MOVIE - The Help

Wish I'd read the book - the movie was very good.
Wide release 8-10-11
PG-13 (2:17)
Aug. 16, 2011 at ElCon with Sheila
2nd viewing January 14, 2012 at Crossroads with Dede
RT:  74% cag: 87%
DreamWorks Studios
Director:  Tate Taylor

Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Sissy Spacek, Allison Janney

My favorite character:  Minny, played brilliantly by Octavia Spencer.  Emma Stone plays Skeeter, just returning home to Jackson, Mississippi in 1962/1963, with a degree from Ole Miss in journalism.  She gets a job writing the cleaning help column in the Jackson newspaper.  She knows nothing about her subject, so interviews a friend's reluctant black maid, Aibilene (Davis).  The black maids of Jackson raise all the white children and are not even allowed to use the bathroom of the houses they clean and cook and raise the children in.  The white women play bridge and belittle them.  All except Skeeter, who decides to try to write a book from their perspective about their plight.  It's not easy.  All the women are scared to tell any of the white family's secrets, afraid of losing their jobs and afraid of retaliation.

Hilly is the viscious young white homemaker that harrassess the maids and demolishes Celia, the "white trash" bride of her former boyfriend, Johnny.  Some of my favorite parts of the movie were the scenes with Celia and Minny, Hilly's former maid.  Octavia Spencer (Minny) was just wonderful!

Throughout the movie I got outraged again and again at the inhumanity, the insensitivity, the absolute ridiculousness of racism.  I just cannot imagine where it comes from and how some whites could (and can) possibly feel the way they do. 

It was a period piece, and the set was wonderful.  The cars (one Corvette, in particular, was breathtaking), the clothing and hairstyles, the home furnishings, Everyone I've spoken to that have read the book (and there have been many), simply loved it.  Everyone encouraged me to read the book before seeing the movie, but I didn't have the opportunity.  I still want to read the book.  I wonder how different the book and movie are?

Busing Brewster - Richard Michelson

Illustrated by R. G. Roth
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010
$16.99
24 pgs.
Rating: 5 (Yup, this is a good one)
Endpapers: covered with stick-like figures playing on a school playground (pale, pale sage green)

Set in the 1970's, when schools were segretated and busing students far across town was used to begin to desegrate the schools. Brewster and his slightly-older brother Bryan are not as excited as their mom when they discover that they will be bused to a previously-all-white school, having to get up an hour earlier in the morning to go the distance. And when they get there, they are greeted by protestors, rocks being thrown, and nasty white classmates. Before school even begins on the first day, the brothers are put into detention in the library with "freckle-face", a white kid who'd heckled them and precipitated them getting caught arguing.

Well. By the time they leave the library they've made friends with the librarian (who then initiantes Brewster into the wonderful world of books and reading) and also with Freckle-face. When they leave school, however, a friendly wave goodbye to their new friend is ignored, because he's being picked up by his father, who is saying something derogatory about the desegreation - so young readers can see where the bigotry and hatred are coming from, and how it keeps gathering speed.

Great history lesson for kids - my kids - who, luckily, have no clue about the bigotry and racism so prevalent in the 60s and 70s. I only wish I could say it's gone....but it has to be better than it was. The Author's Note at the end gives additional information on the history and background of the story.

The illustrations are great. It's somewhat difficult to describe them. Cut paper. Sponged stencils. Tiny, tiny repetetive patterns. Pale watercolor-brushed lines. I'm only guessing at all this, but I love the mixed media look. The colors are muted, lots of grays and muddied greens, mustards, clays.

Great book. The more I think about it the more I like it. Storytelling in a positive way. Great protagonist. Kids doing real things, especially at the playground. Super illustrations. Yippee!

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.

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!

Testing the Ice - Sharon Robinson

A True Story About Jackie Robinson
Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Scholastic Press, 2009
$16.00
40 pgs.
Rating: 5
Endpapers: Dark aqua
Author's Note

This heartwarming true story about the personal life of Jaackie Robinson is written by his daughter, Sharon. It tells of their home and home life in the mid-to-late 1950's. It includes tidbits about Jackie Robinson's entry into the entirely segregated world of Major League Baseball. In the main storyline, Ms. Robinson weaves her dad's courage in and around and through a story of his fear of water and his inability to swim. It's done quite beautifully and makes for really interesting storytelling.

And the illustrations! Oh my goodness, can this man draw! Completely covering the oversized pages, each and every illustrtation is a masterpiece to behold - most especially his depiction of Jackie Robinson.

Super book!

A Taste of Colored Water - Matt Faulkner

Perfect for: Kids, Particularly Older Ones
Pub: 2008
Rating: Loved it
Read: Sept. 13, 2008
Endpapers: Both different - the front is an illustration of entering Eden and the back is an illustration of leaving Eden (quite impressive) A+

"Daddy, what color does a person have to be to get a taste of colored water?" Jelly questions at the end of this book.

Welcome to the "Heart of Dixie" in the early 60s. Jelly and LuLu have never been to the "big city" before, but after they hear from Abbey Finch that there's a fountain there with "colored" water, they know they have to go see for themselves. They do. They find it, up on the hill by City Hall with a big sign over it proclaiming COLORED WATER. Meanwhile, as we can see from the illustrations, there's lots goin' on in town. Protesters are marching and singing "We Shall Overcome." Policemen and firemen face off with the marchers as newsmen take photos. Lulu and Jelly watch from the bubbler, where they get nothing but clear water. No lovely fruity-tasting greens or pinks or yellows. And then the fire hoses are turned on and people are knocked over by its force!

Whenever I open a picture book and see illustrated endpapers I already know I'm going to like the book. This was a good one. There are no explanations in the text, just the story. Wonderful vocabulary, a southerny drawl that helps establish the setting, and illustrations that complete enhance the storytelling, becoming part of the story itself. I really want to read this to my middle-schoolers to get their reaction.

I also personally enjoyed Matt Faulkner's AFTERWORD which ends: "It's my wish that we take strength from the courageous ones who came before us and learn to question oppression, racism, segregation - all forms of intolerance - and begin to promote compassion for all."