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America 2
--Twentieth Century
This story, which is set around Big Moose
Lake in the Adirondack Mountains in 1906, is based on a true incident.
Mattie Gokey has made two promises which she is finding very difficult
to keep. Even worse, both the people she made the promises to
are now dead.
The first one was made to her mother when she was dying of cancer.
Mattie promised that she would stay and look after her father
and younger sisters. But Mattie is intelligent and bookish. She
has dreams of becoming a writer and her teacher encourages her.
Eventually she wins a scholarship to a college in New York. But
to go there would be to break her promise to her dead mother.
In any case Mattie does not want to leave her family and friends.
The second promise was to a young girl who was staying at the
lakeside hotel where Mattie worked. She gave Mattie a bundle of
letters and asked her to burn them for her. Shortly afterwards
the girl is drowned in the lake. Mattie delays burning the letters
and eventually reads them and uncovers a dreadful crime. Surely
the young girl's story deserves to be told even if it does mean
breaking her promise?
Mattie has been told that if you break a promise to the dead they
will haunt you forever. But she discovers that if you keep a promise
they will still haunt you.
This story is set against a detailed and authentic background.
The toil and poverty of the local farmers is contrasted with the
wealthy tourists who come to stay at the lakeside hotels. Above
all this book highlights the hardness of life for the women --drudgery
on their farms and pain and danger in childbirth. And what about
the few who make a bid for independence like Miss Wilcox, Mattie's
teacher? She is pursued by her husband who is threatening to have
her put under the care of a doctor -- in other words committed
to an asylum.
Mattie does not believe in happy endings but paradoxically it
is her courage and resourcefulness which helps her to solve not
only her own problems but the problems of nearly everyone else
in the book. And so she is the one who is responsible for all
the happy endings.
This well researched story is based on the murder and trial of
Grace Brown in 1906.
A cleverly crafted book with a realistic and authentic background
which highlights the plight of women in rural America at the beginning
of the twentieth century.
Young adult
The American mid-west during the Depression
of the 1930s. With his mother dead and his father some place unknown
ten-year-old Bud Caldwell spends his time between the orphanage
and a succession of temporary foster homes. Ill-treated in one
he finally decides to run away. He sets out to find his father.
All he has to go on are a few leaflets of his mother's -- leaflets
about jazz concerts. Bud is sure that the bandleader must be his
father.
Bud may be young and vulnerable but he is essentially a survivor.
He even has his own set of rules to that effect. He calls them
'Rules and Things for Having a Funnier Life and Making a Better
Liar out of Yourself.' He spends some time in a shanty town with
a community intent on riding the rails -- or jumping and secreting
themselves aboard trains bound for California. But when he does
not get on the train he starts to walk to the town where he believes
the bandleader to be. But is the musician really his father? And
if he is will he welcome Bud?
The poverty of 1930s America is vividly depicted. But because
of the resilience of young Bud it is described in a very matter
of fact way. Bud just accepts things as they are and makes the
best of them.
Bud is also black. That is a fact which just creeps up on the
reader when Bud casually refers to a person as being white. Race
is not the issue here, but poverty is and that affects both black
and white. It is not until near the end of the book that the difficulties
and injustices of the black population are brought out. The bandleader
always has one white musician in the band. This is because the
house he uses as his base is in an area where Negroes are not
allowed to own property. So he has it put in the white player's
name. Also a lot of white people would not hire them if they knew
it was a Negro band. So again the white musician is sent to make
all the arrangements with the result that when the band turns
up on the night it is too late to make any changes.
This book really evokes the spirit of Depression America with
its descriptions of the shanty towns, the Pullman porter, the
legislation about the trade unions and, of course, the jazz bands.
Brings home what it means to be small, black and alone in the
America of the 1930s. Told in the first person by a very spirited
young Bud. A worthy winner of the Newbery medal.
12 to adult
There are two main themes in this book. The first concerns the polio epidemic in North Carolina in 1944 and the emergency hospital which came to be known as the miracle of Hickory. The second is about relations between black and white at that time.
In 1944 Ann Fay Honeycutt is thirteen years old and her father has to leave home to join the Army. Before he leaves he gives Ann Fay a pair of overalls and tells her that she is now the man of the house. So Ann Fay tends the large vegetable garden and looks after her young brother and sisters. And soon she has to look after her mother as well when her young brother, Bobby, is stricken with polio and her mother takes a job in the hospital kitchen to be near him. Ann Fay is left alone in the house with her two little sisters. Worse she is not supposed to leave the house as they are all in quarantine, although, fortunately, a neighbour ignores this and comes to help them. Bobby dies and when her mother finally comes home she is distraught and Ann Fay has that to cope with too. Then she catches polio herself. She is rushed to the emergency hospital where she begins her long struggle back to health.
In hospital she is shocked to find a black (or colored as they were known as at the time) girl in the next bed to her. But Imogen, as the black girl is called, soon becomes a very good friend. When the two girls are moved out of the contagious ward they are both devastated to find that they are to be separated. Despite everything they struggle to continue their friendship, even to the extent of sneaking outside in the rain to meet together one night.
This book has been thoroughly researched but the historical facts just occur naturally in the story. There are details of the painful Kenny packs used to treat polio, and also of the psysiotheraphy. And then Ann Fay hears the nurses weeping but does not find out until later that Franklin Delano Roosevelt has died. The poverty of the times is clearly illustrated when Bobby’s body is brought home from the hospital. His mother could not even afford a box.
Despite everything this is not a sad or harrowing book. This is because Ann Fay is such a courageous and resilient heroine. The story is told by her in the first person and written just as she would speak and this adds to the authenticity of the book.
Comes with a note and a detailed bibliography.
A worthy tribute to all those who fought the polio epidemic of 1944 whether doctors, nurses, physiotherapists or victims.
Young adult.
When Mildred Taylor was a child her family always told stories about the past. When she grew up she used these stories for the basis of her series about the Logan family in Mississippi in the 1930's. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry was the first of these to be published. It is told from the viewpoint of ten-year-old Cassie Logan who is just beginning to learn what it means to be black in the American South. The Well takes the story further back. It is set in 1910 when Cassie's father, David is ten years old.
It is a very dry summer and all the wells in the area dry up - except one, the Logans'. They allow everyone, black and white, to come and draw water from their well.
But this book is also about a feud and not just about the well - although the well plays its own part in the feud. The feud is between the Logans and the Simmses. These families are neighbours. They live about a mile apart. The Simmses are tenant farmers and their farm is forty acres. The Logans, on the other hand, own their farm and it is much bigger, 200 acres. But there is more than simple jealousy involved. The Logans are black and the Simmses are white. Papa Logan tells his family to stay out of the Simmses' way and just walk away if they start something. David listens to his father and tries to do as he says, but his hot-tempered thirteen-year-old brother Hammer is determined to stand up to the Simmses no matter the cost.
There are a number of minor confrontations between Hammer and Charlie Simms and then something really serious happens. David is holding up Charlie's wagon while Charlie tries to replace a wheel. The wagon is heavy and David cannot hold it any longer. He lets it fall and Charlie knocks him down. This is too much for Hammer. He attacks Charlie with his fists. Charlie hits his head against a rock and lies still. David thinks Hammer has killed Charlie.
Charlie is not badly hurt but for just hitting a white boy Hammer and David could be put in gaol. They could even be hanged although they are just boys. But between them Mama Logan and the sheriff arrange a lesser punishment.
But as far as Hammer and Charlie are concerned this is not an end to the matter. Charlie is still determined to teach Hammer his place but this time he goes too far - even for a white boy.
While reading this book I was greatly impressed by the independence of the Logan family and their determination, against all odds, to better themselves. Papa Logan is man I can really respect.
The Well forms a good introduction to the saga of the Logan family. It gives a good picture of Mississippi in the early years of the twentieth century and brings out the dreadful injustices the blacks had to face.
11+
This book was first published in 1976. It won the Newbery Medal in 1977.
This is one of the stories about the Logan family - stories which are based on the lives of members of Mildred D. Taylor's own family.
The narrator is nine year old Cassie Logan. She is just beginning to learn what it really means to be black in the state of Mississippi in 1933.
There are many things Cassie does not understand. Together with her brothers she has a one hour walk to school every morning. But the white children have a bus. Why do the black children not have a bus too? In school the black children are given old, tattered books which already have had several years wear in white schools. In the store she has to wait while all the white people are served first. Moreover she is expected to step off the sidewalk into the road when a white girl tells her and she is even expected to call that girl "MISS Lilian Jean."
But compared with other things which are happening these are only minor irritations. Especially when compared to the night riders and burnings. A young negro man is casually alleged to have "flirted" with a white girl. The night riders come and haul him out of his uncle's house and set him on fire. When his uncle tries to help they do the same to him. The young man dies and his uncle is left terribly injured. In another incident a negro is tarred and feathered because he insinuated that a white man lied.
The Logans are a very independent family. Mama Logan is a school teacher and Cassie is determined to get a good education. The Logans own two hundred acres outright and have a mortage on another two hundred. There are many who would like to see them lose that extra two hundred. Mr Logan gives them a chance when he takes on the Wallaces. They have a store and they are exploiting the blacks who are more or less forced to use it. Mr Logan arranges to take his wagon to Vicksburg and bring back supplies for the whole community. But the Wallaces retaliate. On the return journey two wheels mysteriously come off the wagon and Mr Logan is shot at and left with a broken leg. This means that he cannot go back and work on the railroad for money to pay off the mortage.
The story moves on to a forceful climax involving an attempted lynching, a thunderstorm and a forest fire.
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry tells the story of a year in the life of Cassie Logan. She is only nine years old but by the end of that year she has grown up.
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry really brings home the position of the negroes in the American south in the 1930's. It is compelling reading.
13+
Mississippi 1964.
Eleven-year-old Alice Ann Moxley’s father is an FBI agent and he is sent to Jackson after the bodies of three civil rights workers have been found in a dirt dam.
Alice is used to moving home and school and she usually settles down and makes new friends easily. But this time it is different. She finds the customs and ways of the South very strange. Even worse the girls at school refuse to accept her. They call her Yankee Girl.
This is the time when desegregation is being forced on the South and there are a few black children in Alice’s school. There is even one in her class –– Valerie Taylor the daughter of a black preacher and prominent civil rights worker. The girls in the class do all they can to make her life a misery. They put skunk oil in her desk and put chewing gum on her hair so that it has to be cut off.
Alice knows that this wrong. But she is not prepared to come right out and say so. There are five girls in particular who are the leaders of the class and Alice is desperate to become one of them. Then they do begin to talk to her. They tell her about the plan to put chewing gum on Valerie’s hair and Alice does not object. She makes excuses for herself and tells herself that she is not actually part of the plan.
This is only one particular instance but there are more to come. In the class there is one girl who could act as an example to Alice. This is Mary Martha who is not afraid to be called a nigger lover. But Alice is so desperate for acceptance that she smothers her conscience until a tragedy makes her understand that she must finally stand up for what is right.
This book really brings the Mississippi of 1964 to life. As well as her problems at school Alice is afraid at home too –– especially when she finds that her father is bringing his gun home at night. The Klu Klux Klan burn the letters KKK into the Moxleys' lawn and people phone them up and tell them to go back to Yankeeland. Most frightening of all the KKK park outside their house and keep a watch on it. Then there are also little mundane touches which place the book firmly in the 1960s like the steam irons –– used for ironing the hair of teenage girls as well as for clothes –– and the constant fascination with the Beatles.
And politics apart there are still the problems of girls growing up. Right from the start Alice has one friend, the boy next door. But he warns her not to speak to him in school because it would not do for him to be seen talking to a girl. And then there is the sixth grade Class Day party –– their first girl-boy party.
Comes with a historical note.
This book puts the civil rights movement of the 1960s firmly in a human context as well as giving a vivid picture of the times.
Very highly recommended.
Young adult
The problems of a Hungarian immigrant family in Cincinatti in1952 as seen through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy.
Peti’s aunt, uncle and older cousin finally get visas and come to stay with Peti and his parents until his uncle can get a job. This means that the apartment is overcrowded. To make matters worse Peti’s cousin, Gabor, bullies him and makes friends with boys from the neighbourhood –– who also bully Peti. Then the school is closed for the summer and Peti finds a refuge. He spends all his time in the library. He does this for two reasons. One to escape from the bullying Gabor, and two, because he has an enquiring mind. He is interested in everything from the solar system to pinhole cameras.
The librarian takes an interest in Peti. She tells him about the Underground Railroad and Peti is interested because he has heard his parents talking about his grandfather who has been sent to a farm. But his grandfather cannot escape from Hungary because there are too many soldiers at the border. Mrs Malone, the librarian, takes Peti on a visit to a station on the Underground Railway which is now a museum.
The museum makes a deep impression on Peti. Earlier Gabor, his cousin, had made him take money out of his uncle’s suitcase. When this is discovered the grown-ups make excuses for both Peti and Gabor. Peti is so much younger than Gabor. But Peti tells himself he still knew it was wrong. And moving around from country to country has been hard for Gabor. But Peti quietly reminds himself that Gabor did not have to swim a freezing river. Peti finally comes to a decision.
The story is told in the first person by Peti. This gives a child’s eye picture of the Iron Curtain. When he first hears that his grandfather has been sent to a farm Peti thinks he will like that. He could have a cat and kittens.
A highly original description of the Iron Curtain and eastern European immigrants in America. The Underground Railway forms an interesting parallel with the border between the communist countries and the West.
Young adult
This book was first published in America in 1998. It won the Newbery medal for 1999.
Joey Dowdel lives with his parents and young sister in Chicago. Every August he goes, with his sister Mary Alice, to spend a week with his grandmother who lives in a small rural town between Chicago and St Louis. Later, when he grows up, he writes down an account of these holidays with his independent and original old Grandma. There is a chapter for every year from 1929 to 1935, from when Joey was nine to fifteen.
Grandma lives in the last house in town and values her privacy so she does not mix with the community much. She does not have a telephone or a radio. The town is only a short block of brick buildings. The houses still have tin roofs over the sidewalk, and hitching rails and most farmers came to town horse-drawn. Joey thinks it a slow place and Mary Alice thinks that there will be nothing to do. But she soon changes that opinion.
Times are hard in the America of the 1930s but Grandma is one of life's natural survivors. And there are times when she is not too particular about obeying the letter of the law -- as when she goes fishing on private property with illegal traps. Her gruff exterior hides a kind heart and she has her own way of helping people -- as is shown in the case of the illegally obtained fish. She uses some of them to feed an old lady, and then she fries the remainder with potatoes and onions and provides a feed for the many drifters who are travelling about trying to find work. Another time she invokes the help of a ghost to help a young girl to escape from her cruel and possessive mother.
She even helps those she is not particularly friendly with -- like old Effie Wilcox who would "talk you to death. Her tongue's attached at the middle and flaps at both ends." But when the bank forecloses on Mrs Wilcox's house Grandma has a plan to make the bank return the house to the old woman -- a plan which involves falsifying certain items of clothing which may have been worn by Abraham Lincoln. In the course of the altercation with the bank manager he says to her,
"That's blackmail," to which she at once returns,
"What's the difference."
This attitude sums up Grandma exactly.
Above all, Grandma makes sure that people rarely get the better of her as shown when she silences the local sheriff by reminding him of the time she saw him drunk in his underwear.
But there are times when she does slip up -- as at the country fair. Grandma is hoping to win first prize for her gooseberry pie when she catches sight of the best home baker in the state of Illinois. Grandma quietly switches the cards on the pies. But this time she gets her come-uppance as her own pie wins for the other competitor. This is also bad news for Joey as all blue ribbon winners can claim a free trip in a biplane. But Grandma has a blue ribbon on her hat and she takes it off and so Joey gets his flight -- something which later leads to his choice of career.
There is one last, final chapter set in 1942. Joey thinks that the Second World War is his chance to realise his dream to become a flier and he enlists in the Army Air Corps. But first he has to do basic training. The train to his training camp goes through the town where Grandma stays and Joey sends her a telegram. The train passes through the town just before dawn. Grandma's house is the last one in town and Joey sees that it is all lit up -- and Grandma is standing in the front door waving at all the carriages as a they pass. And so the book ends with a typical picture of a remarkable old woman.
This book really evokes the spirit of 1930s America with its references to Prohibition, Al Capone and his limousine, the drifters travelling the country looking for work, either in freight trains or on foot, the First World air ace at the country fair -- and much, much more. It presents a fascinating picture of America in the Depression years.
But above all it gives a memorable impression of an independent and resourceful old woman.
A worthy winner of the Newbery medal.
10+
An exciting mystery story and a treasure hunt told within the framework of two children growing up and their friendship across a social divide. All set against the background of Bellingham, near Seattle, in 1908.
Henry Collin’s father works long hours for low wages in a lumber mill while Sara Flint is the daughter of a wealthy banker. Sara has problems with her mother who is trying to prepare her to be a lady and take her place in society. Sara thinks this boring and craves adventure. Henry’s problems are more material. He wishes he could find some way of getting money for his hard up family.
Henry also has one great ambition –– to be a detective. He has already started his training. He spends long hours holed up in the carriage house with telescope and dog watching and observing. He suspects that something dreadful has happened to Sailor Bill –– perhaps even that he has been murdered. He joins forces with Sara and they meet an old friend of Bill’s, Josh McCain. Josh tells them an old story about a Spanish pirate, a tribe of Indians and buried treasure.
If he could find the treasure this would solve all the problems of Henry’s family. So begins a quest which involves danger from two criminals and death from drowning in a flooded mine.
As well as being an exciting story this book also has a few hints of rights of passage. Eventually Henry learns two important lessons. That true wealth is not found in gold and silver but in sacrifice, friendship and love. Also, although naturally rather timid, he finds that in helping Sara he is braver than he thought.
The historical background, which is skilfully worked into the very fabric of the story, covers a wide sweep of Bellingham’s history. The importance of the sea is shown by the character of Sailor Bill. The story of Juan de Vega and his treasure map hark back to the Spanish pirates of four hundred years ago. And the climax when Henry and Sara are fighting for their lives in a flooded mine underneath Bellingham is a startling reminder of the significance of mining in the area in the nineteenth century.
On a more everyday level, Sara’s father is very proud of his new motor car. The children are taken to Buffalo Bill’s circus where Sara angers her mother by riding a calf. There is interesting detail about the operation of the local fire engine. To say nothing of little touches like the children carrying their lunch to school in pails.
Kent Holsather has lived all his life in BellinghamWashington and is a dedicated local historian and this story is clearly founded on his own research. In this case it is a pity that he did not include historical notes and a note on his sources. Some may feel that this would give the impression of a text book but this is a fallacy. Historical notes would have enhanced the book and given a jumping off ground for more serious readers.
But this criticism apart this is still an exciting story with an authentic historical background.
Well worth reading.
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