27. We Hope for Better Things by Erin Bartels

listened to eAudio - RBDigital/TPPL
narrated by Stina Nielsen
Unabridged audio (12:03)
2019, Fleming H. Revell Co.
393 pgs.
Adult Hidtorical Fiction told in 3 time periods
Finished 2/10/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.22 - 2440 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting:Detroit and rural Michigan:  1861-1871, 1963-1967, and present time

First line/s:  Detroit: July  "The Lafayette Coney Island was not a comfortable place to be early."

My comments:  This was one of those books I didn't want to put don't and I couldn't wait to get back to.  I love historical fiction that goes back and forth between points-of-view, and this one didn't disappoint. Told from the viewpoints of three strong women, all related, and dealing with the racism of the Civil War, 1960's Detroit, and present day, and how history can follow a family - and just how important a family's history can be.  Beautifully read, great characters, and a setting that is a hugely strong part of the story, a great story.

Goodreads synopsis:  When Detroit Free Press reporter Elizabeth Balsam meets James Rich, his strange request--that she look up a relative she didn't know she had in order to deliver an old camera and a box of photos--seems like it isn't worth her time. But when she loses her job after a botched investigation, she suddenly finds herself with nothing but time.
          At her great-aunt's 150-year-old farmhouse, Elizabeth uncovers a series of mysterious items, locked doors, and hidden graves. As she searches for answers to the riddles around her, the remarkable stories of two women who lived in this very house emerge as testaments to love, resilience, and courage in the face of war, racism, and misunderstanding. And as Elizabeth soon discovers, the past is never as past as we might like to think.
          Debut novelist Erin Bartels takes readers on an emotional journey through time--from the volatile streets of 1960s Detroit to the Underground Railroad during the Civil War--to uncover the past, confront the seeds of hatred, and discover where love goes to hide.

MOVIE - Green Book

PG-13 (2:10)

Wide release 11/21/19

Viewed 12/27/18 at Carlisle Theater with Sandy
IMBd: 8.3/10

RT Critic:  82  Audience: 94
Critic's Consensus:   Green Booktakes audiences on a surprisingly smooth ride through potentially bumpy subject matter, fueled by Peter Farrelly's deft touch and a pair of well-matched leads.

Cag:  5

Directed by Peter Farrelly 

Universal Pictures

Based on a true story

Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini

My comments:  I wish they had chosen another name for this movie.  I can understand why they used it and how hard it might'v been to come up with a proper title, but this wasn't a good one for such a wonderful movie.  Based on a true story (I always wonder how much), it takes us back to the early 60s into the black and white communities of the deep South.  Oh, how I get pissed off!  It's all about a tough white Italian American from the Bronx taking on the job of driver for two months for a cultured black pianist who is performing in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, etc.  It's about how they slowly come around to becoming not just employer/employee, but like-minded friends.  Lots of gentle humor, earnestness, and head-shaking, maddening prejudice.

RT/ IMDb Summary  When Tony Lip (Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on "The Green Book" to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger-as well as unexpected humanity and humor-they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime.

MOVIE - BlackKklansman

R (2:15)

Wide release 8/10/18

Viewed 9/12/2018

RT Critic: 95  Audience:  82
Critic's Consensus:  BlacKkKlansman uses history to offer bitingly trenchant commentary on current events -- and brings out some of Spike Lee's hardest-hitting work in decades along the way.

Cag:  5

Directed by Spike Lee

Focus Features

John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace

My comments:  So many emotions filled me as I watched this movie - outrage, disbelief, laughter.  I was so appalled because I don't want to realize the prejudices that some people feel so incredibly strongly.  It's........sick.  The movie was quite brilliant, but I thought it would be more of a comedy, not realizing how incredibly difficult it would be to watch.  Wow.  And I do adore Adam Driver.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  From visionary filmmaker Spike Lee comes the incredible true story of an American hero. It's the early 1970s, and Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is the first African-American detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Determined to make a name for himself, Stallworth bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. The young detective soon recruits a more seasoned colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), into the undercover investigation of a lifetime. Together, they team up to take down the extremist hate group as the organization aims to sanitize its violent rhetoric to appeal to the mainstream. Produced by the team behind the Academy-Award (R) winning Get Out.

70. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

read on my iPhone
2017, Balzer & Bray
444 pgs.
YA CRS
Finished 12/30/2017
Goodreads rating:  4.59 - 73,998 ratings
My rating: 5 all the way
Setting:  I'm guessing Jackson, Mississippi area, since that's where the author resides, but perhaps any inner city in the US

First line/s:  "I shouldn't have come to this party."

My comments:  I don't know why I put off reading this for so long, I've had it since it first came out.  So okay, wow.  It was certainly worth the time and effort, and enforced a perspective that as a "white" person I've tried very hard to embrace.  Incredible writing.  Wonderful perspective.  I don't need to write a review for this, it's all been written. This was engrossing, powerful, and very much needed! AND it was terrific to discover what the title represents....

Goodreads synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
          Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
          But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

MOVIE - Marshall

PG-13 (1:58)

Wide release 10-13-17

Viewed Tuesday evening, 10-17-17 at the Regal Theater in Harrisburg
IMBd:  6.8

T Critic: 87     Audience:  87
Critic's Consensus:  Marshall takes an illuminating, well-acted look at its real-life subject's early career that also delivers as an entertainingly old-fashioned courtroom drama.

Cag:  5/Loved it

Directed by Reginald Hudlin

Open Road Films

Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Sterling K. Brown, Kate Hudson, James Cromwell

My comments:  What an excellent movie!  I particularly loved all the humor and the growing relationship between Samuel Friedman and Thurgood Marshall.  Perhaps these parts were added with "creative license," in that writing a biopic about something that happened 76 years ago (1941) can't be full of the truth, and this is a movie, after all, not a documentary. The actors, and acting, were superb (although Kate Hudson's portrayal seemed a little off to me). Powerful storytelling about a piece of our history - a LARGE piece - that is shaming and shameful.  There was an older (white) couple sitting behind me in the theater that were cheering and clapping every time something positive happened, or every time someone put an arrogant white person in their place.  They applauded at the end.  That's how I felt, applause is necessary.  Highly recommended.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Starring Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens, Sterling K. Brown, and James Cromwell. Director Reginald Hudlin's Marshall, is based on an early trial in the career of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. It follows the young lawyer (Chadwick Boseman) to conservative Connecticut to defend a black chauffeur (Sterling K. Brown) charged with sexual assault and attempted murder of his white socialite employer (Kate Hudson). Muzzled by a segregationist court, Marshall partners with a courageous young Jewish lawyer, Samuel Friedman (Josh Gad). Together they mount the defense in an environment of racism and Anti-Semitism. The high profile case and the partnership with Friedman served as a template for Marshall's creation of the NAACP legal defense fund.

PICTURE BOOK - The Case for Loving: the Fight for Interracial Marriage by Selina Alko

Illustrated by the author's husband, Sean Qualls

2015 Arthur A. Levine/ Scholastic

Author's note & Bibliography
HC $18.99

32 pgs.
Goodreads rating: 4.27 - 836 ratings

My rating: 5+

Endpapers: white with hearts and music

Illustrations: Collage and paint and colored pencils (mixed media) Edge of page to edge of page :)

Preface:  "Imagine not being able to marry the person you loved, just because they were a race different from your own.  Here is the story of the love between Mildred and Richard Loving.  Here is the story of the courage they needed to have that love recognized:  a story about how the law changed for the better, about how the law made room for the Lovings, and by doing so made way for love."

My comments:  This book is a SIX star book!  Selina Alko writes the story perfectly.  It couldn't have been told better, or illustrated more lovingly or well.  Because this book is shelved in our library in the nonfiction section instead of the picture books, I  almost missed it.  It was because of the recent movie about the Lovings that it jumped out at me.  Thanks goodness.  I loved it.  I  want to own it.  I want to share it with every 8, 9, 10 11, 55, or 88 year old I see.  This is the story of the two people who fought for nine years to have their interracial marriage legal in their home state of Virginia. It wasn't until 1967 ... 1967!!! ... that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of interracial marriage....because of this shy, loving pair who only wanted to be able to live as a married couple. Superbly told story by a interracial couple - terrifically!

Goodreads:  For most children these days it would come as a great shock to know that before 1967, they could not marry a person of a race different from their own. That was the year that the Supreme Court issued its decision in Loving v. Virginia.
          This is the story of one brave family: Mildred Loving, Richard Perry Loving, and their three children. It is the story of how Mildred and Richard fell in love, and got married in Washington, D.C. But when they moved back to their hometown in Virginia, they were arrested (in dramatic fashion) for violating that state's laws against interracial marriage. The Lovings refused to allow their children to get the message that their parents' love was wrong and so they fought the unfair law, taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court - and won!

MOVIE- Hidden Figures

PG (2:07)

Wide release 1/6/17

Viewed Sunday, 1/15/17 at Carlisle 8 with Ella
IMBd:  

RT Critic: 93   Audience:  94
Critic's Consensus:  In heartwarming, crowd-pleasing fashion, Hidden Figures celebrates overlooked -- and crucial -- contributions from a pivotal moment in American history.

Cag:  6/Awesome  

Directed by Ted Melfi

20th Century Fox

Based on a real story

Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Costner, Jim Parsons, Kirsten Dunst

My comments: I love these "based on a true story" movies, but this one was particularly poignant, well told, and well acted.  Powerful story!  It's also good to be reminded that as recently as the 1960's, people with a skin color other than white couldn't use the same bathrooms, drink from the same fountains or percolators, find any sort of comparable job, and were treated with such incredible disrespect. Brilliant women who, if this story is truthful, truly helped make the space program of the 1960s literally get off the ground.  A fantastic movie.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  The incredible untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson - brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation's confidence, turned around the Space Race, and galvanized the world. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big.

PICTURE BOOK - I am Rosa Parks by Brad Meltzer

Ordinary People Change the World series
Illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulis

2014 Dial Books for Young Readers

HC & paper

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.42 - 430 ratings

My rating: 5

Endpapers:  Yellow with repeated white bus imprint (pale)

1^st line/s:  "I am Rosa Parks.  Growing up, I was small for my age.  I was sick a lot too, since we didn't have money for a doctor.  But that didn't mean I was weak."

My comments:  This is the second book I've read in this Brad Meltzer biography series for kids.  He does an exceptional job, and the mixture of text and graphic-novel-like speech clouds has been a surefire hit for all the kids I've shared these books with.  This one is more about the civil rights movement including Rosa Parks' huge part in it than her actual life (not a problem) - it's a wonderful overview and starting place for young kids on the roots of the civil right movement!  Real photos of Ms. Parks at the end.

Goodreads:  “Kids always search for heroes, so we might as well have a say in it,” Brad Meltzer realized, and so he envisioned this friendly, fun approach to biography – for his own kids, and for yours. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a vivacious, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers, those who aren’t quite ready for the Who Was biography series. Each book focuses on a particular character trait that made that role model heroic. For example, Rosa Parks dared to stand up for herself and other African Americans by staying seated, and as a result she helped end public bus segregation and launch the country’s Civil Rights Movement.

Civil Rights and Being Black in America

PICTURE BOOKS
1960s
Bass, Hester - Seeds of Freedom (2015) Huntsville, AL 1962-1963, peaceful desegregation
Faulkner, Matt - A Taste of Colored Water (2008) during desegregtion
Pinkney, Andrea Davis - How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down (2010) Greensboro sit-ins
Ramsey, Calvin Alexander - Belle, the Last Mule at Gee's Bend (2011) the mule that pulled MLKs casket
Tonatiuh, Ducan - Separate is Never Equal; Sylvia Mendez and her Family's Fight for Desegregation

Between the 1860s and 1960s
Malaspina, Ann - Finding Lincoln (2009) segregation
McKissack, Patricia C. _ Stitchin' and Pullin' a Gee's Bend Quilt (2007)
Shange, Ntozake - We Trouble the Waters (2009)- poems about being black in the south in the 1940s

Slavery in America (including Underground Railroad)
Hendrix, John - John Brown : His Fight for Freedom (2008)
Johnson, Angela - All Different Now (2014) emancipation
Levine, Ellen - Henry's Freedom Box (2007) being sold away from family
Polacco, Patricia - January's Sparrow (2009)  runaways to freedom
Slate, Joseph - I Want to Be Free (2009)
Stroud, Bettye - The Patchwork Path: a Pathway to Freedom (2005)
Weatherford, Carole Boston - Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (2006)
Whelan, Gloria - The Listeners (2009) plantation

Famous People in Black History
Blue, Rose & Corinne J. Naden - Ron's Big Mission (2009) a story about Ron McNair in 1959
Cook, Michelle - Our Children Can Soar (2009) 2-pg. biographies of people important to black history
Hendrix, John - John Brown : His Fight for Freedom (2008)
Shange, Ntozake - Coretta Scott (2009) Picture book biography
Taveres Matt - Henry Aaron's Dream (2010)
Weatherford, Carole Boston - Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (2006)

NOVELS
Anderson, Laurie Halse - Chains (2008) Slavery during the American Revolution (YA)
Latham, Irene - Leaving Gee's Bend -(2010) 1932 Alabama (Middle Grades)
Sturm, James - Satchel Paige; Striking Out Jim Crow (2007) (Graphic Novel for Middle Grades)

MOVIE - Selma

PG-13 (2:07)

Wide release 1/9/2015

Monday 1/12/15 at El Con with Sheila and Gwen

RT Critic:  99  Audience:  87

Cag:  5/Liked it more-than a lot, and it was beautifully crafted

Directed by Ava DuVernay

Paramount Pictures

Based on a true event

David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, 

My comments:  Wow.  This is not just any old story...this is an incredibly important piece of history.  This happened when I was a freshman in high school in a suburb of Boston, and I don't recall knowing about it at the time.  Imagine!  What a wonderful way to learn about the details of Martin Luther King's brilliance, determination, and sensitivity. The acting, particularly by David Oyelowo, was amazing.  His portrayal of MLK was ... mesmerizing.  (And to think I probably wouldn't have gone to see this if it hadn't been chosen by Sheila as our monthly fare!)

RT Summary:  SELMA is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava DuVernays SELMA tells the real story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history,

PICTURE BOOK - All Different Now - Angela Johnson

Juneteenth; the First Day of Freedom
Illustrated by E. B. Lewis

2014, Simon & Schuster

32 pgs.
HC $17.99

Goodreads rating:

My rating:

Endpapers: mottled light green
Very little white on pages!

1^st line/s:   "A June morning breeze off the port blew the smell of honeysuckle past the fields, across the yard, and into our room to wake us up."

My comments:  As usual, E. B. Lewis's illustrations are breathtaking.  He tells about their creation in an Illustrator's Note at the back of the book.  The first 24 pages tell the story of Juneteenth - June 19th - the emancipation of slavery - with simple verse and these incredible paintings.  The last five pages are more information - resources, reminisces, timeline, history, glossary.  Wow.  A huge piece of US history, simply and beautifully told and referenced.

Goodreads:  Through the eyes of one little girl, All Different Now tells the story of the first Juneteenth, the day freedom finally came to the last of the slaves in the South. Since then, the observance of June 19 as African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond. This stunning picture book includes notes from the author and illustrator, a timeline of important dates, and a glossary of relevant terms.

MOVIE - The Butler

PG-13 (2:12)

Wide release 8/16/2013

at El Con on 9/4/2013 with Sheila

RT Critic: 72 Audience: 82

Cag:  5 Loved it 

Directed by Lee Daniels

The Weinstein Company

Actors:  Forest Whitaker, Opray Winfrey, Liev Schrieber, James Marsden, Alan Rickman, John Cusack, Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Rotten Tomatoes summary:  LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER tells the story of a White House butler who served eight American presidents over three decades. The film traces the dramatic changes that swept American society during this time, from the civil rights movement to Vietnam and beyond, and how those changes affected this man's life and family.

My comments: I totally enjoyed this for many reasons.  One, it is a great overview of the Civil Rights Movement.  Two, the lead actors were great, and it was really, really fun to see other well-known actors play presidents and first ladies (Jane Fonda was Nancy Reagan, James Marsden was Jack Kennedy, Liev Schrieber was Lyndon Johnson, and Alan Rickman was Ronald Reagan, to mention just a few).  And three, it was based on a true story.  Granted, I don't know how much of it was true, but if Gaines' son, Louis, was indeed a part of all the civil rights media giants of the 60s and 70s as portrayed, then the Gaines family truly had a huge part in US history.  It was long ... but I barely noticed, I was so enthralled with the movie.  Highly recommended.

33. Same Sun Here - Silas House & Neela Vaswani

Candlewick Press, 2011
298 pgs.
for:  Middle Grades
Rating:  Very Good/4

1st Line/s:  "Dear River,  I cannot tell from your name if you are a boy or a girl so I will just write to you like you are a human being."
Setting:  Late 2008 through 2009 NYC and the mountains of Kentucky
OSS:  Meena, an Indian immigrant girl and River, a Kentucky coal miner's son, become penpals and best friends as they share their lives, their problems, and the love of their families with each other.

Belle, the Last Mule at Gee’s Bend – Calvin Alexander Ramsey & Bettye Stroud

A Civil Rights Story
Illustrated by John Holyfield
Candlewick Press, 2011
HC $15.99
32 pages
Rating: Wonderful/5
Endpapers: Deep Cranberry
Author’s Note
Illustrations: Acrylics – no white (happy sigh) – most pages have one side full illustration, opposite are text on soft “sponged” colors. Some double pages are ¾ illustration, ¼ text and one is a double page illustration with text across the top
Title page: Blue sky framed with trees and the corner of the general store.
Setting: Contemporary Gees Bend, Alabama
OSS: A young boy, while waiting for his mom to purchase a famous quilt from Gee’s Bend, learns of how the mule he’s watching came to pull the wagon that pulled Dr. King’s body down the streets of Atlanta to his funeral.
1st line/s: “Alex sat on a bench outside the store. He wanted to go and play, but his mother had told him to wait for her. There was nothing to do on the porch but an old mule eating in the garden across the street. There was no breeze. Not a leaf moved in the chinaberry trees. It was so still that Alex could hear the mule munching on a row of bright collard greens."
This must be used for MLK Day in January, with a few days preceding it learning about Gee’s Bend!

Henry Aaron's Dream - Matt Tavares

Candlewick, 2010
$16.99
40 pgs.
For: Gr. 2-5
Endpapers: pumpkin pie

Well, this book brought tears to my eyes. It's a powerful picture book biographyt, told in free verse, about Hank Aaron and all he had to go through to become a respected baseball player. It sure wasn't easy...

The illustrations cover 2/3 of the page, leaving the 1st or 4th vertical quarter for the words - on a creamy yellowish beige. They're done in strong, bold watercolors and with ink and pencil. Perfect for the story. Same writer and illustrator - he did a marvelous job.

A High-5 for sure!

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down - Andrea Davis Pinkney

Illustrated by Brian Pinkney
Little Brown & Co., 2010
$16.99
40 pages - one folds out
Endpapers: plum

A powerful piece of the history of America, an integral chink in the chain that made up the timeline of the Civil Rights movement, the Greensboro sit-ins are eloquently described in this powerful picture book.

"We must . . . meet hate with love." (MLK Jr.)

On February 1, 1960 - 50 years ago - four black college classmates sat down at a Woolworth's counter for a cup of coffee and donut. They were ignored. FOR WHITES ONLY. They were peaceful...patient...quiet...polite. They sat and sat and sat. They were never served. The next day, more students showed up at the counter. The word spread. Well-behaved, well-dressed young people began to sit at lunch counters all over the south. Eventually, people took notice. And just like the bus boycott that Rosa Parks had begun five years before by not giving up her seat, a huge message was sent --- and heard.

The Civil Rights timeline at the end of the book is excellent.

I wish I liked Brian Pinkney's illustrations more. He uses slashes of black to outline the figures and predominant details, then a water color wash swirls throughout. Much clearer and less confusing that Chris Rashka's illustrations, but still a little too free-form for me. However, this husband-wife teamwork is pretty cool.

15. Leaving Gee's Bend - Irene Latham

For: Middle grades
G. P. Putnams, 2010
HC, $16.95
230 pages
Rating: 4

This is the story of three days in the life of 10-year old sharecropper Ludelphia Bennett in 1932. Ludelphia lives in Gee's Bend, Alabama, a tiny, extremely poor black community on the banks of the Alabama River, 40 miles by road from the closest town. Gee's Bend is now famous for the quilts that have been produced by the hands of the women who lived there through the depression and afterwards. I was lucky enough to see the exhibition of these quilts a year or two ago in a huge exhibition in San Francisco. The quilts and their stories have traveled - and are still traveling - all around the country. What incredible stories! I've thought many times of these people, of these quilts, of the lives in that community, even researching quilt shops and museums in Alabama for a future summer trip. So when this book came out, I reserved it at the library immediately.

Ludelphia has had nothing but rotten luck for much of her life, and it certainly continues in this story. One bad thing after another happens to her - but I can attest, this is the reality of our lives sometimes. For the first time in many years, Ludelphia's mother has delivered a healthy baby. However, she herself is dying from pneumonia and influenza. There's nothing that can be done. So Ludelphia sets off across the river to try and find a doctor. Along the way she bumps into one adventure after another. And along the way, she has the tangible comfort of stitching together used, torn-up pieces of cloth into a story quilt for her mother.

When the author, Irene Latham, first saw the quilts of Gee's Bend, she was as entranced by them and their stories as I was. But she had the gumption to research and travel and visit and talk to people and create this story. A story based on incidents that she researched. She has given the world - and the children of the world who have no idea about this section of our country in more segregated times than now - a glimpse into a sharecropper's life. I get it. The kid's will get it. There's good story telling going on here. I thank Irene Latham for writing this book.

View the book trailer on YouTube.

Here's a review of a reader that didn't like the book. If you read the reviews, make sure you read the comments after. There was much more bias on the reviewer's side than on the author's side (in my humble opinion). When a reviewer really bashes a book - a lengthy bashing - it's always interesting to see that reviewer's background - gives a little insight into where the left-field comments (or what appear to be left-field comments) are coming from. Talk about picking apart a book! She sure reads for a different reason than I do!

This was a good historical fiction which I will recommend to my students. However, I'm not sure the title is apt. I would ask my students to create a new title and tell me why they chose what they did. Takers, anyone?

We Trouble the Waters - Ntozake Shange

Illustrated by Rod Brown (paintings)
Amistad/Collins, 2009
32 pages
$16.99
Endpapers: Navy Blue

Being black in the south during Jim Crow - that's what these poems are about. Told in the first person, they are full of powerful voice/s. Poems entitled "Booker T. Washington School, 1941", "Water Fountains," Where I Live," Crying Trees," "Roadkill," "You Vote/You Die!" "The Klu Klux Klan," "Thank You Rosa Parks," "Martin Luther King, Jr.," " Brother Malcolm," "Sittin Down is Standin Up,".....

A couple of poems near the end have some interesting information added, to help people unaware of the history, or at least some of it. I wish there had been more explanations in the same vein for earlier poems. These are great poems, but many kids would need more explanation.

Cleanin Gal

if they catch me sittin/jus' for a moment
i might lose this heah job/but i can't 'ford to do that
all my children/matt, maceo, bertha, mae, sunshine, and the baby
'long with ma/look to me for vittles and shelter/
it's just that i got to scrub all these floors till tehy'd look like glass/
that takes all day and i still aint got to the laundry yet/
boilin clothes/starchin shirts/
Lawd have mercy i got to spend all day tomorrow ironin
so the missus and her mate can go to some bigshindig/
sposin i quit/how we gonna eat/no i aint going nowhere/
& there aint not fancy dunds or dancin in my future/
just scrubbin & scrubbin what aint mine

Heah Y'all Come

now the children run freely
toward each other
knowin no fears of the other
so what? she's brown and her lips thick
so what? yarmulkes atop their heads
Buddha's smile graces their faces
now America welcomes all the babies
si si/todos los ninos are ours
yes yes/wa alaikum salaam
& the gods watch over all children
& the flag protects each American
all

January's Sparrow - Patricia Polacco

Philomel Books, 2009
$22.99
96 good-sized pages
For: grades 3/4+
Rating: 5
Endpapers: Pale, shimmery, sage green

When I was in college, the main owrk for passing my social studies methods course was creating a curriculum about the Underground Railroad. I read and researched every children's book I could possibly find. That was .... a number of years ago ... but I have added occasionally to that curriculum. This book has to one of the best of any of them.

This story begins and ends in the voice of January, a black runaway slave that was captured, tortured, and put to death for his actions. Two days later, his adopted family, the Crosswhites, decided to run when they discovered their sons were to be sold away from them. The youngest was a girl named Sadie, and most of the story is told from her point-of-view. It's not an easy story. It tells of violence and hatred and ridiculous laws. It also tells of compassion and caring that travels well beyond the usual bonds of friendship.

The Crosswhite family makes it safely to Marshall, Michigan, which is free. However, they are still runaway slaves and can be arrested and returned to their owners if they are caught. Marshall is a friendly town of blacks and whites living together, so they decide to stay and rest for awhile. Seasons come and go until they'v been there for four years, and a new baby girl has been born to the family. But then....yup....they are found by their viscious owner.

What brave people. Not just the family, but the people of the town. Apparently the town is only a dozen miles away from where Patricia Polacco herself lives, and she'd always heard stories about this family. One of the Marshall, Michigan middle school teachers did most of the research for the book. A destination for one of my upcoming summer trips? I've only spent a short amount of time in Michigan....

Okay, I'll admit to springing a few tears at the end of this long read. It's more than a picture book. I can't get through Polacco's fabulous Pink and Say without crying, and this is a wonderful addition to her collection.

Finding Lincoln - Ann Malaspina

Illustrated by Colin Bootman
Albert Whitman & Co., 2009
$16.99
32 pages
for: all kids - elementary especially
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: med. brown
Author's Note

This is an essential book to share with kids. This took place just 50 years ago. This is not ancient history. It's heartbreaking. What were people thinking??? Segregation??? A very difficult happenstance for me to fathom at all.

Louis walks past the public library every day - but he is not allowed to enter. It's for WHITES ONLY.

He wants to find more information on Abraham Lincoln. The only way is to find a book that might have the information. The small collection of books that's been gathered in the church basement has nothing relevant. So he takes a huge chance and walks into the library. He is berated and asked to leave immediately. But one librarian whispers to him to come back the next day after five. He does, and she sneaks him in, finding him just the right book.

Okay, so libraries became desegrated in the mid-60's...and not without fights and injuries. What is wrong with people? I just don't understand, I never will...and I guess I don't want to!

Great story telling. Lovely illustrations that really capture the thoughts and "essence" of people on their faces. This is a wonderful book....but how sad that it had to be written!