Death

Death's Betrayal:  Transgressions:  5 and 9 is another couple of short stories from the book edited by Ed McBrain which is incredible!  These two stores were quite good.  Some day I do need to explore the books of Jeffery Deaver because I have enjoyed the short stories that I have read. 

Tough, tough, tough read...

I couldn't wait for The Journey of Little Charlie to come out.  I bought it right away and listened to it yesterday.  Christopher Paul Curtis is an incredible author.  Although my expectations were very high, the book exceeded them and as time passes since I finished it last night, my respect and high praise for this book just grows and grows. 
It haunts me and I think it will for a long time.
Let's face it, any book that deals with the evils of slavery is going to be a hard one.  But a necessary one. 
I hated Little Charlie, I hated his mother, I hated Cap' n Buck.  I have hope for Little Charlie, yes, but I still hated him.  And I know he just knew what he knew.  But how could one NOT know that what he believed about slavery was wrong?  How?
Are there things that I think are okay but I am as blind as Little Charlie?  This haunts me. 
Exceptional book. 

Tough

Sold was a hard, hard and important book.  Lakshmi's innocence is painful in the face of the horrors to which she is subjected.  And it is a very real story, though this is a work of fiction.  And it isn't just in far-off countries where this happens.  It is right here.  What kind of people do these kinds of things?  Monsters.  That is all I can think. 

Katherine How Great Thou Art

I like the way that that Quakers talk in Lyddie.  I really liked Lyddie.  But that is not surprising, knowing the author is Katherine Paterson.  There are some very funny lines in Lyddie.  And the power of reading is subtly shown here.  This takes place in Lowell, MA and there still in an area in Lowell known as The Acre.  Bette Davis was born there, in Lowell. There is a lot to learn here.  And just an excellent story to enjoy. 

Oh, Freedom

Freedom Over Me:  Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan was a Newbery Honor book this year and also a Coretta Scott King Honor.  This is a short book, a book shorter than those I would count on goodreads, but this book was SO powerful that it needed to be counted, regardless of length.  Beautiful. Important.
Especially after what I heard and saw last month.  At one of the places where I work a father and daughter came in with a list of books from which the daughter had to pick.  The father told me that "she doesn't like books about black people, Chinese people or Indians (sic, she meant Native Americans)."  Unreal.  This girl who looked like Hitler's poster child is growing up in a family (and going to a charter school, go figure) where differences are not accepted, let alone welcomed.  I will pray for that family, but to be honest, I was sickened.  Sickened.  So I need to pray for me, too.  So that my heart can be open to praying for this family.  Because wow.  What a sad, sad and hateful way to be.
I hate to have this story tainted this post about this incredible book.  But we still have a LONG way to go in this country.  The next time someone tells me we don't need Affirmative Action any more, or that racism doesn't exist.  Well, I will do what I always do and say, "You're so terribly wrong. More wrong that you know."

The Horror of Slavery

Even the most elementary description of slavery can't help but be anything but horrific.  That a person would "own" another human being...how. how can this be?
The Slave Dancer is not elementary in its description, yet I am sure that doesn't even come close to the actual horrors of a slave ship.  This is a fictionalized account of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.  Jessie is kidnapped from his home in New Orleans and forced aboard a slave ship, forced into playing his flute for the kidnapped men and woman on board so that they can exercise.
A devastating story.

American Girls

Years and years ago, when I worked at another library, a patron was complaining loudly about the new-at-the-time American Girl, Julie because Julie came from a family in which her father and mother had been divorced.  It was quite a sad scene.  In the room at the time there were two moms who had been divorced and they looked very sad.  The woman said, "How awful that girls have to be exposed to such a thing."

Yes.  Because Addy Walker had such a grand life.   Really?  Really?  Clearly this woman was not thinking at all.  Or perhaps she was just a royal jerk.  Or both.
The first book in this series, and the best of the American Girl books I have read so far.  It is an important story.  One that every American girl:  white, black, purple, green, should read.  While Addy's story is harsh, I am sure it isn't harsh at all compared to the suffering that was endured from the evils of slavery, yet it is a good introduction into this part of American history that must be retold.
I read this book while preparing for a program about Addy at work and while preparing, I came across this article from The Journal of Sport History.   A very interesting article and it gives credence to my belief that what Addy underwent in this first of the Addy Walker books was tame in comparison to what others experienced.
I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series.

Wow

Again, another Paulsen that just blew my mind.  Sarny is the name of the book and the name of the young woman we met in Nightjohn.  She is telling her story at the age of 94, I think...from a nursing home, in the 1930s.  Talking about the past and all of its pain and joy.  We find out what happened to her when the Southern army was defeated and how she walked nearly all the way to New Orleans to find her children who were sold to someone else.  Sarny goes to work from a woman named Miss Laura who reminded me a bit of Willie from Out of the Easy and I loved her just as much.  What a book.  A must-read for all ages.  Horrible and beautiful. 

Hard to Understand...

I listened to Across Five Aprils shortly after reading Nightjohn and so listening to AFA was more difficult than it might have been otherwise. I had heard that Irene Hunt was a great author and this is only book that I have read of hers.  This was a Newbery Honor Book. Nightjohn was not.  Huh.  Strange?  Surprising?  Not really, given the 1954 quality of the Newbery.  
Across Five Aprils was a good book.  It was.  But the thing is...while there are definitely anti-slavery messages in this book, there are also characters who are pro-slavery.  Or people who at the very least, argue that the South should have been allowed to make its own decisions regarding slavery.  Now I know this is realistic.  Of course there were mixed emotions, strong emotions.  I know that...but, but I just don't get it.  I just don't.  I found myself feeling the same way as I listened to Revolution.  In that book there were characters who were trying to find their way, get their heads around racial relations.  I just don't get it...it just makes no sense to me.  How, how, how can separate but not equal make any sense?  How can one be judged by the color of one's skin?  How does that work?  How does what one looks like on the outside make any difference at all when it comes to, well, anything?  How?   I don't know.  I just don't know.

Sometimes...

When I see one of the many Gary Paulsen books I have yet to read, I hold it in my hand and think many thoughts, "Will this be as incredible as The Cookcamp or The Crossing?"  "Could Mr. Paulsen have written yet ANOTHER book that every person should read?"  "How many masterpieces can one man write?"
Well with Nightjohn, he has written another.
Incredible, important and dedicated to the memory of Sally Hemings, a name I didn't know before, but one I will never forget and one that everyone should know.
Beautiful and horrible and real.  Read this now.
And yeah, Thomas Jefferson.  Pretty much of a dirtbag.  But you know...with that whole "Jeffersonian Bible" thing, I am not surprised.

Christopher Paul Curtis

has become an author that I love, love, love.  Elijah of Buxton was incredible.  Christopher Paul Curtis had my heart with The Mighty Miss Malone and now I am just reading everything I can that he has written.  Elijah of Buxton had me quoting and reading out-loud to my mom.  It had me in tears.  I didn't know anything about Buxton, I am ashamed to say. 
The thing is, I have an aunt who won't read fiction at all because she says that she doesn't want to waste her time.  She only reads nonfiction because she can learn from it.  Well, I have learned so much from fiction. 
Oh man...this is a book that I want everyone to read because I just want to talk about it.  Incredible.  Everyone.  Everyone should read this beautiful book. 
As I look at the Newbery Award for that year, I am just sickened.  If this isn't 1954, then I don't know what is.