Book Reviews

Marilyn Nelson tells a story of growing up black, in the fifties, as her family criss-crosses the nation to follow her father’s air force career in “How I Discovered Poetry” (Dial 2014).

From Ohio they move to Connally Air Force Base, Texas. Nelson writes “I’m the new girl in Dick and Jane country . . . the other children faceless as grown-ups . . . We ducked and covered underneath our desks . . . from the hide dragen bomb.”

We’re reminded of a very early understanding of death—the narrowness of early life—when a relative dies. “They said she was in that box. She was dead . . . When you die, you go to a different school.”

Nelson’s family makes history in Smoky Hill AFB, Kansas, 1954, when her Mama, in “Career Girl,” “ . . . teaches second grade in the base school. Her all-white class may be a Negro first.”

Nelson’s childhood ruminations often remind me of mine. Her mother who grew up in Indian Country had a Creek boy as a sweetheart. Her father says, “‘Marilyn, you could have been named Pocahontas!’ The room disappears. A me with another name /An Indian me? How different could I be, and still be me?”

When the family is transferred yet again, they set out cross-country. “The miles enter my eyes and disappear like cigarette smoke from the car window.” She sympathizes with those living desolate houses they pass in “the boonies, far from any town . . .You could just . . . send a postcard signed, Be happy. God.”

            In Mather, California, she finds a Negro friend, Helene. A blond girl calls them the “N-word.” “Helene thumped a lump on her forehead before she was done.”

Poems switch from a universal childhood experience—playing horses or lying in in “wild poppies, dreaming as clouds unfold”—to a black experience—“They think brown is a contagious disease . . . A mob attacked a girl for going to school . . .” and a line later— “I’d give anything to have a pony!” in the poem, “Cloud-Gathering.”

In Kittering, Maine they live across from the library and a block from the ocean—a short-lived bliss. On the road to a new home, “Daddy corrects white men who call him boy.” In Sacramento, 1959, “I’m learning that Negro is a language I don’t speak . . . I get good grades because I’m curious and I like to read, and NOT because I’m “trying to be white.””

In Fort Worth, Texas “My all-black classmates act like I’m from mars. Are you the girl from California? Talk for us. And these boys act like I’m cute!” In Oklahoma with her three best friends—all white—“We’re a quartet of geeks.”

Young Marilyn Nelson wants to be a poet and makes a plea to the cosmos, “Give me a message I can give the world.” I think the cosmos answered her prayer.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell’s book Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker has recently been awarded a Sibert Honor for Nonfiction as well as a Coretta Scott King Honor for illustration. talesforallages.com

“The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell” (St. Martin’s Press 2015) by William Klaber is based on the true story of Lucy Lobdell who became Mrs. George Slater and bore Helen Slater before becoming Joseph Lobdell in 1853. The author began his project as non-fiction about this historic figure before changing to the fictionalized “memoir” it has become. Although written for an adult readership, it’s a good match for young adults who are perhaps the first generation to consider transgender people as quite normal.

It wasn’t as easy for Joseph 150 years ago. Bear in mind that transgender does not refer to sexual orientation, but rather to one’s gender identity not matching one’s birth gender.

Lucy grew up in the relative wilderness of New York State, wearing britches, chopping wood, and hunting game for her family. Once grown, she wanted the freedom that men enjoyed, but instead, as many young girls will, married an abusive man, who deserted her. After a stint back home with her disdainful mother, Lucy binds her breasts, dresses as a man and moves away.

Living upstairs in a small-town saloon, Joseph teaches young ladies music and dancing. Lydia, his sole violin student, grows ever more attached to him, until the two are in love. Joseph is discovered and betrayed before he can reveal his secret to Lydia. Making a narrow escape he sets out alone for Minnesota where Lydia dreamed of raising horses with him.

Fleeing with his violin across the American wilderness, up the Mississippi on a barge, we find him playing his fiddle to entertain the rough-hewn homesteaders. He survives a harrowing Minnesota winter in a backwoods cabin, all the while the reader is learning about adventures and attitudes of 19^th century America.

Likeable mild Joseph befriends many men, but again is betrayed when the poor guy bathes in a pond. And is raped. This time he is arrested and tried for wearing men’s clothes. When he is acquitted, it looks like the townspeople will accept him, but another tragedy awaits him from his humiliated attacker.

Little is known about the next seven years of Joseph’s life except he lived in hovels, a broken person, while making his way back toward daughter Helen who was left at his parents’ house. Living in an almshouse no longer in disguise, but still wearing his comfortable britches, Joseph befriends another road-weary young woman. They become lovers and marry—he in disguise, of course.

You might consider this outline a spoiler, but you could read a version of Lucy/Joseph’s story on the book flap. The discovery is in the invention, honesty and compassion of the writing. The endnotes, concerning the research is as intriguing as the story itself.

My one objection is the author said nearly nothing about the problems of toiletries while Joseph lived in disguise. Even if he performed his bathing and eliminating in his room with a bedpan, at least, I’d like to have observed this scene. Maybe I’m too practical.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell’s book Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker has recently been awarded a Sibert Honor for Nonfiction as well as a Coretta Scott King Honor for illustration. talesforallages.com

Tariq Johnson, African American, 16 years old, is fatally shot by Jack Franklin, white man, on the streets of an unnamed American city. A broad cast of characters each reports the incident differently, in Kekla Magoon’s “How It Went Down” (Holt 2014).

Brick, leader of the King gang is surprised but proud that Tariq was carrying a gun. But did Tariq have a gun, or was it a Snickers bar for his disabled sister Tina?

Brian Trellis, light-skinned brother who restrained Tariq as he got shot, watches the local news, says, “Every station’s got a different version of the story. Johnson had a gun. Johnson didn’t have a gun. Johnson robbed a store. Johnson was minding his own business.”

Junior, an imprisoned gang member watching the news upstate, says, “some brother got smoked by some whitey who’s gonna walk. So what else is new?” He doesn’t yet realize the brother is his boyhood friend Tariq.

Steve Conners says to his college bound stepson, Will, “If you dress like a hood, you will be treated like a hood . . . dress like a man. Simple as that.” Will (AKA eMZee) says, “You gotta have a hoodie to fit in.” As an anonymous graffiti artist, Will “tags” in the neighborhood (wearing a hoodie) while earning top grades in school.

Gang member Sammy, eager to find Jack Franklin, the white killer, says, “best way to . . . move up in the organization is to ice someone.”

Jennica, girlfriend to a gang member, holds Tariq as he takes his last breath. Later she says, “I don’t want it . . .watching the guys I know die at one another’s hands, the rest shrugging it off like it’s just another weekday, just another shooting.” She wants out of “the life.”

A fairly well-meaning churchman running for government office, Reverend Alabaster Sloan, comes from Washington to the neighborhood to bring attention to the needless killing and the injustice of the white man walking. He is center stage for Tariq’s funeral, helping the family. His popularity soars in the polls. He questions his own motives.

Cosmetician Kimberly does the Reverend’s make-up for TV shootings. He plies her with cocktails. Kimberly wonders if following the Reverend could be her way out of the slum.

Tyrell, once protected by Tariq, also bound for college, may never make it. He knows one false move will land him in the gang and throw him off his life course. What would Tariq have wanted? Does his sister Tina know what Tariq planned? Was he joining the gang?

There is so much to discuss in this book of racial strife. There is so much to learn about gang society in this Coretta Scott King Fiction Honor book.

 

 

Patricia Hruby Powell’s book Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker has recently been awarded a Sibert Honor for Nonfiction as well as a Coretta Scott King Honor for illustration. talesforallages.com

“A Time to Dance” (Paulsen/Penguin 2014) by Padma Venkatraman is an insightful story about a dancer and a novel-in-verse set in a different culture—of course I’m going to review it.

Veda is a teenage Bharatanatyam dance student in India. At the onset, she is a competitive dancer who feels that “Pain is proof/ of my hard work,/ proof of my love for dance.” Veda feels the rhythm of the dance in every aspect of her life. When Paati, her beloved grandmother is “grating slivers of coconut for a tangy chutney,” Veda hears “thakka thakka thai” which is a perfect embodiment of the drum that accompanies Bharatanatyam dance.

Ma wishes Veda would study to become an engineer or a doctor. Dance is not practical for a middle-class girl. But wise spiritual Paati supports Veda’s dancing. And Pa doesn’t mind.

Shiva is the Hindi lord of Bharatanatyam and Veda’s hard-won trophy is made in His form. On the way home from the contest there is a terrible car accident. Veda loses her lower leg. Of course she is devastated.

            But now her true journey begins. Once she recovers from her initial depression and a young American doctor prepares her for and designs a special prosthesis, Veda is determined to dance again. She has a crush on the handsome doctor who took her through the worst of her ordeal. Once she recovers from his gentle rejection, she grows stronger.

Veda asks her best friend, “Do you believe in God? In Karma?” Chandra, on her way to a career in science responds, “Physics says every action has an equal and opposite reaction./ Karma is kind of the same, isn’t it?/ Good actions result in rewards, sooner or later. . .As for God . . .I see His cosmic dance of creation as the spinning of electrons within every atom. Science is God enough for me.”

Veda’s first dance teacher will not teach the newly “disabled” girl. But dancer Dhanam akka sees her as “differently-abled.” Akka tells Veda she has extraordinary courage, but not enough compassion—allow yourself to feel loss. She assigns Veda to the young teacher, Govinda. He sees dance as meditation and says, “Meditation isn’t about pushing your body,/ it’s about respecting it,/ the way you’d respect every other space within which God dwells.” So, as Veda falls in love with Govinda (whose parents disapprove of his dancing and wishes he’d be an engineer), she learns to dance spiritually—with more depth and therefore more satisfaction.

No matter your believe system, there is much profound wisdom in this well-told story and so much to learn from a culture outside the United States.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell’s book Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker has recently been awarded a Sibert Honor for Nonfiction as well as a Coretta Scott King Honor for illustration. talesforallages.com

“All the Light We Cannot See” (Scribner 2014) by Anthony Doerr is an adult book, a New York Times Bestseller, and is literary—meaning it’s thoughtful and beautifully written. It’s a good choice for young adults.

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris as World War II looms. At the opening, she is six years old, has “rapidly deteriorating eyesight” and will soon be blind. The story follows her into young adulthood. Her father, the master of locks at the Museum of Natural History (which is chock full of locks), builds Marie-Laure a model of their neighborhood, which she memorizes by touch so she might navigate the town on her own.

Doerr’s insight into a blind person’s world seems profound.

Werner lives in an orphanage with his sister, Jutta. He becomes obsessed with the workings of radios, becoming, over the years, so adept with the technology that he is sought out by a Nazi military academy. Fellow student, sensitive Frederick, is repeatedly singled out as the weakest cadet and beaten by his schoolmates under the commandant’s approving gaze. Werner would like to help.

“Werner tells himself that he tries. Every night he polishes Frederick’s boots for him until they shine a foot deep—one less reason for . . . an upperclassman to jump on him.” This strikes me as honest—an insufficient thing one can do when you don’t have the power to do the right thing. But it is a too-small comfort to the helper.

Radio-expert Werner, is drafted into Hitler’s army, when he is only sixteen.

When the Germans occupy Paris in 1940, Marie-Laure and her father flee the city to the picturesque walled town of Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where they live with Marie’s troubled, but charming great uncle in his mansion. Uncle too has a love of radios and a history of constructing them. But the Germans have confiscated all radios to cut off communication between the Resistance and the allies.

Working as a German soldier, Werner tracks radios being used by Resistance members. His comrades confiscate the radios and shoot their operators. Werner travels through Germany to Russia, back through Germany and to Saint-Malo.

As the stories of the two young people alternate, parallels are drawn. You know that Marie-Laure and Werner’s stories will converge. They will meet. But you don’t know how or when.

Doerr’s writing opens windows through which the reader can see. A minor character is described thus: “Madame seems like a great moving wall of rosebushes, thorny and fragrant and crackling with bees.” There are hundreds of small glowing images, such as: “The typist twists her cigarette into an ashtray, a bright red smear of lipstick on its butt.” Can’t you see it? Even smell it?

I loved this book. I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to stop turning the pages.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell’s book Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker has recently been awarded a Sibert Honor for Nonfiction as well as a Coretta Scott King Honor for illustration. talesforallages.com

“Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina” (Knopf 2014) by Michaela DePrince is a memoir co-written with her adoptive mother Elaine DePrince.

Mabinty Bangura is born to loving parents in war-torn Sierra Leone. She’s ridiculed in her tribe due to her skin pigment condition, vitiligo, which makes her skin appear spotted. She’s a cast-out nicknamed “leopard.”

The degree of hardship that Mabinty, one of so many war orphans, endures, is difficult for a white middle class American, such as myself, to fathom. First her father is gunned down in the diamond mines where he works. So Mabinty and her mother become part of her uncle’s family. When her mother takes ill, rather than getting care for her, the uncle lets her die. He prefers his other wives.

The uncle walks Mabinty to an orphanage where she befriends a girl with her same given name Mabinty Suma. They are orphans Number 27 and 26. The other orphans and her caretaker, Fatima, consider her ugly due to her spots, and she becomes known as the “devil child.” Eventually she wins over the orphans but not Fatima. Fortunately the head of the orphanage observes Mabinty’s intelligence.

Mabinty finds the cover of Dance Magazine blowing in the dust. She is smitten by the white ballerina dressed in pink and en pointe photographed on the page.

White American parents come to adopt the other Mabinty and at the eleventh hour take Mabinty Bangura as well. There couldn’t be a better family for these 6 year old girls. In the next years the adoptive parents will have lost their second of four grown sons to a congenital disease. They rename the girls Michaela and Mia and adopt more orphaned girls from Sierra Leone.

The parents take the girls to ballet classes, piano lessons, swimming lessons. They are hard-working girls and they excel. But Michaela’s passion remains ballet. She works her way up the ranks from regional to nationally know training centers including that of the American Ballet Theater. She wins scholarships.

A documentary “First Position” tells part of her remarkable story and can be streamed at http://www.balletdocumentary.com/ Eventually Michaela dances with the Dance Theater of Harlem, the famed black company, but she wants a purely classical experience which DTH doesn’t offer. Michaela speaks of the racism of the ballet world. A black pearl stands out in a string of white pearls, but she has found herself a place in the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam, which is a purely classical ballet company.

Michaela’s is a simple story: young girl suffers extreme hardship and succeeds. Neither the plot nor the writing is remarkable. And yet the story is. To become a dancer requires huge determination. To become a prima ballerina in a top-notch company requires the height of rigor, talent, and artistry. Consider where Michaela/Mabinty started and where she’s gotten.

I’m betting this will be a best-seller.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell’s book Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker has recently been awarded a Sibert Honor for Nonfiction as well as a Coretta Scott King Honor for illustration. talesforallages.com