BOY IN THE TREETOPS

Newsome tells the stories of a 19th-century slave boy and a family trying to get by in a contemporary North Carolina island community.

The Edwards children, Callie and Jeffy, are enjoying a vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, when their parents take them to Hiatt Plantation so they can learn about slavery. After the family arrives at the plantation, the novel jumps back in time to that of Sammy, one of its young slaves. Newsome, the author of Joe Peas (2016), here tells Sammy’s story, making frequent use of dialect that may not be to everyone’s taste. Too frail for the fields, Sammy (called “Sambo” by his slave master) winds up working in the Hiatt house. But his brother Johnny is killed by a snakebite in the fields. To avoid that fate, Sammy runs away and takes his brother’s name to avoid suspicion. He is joined by a parrot that has also escaped the Hiatt house, and they end up at sea on a boat that raids other ships looking, in part, for treasure. This is where Newsome’s writing shines. He is especially adept at capturing seafaring dangers, including the risks that arise when a British warship closes in on Johnny’s ship and fires its cannon during a storm: “By now the ship was wallowing into troughs between the waves so deep that the crests of the waves could not be seen above the hull.” When Johnny and his bird are shipwrecked on a coastal island, the action shifts to the present and a family that has just moved to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Four-year-old J.J. befriends what seems to be Johnny’s spirit, who J.J.’s older siblings, Benji and Kelsey, think is an imaginary friend. J.J.’s dad, James, finds work at a nursing home and brings Benji to volunteer. They cross paths with an old grifter named Charles Murphy, and when Benji finds a bit of treasure, Murphy swoops in. Both the historical and present-day stories are entertaining, and their plots have some symmetry. Newsome doesn’t quite nail the transition when he brings Johnny’s story into the present, but by then readers may be too absorbed in the story to mind. Given the youth of its characters, this novel might appeal most to children or young teenagers who are ready for mature content, such as a reference to a “sexual liaison” and an auction featuring a naked slave.

A disjointed tale told with skill but also with ample use of dialect that may put off some readers.