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BLACK ANGELS

Name: BLACK ANGELS
Author: Rita Murphy
ISBN: 0-385-32776-5

by Rita Murphy ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

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Narrator 11-year-old Celli lives in segregated Macon, Georgia, with her mother and brother; her father left years earlier. Celli also considers Sophie, an outspoken African-American woman who cooks and cleans for them, to be a part of the family. In 1961, when Celli's mother leaves for a month, Sophie takes care of the children. One evening she takes Celli to a church meeting where the congregation is planning a visit from the Freedom Riders. The resulting civil-rights demonstration lands Sophie in jail and pushes Celli into helping a man pursued by the Klan. Celli also meets, for the first time, her Ohio grandmother who has come with the Freedom Riders. The girl is shocked that her grandmother is African-American and even more shocked to learn that this means her light-skinned father was, too. Celli's rather too-quick adjustment to these surprises can only be explained by her relationship with Sophie and for all its drama, the story falls short of engaging the reader emotionally. The well-intentioned exploration of civil rights and racial identity tends to override the development of the characters, who remain largely one-dimensional, while strained elements of magical realism reinforce the reader's distance. Celli opens her story by describing angels that only she sees, as "Three naked black girls with creamy white wings, throwing stones on my hopscotch board." The angels appear most days, eating angel food, picking blossoms, and, near the end, playing poker on the garage roof. Murphy's strong lyrical writing was used to far better effect in her first novel, Night Flying (2000), where the magical realism was well integrated into the story. Here she has tackled tough issues in too-little depth, with symbolism that obscures rather than enlightens. Still, the story itself is a good one and has its own rewards. (Fiction. 10-13)

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-385-32776-5

Page Count: 154

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2001

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
BIRD
by Rita Murphy

- BOOK REVIEW
LOOKING FOR LUCY BUICK
by Rita Murphy

- BOOK REVIEW
HARMONY
by Rita Murphy

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OUR NEIGHBOR IS A STRANGE, STRANGE MAN

by Tres Seymour ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

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Readers won’t find this neighbor strange; he merely entertains an age-old desire to fly. But hark back a 120 years, when this story takes place, and one can begin to appreciate the skeptics who surround Melville Murrell, technically the creator of the first human-powered airplane two decades before the Wright brothers. To the narrator, it’s strange that “our neighbor” studies birds, makes drawings, and tries to be airborne. The title sentence becomes a bleating refrain, turning the book into a one-kick joke when Murrell’s contraption flies and the narrator is almost rendered speechless. Krudop’s paintings, with their great slabs of vibrant color, are atmospheric delights, conjuring up Murrell as the eccentric his neighbors believe him to be, and the era as one in which innovators were no more appreciated—at least till they struck it rich—than they are today. (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: March 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-531-30107-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Orchard

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
AUCTION!
by Tres Seymour & illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith

- BOOK REVIEW
JAKE JOHNSON
by Tres Seymour

- BOOK REVIEW
THE REVELATION OF SAINT BRUCE
by Tres Seymour

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ABRAHAM'S BATTLE

by Sara Harrell Banks ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

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With a large scope to belie its length, a novella that paints in simple scenes of the battle of Gettysburg the essential sorrow and causes of the entire Civil War. Banks (Under the Shadow of Wings, 1997, etc.) introduces Abraham Small, an ex-slave whose humble life near Gettysburg is interrupted when he meets Lamar, an innocent young Confederate soldier who is without racial prejudices. They spend a pleasant afternoon together and part as friends, but Abraham realizes that he must fight against slavery in the coming battle. Banks follows the fates of her characters, including a meeting of Abraham Small and Abraham Lincoln, through succinct scenes that effortlessly include facts and statistics of the battle. While some transitions are too abrupt, the author places the lives of the characters within a context of real history, and gives readers an understanding of the soaring words and effect of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. This is a poignant and effective introduction to the Civil War, to use alongside Gary Paulsen’s Soldier’s Heart (1998). (Fiction. 9-13)