadium and Webster Avenue are monuments of memory rather than reality in a style that echoes Thomas Hart Benton’s strong color and exaggerated figures. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201378-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
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