The Port Chicago 50 - a review

Sheinkin, Steve. 2014. The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights. New York: Roaring Brook.

The Port Chicago 50, as they became known, were a group of African American Navy sailors assigned to load munitions at Port Chicago in California, during WWII.  The sailors' work detail options were limited; the Navy was segregated and Blacks were not permitted to fight at sea. The sailors worked around the clock, racing to load ammunition on ships headed to battle in the Pacific. Sailors had little training and were pressured to load the dangerous cargo as quickly as possible.

After an explosion at the port killed 320 men, injured many others, and obliterated the docks and ships anchored there, many men initially refused to continue working under the same dangerous conditions. In the end, fifty men disobeyed the direct order to return to work. They were tried for mutiny in a case with far-reaching implications.  There was more at stake than the Naval careers of fifty sailors.  At issue were the Navy's (and the country's) policy of segregation, and the racist treatment of the Black sailors.  Years before the Civil Rights movement began, the case of the Port Chicago 50 drew the attention of the NAACP, a young Thurgood Marshall, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Through the words of the young sailors, the reader of The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights relives a slice of history as a Black sailor in 1944.

Steven Sheinkin combines excellently researched source materials, a little-known, compelling story, and an accessible writing style to craft another nonfiction gem.

Read an excerpt of The Port Chicago 50 here.

• The Port Chicago 50 was a 2014 finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.
• The Port Chicago 50 was the 2014 winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Nonfiction.
• Steve Sheinkin is the author of Bomb! The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Powerful Weapon - also a National Book Award Finalist, and the recipient of the Newbery Honor, Sibert Medal, and YALSA Award,

Contains:

• Table of Contents
• Source Notes
• List of Works Cited
• Acknowledgements
• Picture Credits
• Index

See today's Nonfiction Monday roundup at http://nonfictionmonday.wordpress.com 

Advance Reader Copy supplied by publisher.

The Lions of Little Rock - a review

Levine, Kristin. 2012. The Lions of Little Rock. New York: Putnam.

I talk a lot.  Just not out loud where anyone can hear.  At least I used to be that way.  I'm no chatterbox now, but if you stop me on the street and ask me directions to the zoo, I'll answer you.  Probably.  If you're nice, I might even tell you a couple of different ways to get there. I guess I've learned it's not enough to just think things.  You have to say them too.  Because all the words in the world won't do much good if they're just rattling around in your head.

The year is 1958, and 12-year-old Marlee is beginning West Side Junior High School.  An intelligent, but extremely quiet girl, Marlee is often at the mercy of her bossy and outspoken "friend," Sally.

    Judy sighed. "Why are you even friends with Sally McDaniels?"
      I shrugged.  Sally and I have been friends ever since were five and she pushed me off the slide at the park.
     "She likes to boss you around," Judy said.
     That was true.  But she was also familiar.  I like familiar.

So, when she is befriended by Liz, the affable newcomer to school, Marlee is most pleasantly surprised.  Marlee, who has a penchant for categorizing people as beverages, finally questions Liz as to why she is helping Marlee to overcome her debilitating shyness,

     For the first time, Liz was silent.  Behind her, the giraffes chewed their cud. "I thought it might be hard always being quiet," Liz said finally.  "I thought you needed a friend."
     She was right.  I did.
     "I needed a friend too," said Liz.
     And suddenly I knew what Liz was -- a cup of warm milk with a dash of cinnamon.

The two become inseparable.  But one day, after a chance encounter with Sally and her mother near the Baptist church in the "colored part of town," Liz stops coming to school.  Word leaks out that she's been "passing," pretending to be white, in order to attend a better school.  Central High may have been forcibly integrated last year, but change has not come to West Side Junior High, and Hall High remains closed, forcing Marlee's older sister to attend school out of town. The status quo sits well with Marlee's mother, but her father, a teacher in the district, is disturbed.  The tension in Marlee's household mirrors that of the town's.  Liz and Marlee's friendship is a cause for concern in Marlee's part of town and Liz's; the threat of violence looms ahead.

A stellar depiction of  "us vs. them" mentality, The Lions of Little Rock shows the awful consequences of race against race, neighbor against neighbor, even husband against wife. Betty Jean, the maid at Marlee's home and the wife of the pastor at Liz's church, creates the story's bridge between the two neighborhoods. The Lions of Little Rock offers no easy answers, no neatly wrapped happy endings.  Brave Marlee will risk anything to stand by her friend, but her brave actions do not right the wrongs of the world; rather, they place the life of her dear friend and others in grave danger.  Life is messy.  Neither life nor its people can be neatly separated into black and white.  There are always shades of gray.


Other reviews @

• proseandkahn
• richiespicks
• Waking Brain Cells
• The Fourth Musketeer

 An interview with Kristin Levine is at The Fourth Musketeer.

Note: The librarians of NJLA's Children's Services Section are discussing this book and others on their mock Newbery blog, Newbery Blueberry Mockery Pie. Please feel free to join them with your comments.

Crow - a review

Wright, Barbara. 2012. Crow. New York: Random House.

Moses Thomas is part of a new generation.  Though his grandmother, Boo Nanny, and mother, were born into slavery, his father is a respected alderman and newspaperman in Wilmington, NC.  Somewhat segregated by choice, there is, nevertheless, a sense of community and purpose in this mixed race town.  Moses' father believes in education as the path to Negro prosperity.  Boo Nanny holds fast to the old ways,

"If I had me some cash money, I'd start a school of common sense, 'cause that's what so many needs and so few gots.  And you'd be my first pupil," Boo Nanny said to Daddy. "'Cause if it ain't in a book, you don't believe it.  The boy needs to learn by living, is all I'm saying."

Mrs. Thomas, a pragmatic woman, balances her mother's old ways and her husband's dreams of a bright future for their race.

But everything is about to change.  Boo Nanny sees it in the omen of a buzzard's shadow.  The rest of the family will see it only when it arrives in the form of another bird - a crow, Jim Crow.  Life as Moses has known it, is changing rapidly,

I didn't like all this talk about failure and mistakes.  I wanted the old Daddy back, the one who was wise and sure of himself and knew what to do.  Always.
 
"I raised you in the belief that what it took to succeed in life was the same thing that it took to be a good man: honesty and hard work, courage and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism.  But we're up against something I don't understand and don't know how to adapt to."

Based on true events from 1898, Crow is a powerful story from the fading days of Reconstruction.  Moses is a likable and believable 12-year-old, who struggles with the same issues as all 6th grade boys, as well as those of his time and his race.  Boo Nanny is an especially memorable character.  Wright offers a glimpse of hope in the story's conclusion as Moses and his white friend come to terms after the harrowing race riot of Wilmington, NC, 1898.

A powerful story accompanied by limited Historical Notes.

Best for upper middle grades.


Newbery Blueberry Mockery Pie, a blog maintained by librarians of the NJ Library Association's Children's Services Section, will be discussing Crow along with other possible 2013  Newbery Medal contenders.  Please feel free to join in the discussion!

Glory Be - a review

Scattergood, Augusta. 2012. Glory Be. New York: Scholastic.

Glory's biggest concern in that hot and humid summer of 1964 should have been planning  her 12th birthday party, held every year at the Hanging Moss Community Pool, but more than just the weather is heating up in Hanging Moss.  "Freedom Workers" have come to town.  They're opening up a health clinic, befriending the town's Negroes,  encouraging them to advance the work of the civil rights movement in the South.

Quite unwittingly, Glory has made friends with Laura, a "freedom worker's" daughter - a Yankee, about as welcome in Hanging Moss as a mosquito at a picnic.  This causes no problem in Glory's house.  Reverend Hemphill of the First Fellowship United Church bears no ill will toward the Northerners, nor does Glory's sister, Jesslyn, or their housekeeper; in fact, they're sympathetic to the cause - but others are not so understanding.  The very fabric of the town begins to fray as the Town Council and the newspaper go up against the Hemphill family and Miss Bloom, the librarian.  Neighbors take sides in a battle that is waged not in the streets, but in the newspaper, in the signage at the Community Pool, and in that most communal and equalizing of locations, the Public Library.

Glory Be encapsulates the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s into one small town's fight to maintain its segregated community swimming pool,

      "I don't think the Pool Committee's worried about your birthday" was all Jesslyn said.
      Here I was, sure that one little part of this town had changed. That maybe people like Frankie's daddy finally got together to decide opening the pool up for everybody, just in time for a Fourth of July celebration, was the kind of thing you should do on our country's birthday. But I was wrong. My thinking was all mixed up.
      "A lot of things are different this summer, Glory," Jesslyn said, the corners of her mouth turned down like maybe she wished it was last summer. "Including your friend."
...
When I peered through those hard metal fence links at the bluest, cleanest water, I was so mad I wanted to spit. I vowed never to speak to that hateful Frankfurter Smith if I lived to be a hundred.

Thankfully, my childhood activities at the public pool were more in line with those of Greg Heffley in Jeff Kinney's Dog Days, than those of Gloriana June Hemphill's in the fictional 1964 town of Hanging Moss, Mississippi. Glory Be is a timely reminder that change does not come easily, that having truth or righteousness on your side does not make things easier, that it is easier to do what comes easily than what is right.

Sometimes, a girl, a family, a town, even a whole generation must sacrifice to make a better future. Readers will enjoy Glory's down-to-earth qualities. She's not a larger-than-life hero, she's a diminutive slice of life itself.

Librarians will appreciate the prominent role that author and former librarian, Augusta Scattergood, gives to the public library.

• A Reader's Theatre script for Glory Be written by the author, Augusta Scattergood.

Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth Be Told

Myers, Walter Dean. 2008. Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth Be Told. Ill. by Bonnie Christensen. New York: Amistad Collins.

This is an older title, but perfect for Women's History Month.

Well-known, award-winning author, Walter Dean Myers, turns his considerable skills to this biography of Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), writer, activist, suffragist, businesswoman. Ida B. Wells was born into slavery in Mississippi.  Following the Civil War and the death of her parents in a yellow fever outbreak, Ida became a teacher to support her many siblings.  Using her skills learned as a teacher, Ida became a writer.  From suffering ill-treatment at the hands railroad employee, Ida became an activist. The lynching of several friends created in Ida B. Wells, a full-fledged crusader - writing and  lecturing, at home and overseas, on the atrocity of lynching.  As an activist, she met with other like-minded leaders - Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, and W.E.B. DuBois, to name a few. She was a talented writer and a successful business person - driven not by personal gain, but by an unwavering sense of fairness and humanity.

Ida Wells spoke up for what she believed.  Her weapons were her keen  mind and her pen. ... For more than a half century this dynamic, intelligent woman used her writing skills to promote freedom, safety, and justice.

It is amazing that the story of such an influential woman could have fallen out of our collective consciousness in such a short amount of time. Kudos to Walter Dean Myers for placing this story into the hands of young readers. Back matter includes a timeline and selected quotes from Ida Wells. At forty pages, with  pen and watercolor illustrations, this is an ideal book for grades 4 and up.

In 1990, Ida B. Wells was honored with a US Postal Service commemorative stamp.

During Women's History Month, please be sure to stop by the blog that I am hosting with fellow blogger, The Fourth Musketeer, KidLit Celebrates Women's History Month.  Authors and kidlit bloggers have pitched in to offer compelling posts related to women's history for each day in March.

The Dreamer

Ryan, Pam Muñoz. 2010. The Dreamer. Illustrated by Peter Sís. New York: Scholastic.

The Dreamer is a book that almost defies description.  Is it poetry?  Is it biography?  Is it fiction?  This fictional account of  real life poet Pablo Neruda's childhood is all of these things.  Born Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, he was a shy, stuttering, skinny youngster with a larger-than-life domineering father. Working with Neruda's prose and poetry, along with anecdotes of his early life, Pam Muñoz Ryan invents the thoughts, hopes and dreams of the shy young man who quietly refuses to become the man his father wishes. With beautifully poetic language, she paints a portrait of a boy determined to be true to himself.  This is a book for thinkers and dreamers and poets and all children who yearn to be nothing but themselves.

A better artist than Peter Sís could not possibly have been chosen for this book.  The white spaces of his signature illustrations are filled with symbolism - the image of  the small and frightened faces of Neftali and his sister swimming in an ocean whose shoreline is the outline of his domineering father speaks volumes without words.  Illustrations are abundant throughout the book.

An illustrated, color discussion guide is available from Scholastic. Scholastic also offers this video booktalk, but this is a book that does better speaking for itself. It must be read to be appreciated.

If you've ever searched for a story with a calm and caring stepmother, this is that book, too.

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The Brooklyn Nine

Gratz, Alan. 2009. The Brooklyn Nine: A Novel in Nine Innings. New York: Dial.

Although populated by real and invented characters, The Brooklyn Nine has only one main character - baseball. Beginning with the earliest games of baseball, as played by the fictional German immigrant, Felix Schneider in 1845, through the war years, the modern era, and ending in 2002, baseball is the seam that holds this Novel in Nine Innings together.

Part Roots, part Forest Gump, each chapter in Gratz's novel follows the game of baseball through subsequent generations of Felix Schneider's young descendants. Each generation has its own chapter or "inning."

Along the way, baseball adapts to whatever history throws over the plate - the Civil War, the Vaudeville era, the Roaring Twenties, the Negro Leagues, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, Sputnik, and the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Some pieces of baseball memorabilia pass through the generations or "innings", their significance fading over time.

The fictional characters in each chapter are, for the most part, wily and entertaining young baseball fans and players. "The Fourth Inning: The Way Things are Now, Coney Island 1908" features Walter Schneider, a batboy and feisty opponent of racism and anti-semitism, particularly when it's directed at him! "The Fifth Inning: The Numbers Game, Brooklyn, New York, 1926," features Frankie Snider, a quit-witted young girl, with a passion for the Brooklyn Robins and a soft spot for gamblers.

A few "innings" have a rather tenuous attachment to baseball, especially "The Seventh Inning: Duck and Cover, Brooklyn, New York, 1957," but overall, the book flows seamlessly. The Authors Notes for each inning, offer historical notes about events and real people featured in the book.

Because the main character of the Brooklyn Nine is our national pastime, character and plot development are experienced by the sport of baseball, rather than the individual "players" in the book. For this reason, it would make an excellent choice for some school assignments, but a poor choice for others.

The Brooklyn Nine is a fun and informative read, especially for fans of baseball or historical fiction. A winner.

The Brooklyn Nine: A Novel in Nine Innings was chosen as a Booklist Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth 2009 book.

Note: And now that I've duly tried to review this book, I will quote one of my favorite passages from the story, taken from an exchange between Frankie Snider and the real-life, John Kiernan, sportswriter for the New York Times in the 1920s.

"Then why don't you write about what really happens?"
Kiernan searched the high blue sky for an explanation. "It's like -
it's like reading a book to review it. Somehow having to break a book down into
its parts to critique it sucks all the joy out for me. I greatly prefer to
write my story in advance, and then sit back and enjoy the sum total of the
afternoon. Besides, the truth is subjective."

The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963

Curtis, Christopher Paul. 1995. The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963. New York: Delacorte. ISBN 0385321759

Plot Summary:
The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 is a realistic historical fiction account of the Watson family -- Momma, Dad, Kenny, Joetta, and Bryon. The first person account is through the eyes of 10-year-old Kenny. Joetta is his younger sister, and Byron, his 13-year-old "juvenile delinquent" brother. The story recounts the day-to-day happenings of this tough, but loving family in their equally tough Flint, Michigan neighborhood. Byron's constant trouble-making activities prompt a trip south so that he may spend the summer under the reforming hand of his strict grandmother in Birmingham, Alabama. While in Birmingham, the Watsons witness the bombing of the Sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church and must come to terms with its impact upon their family.

Critical Analysis:
The Watsons Go To Birmingham is a Newbery and Coretta Scott King award winner with a 10-year old protagonist that children will relate to. Kenny has a loving family and problems that are still familiar today - a lazy eye, the unwanted attention of the school bully, poverty typical to his neighborhood, and a roller coaster relationship with his older brother, Byron. Although the Watsons witness the 1963 bombing of the Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the facts concerning the bombing are accurate, the historical aspect of the tale takes a back seat to the fictional story of the Watson family.

The harsh life of the Watsons is evident in the details of their daily lives. Although poor, Momma makes sure that each of the children have two new pairs of gloves each winter for the frigid Michigan weather. Kenny shares his lunch and his extra pair of gloves with a new friend who can afford neither, but then his gloves are stolen. Byron, 13, forcefully retrieves the gloves from a school bully and offers Kenny the chance to get even. When Kenny declines Byron's invitation, Byron punches Kenny instead of the bully. Kenny's relationship with his older brother is a major focus of the story. Bryon is at times tender; at times cruel. Kenny's younger sister, Joetta is obedient and protective of her brothers. Momma and Dad are loving, but firm.

Most of the story is set in Flint. The family travels to Birmingham to take Byron to stay with his Southern grandmother, where Momma and Dad hope he will break away from his "juvenile delinquent" friends and learn respect. The Watsons journey to Birmingham in the "Brown Bomber," accompanied by the sounds of the "True-Tone AB-700 Ultra Glide", the latest technology - a dashboard mounted record player! The Ultra Glide, the frequent use of the word Negro, references to "The Untouchables" and "Felix the Cat, and the $1.23 price for groceries at the local market, help to firmly set the story in 1963.

Although the Birmingham events occupy just the last sixty pages of the book, the contrast between the North and the South is a focal point of the story. In Flint, the only inkling of racism is a teacher's reminder that "..as Negroes the world is many times a hostile place for us." As the Watsons travel south, the reader feels the danger growing. Mrs. Watson carefully plots the three-day trip, making sure that they stop in locations known as friendly to Negroes. Mr. Watson is not as confident of a friendly welcome, and instead chooses to drive straight through. When they make a rest stop in Appalachia, Kenny is at first afraid of encountering a snake in the dark, but Byron tells him that snakes are the least of his worries. "Man, they got crackers and rednecks up here that ain't never seen no Negroes before. .....they'd hang you now, then eat you later." The reader can feel the fear of being a Negro in the South of 1963.

Once in Birmingham, fiction, fact, and fantasy are combined as Joette goes off to Sunday school at the Sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church with her relatives. Kenny remains at the house, exhausted from his near-drowning in a "whirlpool" a day earlier. The family hears the blast and races to the church. Kenny follows and discovers a shiny, little shoe in the church and believes that his sister has perished, killed by the devilish "Wool Pooh" of his imagination. Miraculously, his sister is found alive and insists that Kenny saved her, waving to her and luring her away from the church before the bomb blast.

The family travels together back to Flint and struggles to regain normalcy. Byron and Kenny undergo changes as Kenny suffers post-traumatic stress, and Byron helps him overcome it. Eventually, the Watson family rises above the experience of racism and violence in the same way that they overcome all difficulties - with love, pride and determination.

An Epilogue offers the reader a short, factual account of the Civil Rights struggle, and a challenge to continue the quest for freedom.

Christopher Paul Curtis grew up in Flint, Michigan in the same era as the fictional Watsons, making his setting authentic and believable. The addition of the Birmingham church bombing makes this a historical fiction story, but the true purpose of this factual event to the story is to underscore the far-reaching effects of racism and injustice. The fundamental theme of the book is the strength and power of family to overcome adversity.

Review Excerpts:
Writing for Horn Book Magazine in March, 1996, Martha V. Parravano wrote, "Curtis's control of his material is superb as he unconventionally shifts tone and mood, as he depicts the changing relationship between the two brothers, and as he incorporates a factual event into his fictional story."

In the Jan/Feb volume of Book Report, Susan N. Bridson wrote, "The transition from comic to tragic jars the reader's sensibilities as Curtis hammers home the cruelty of racism. Recommended--should be seriously considered for purchase."

Connections:
An excellent website for students to visit after reading this title is http://www.centralhigh57.org This is the official website chronicling the integration of Little Rock, Arkansas' Central High School in 1957 - a pivotal event that set helped propel the Civil Rights movement and set the stage for the climate leading to the Birmingham bombing. The site is slightly dated, but contains poweful video of the events and is a great resource.

An appropriate title to accompany The Watsons.. is Newbery award-winning, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor.

An introduction to artist, Norman Rockwell, and his famous painting "The Problem We All Live With," depicting integration, would also be appropriate.

Witness

Witness
Hesse, Karen. 2001. Witness. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 0439271991

Plot Summary:
Witness is an account of a small Vermont town's experience with the Ku Klux Klan in 1924. The story is told in verse. Eleven disparate residents of the fictional town offer first person accounts of life after the Klan arrives. A small Jewish girl and her father, and a young African-American girl are the first of the Klan's targets, but the Klan's activities leave no one untouched.

Critical Analysis:
Witness is a narrative of the KKK’s infiltration of a small Vermont town in 1924. It is written in free verse through the voices of eleven different residents. The verse is largely without capitalization or punctuation, using line breaks instead to separate thoughts. Through the largely first-person accounts, each the character of each of the residents is revealed.

Esther, a six-year-old Jewish girl, and Leonora, a twelve-year-old African American girl tell much of the story. The voice of Leonora, an obvious target of the Klan is compelling. The reader senses her fear as she hides in a closet but finds no escape from the specter of a cross-burning. The speech patterns of Esther may be difficult for some readers to comprehend. Her unusual speech may be mistaken for simple-mindedness; however, it is more likely representative of a recent immigrant’s dialect, and is symbolic of her innocence. The voices of Harvey and Viola Pettibone, however, are the most intriguing. The Pettibone’s are middle-aged shop owners. Theirs is the only verse that contains back-and-forth dialogue as they debate the Klan’s value, effect, influence, and activities in the intimate dialogue of husband and wife.

Although Horn Book dismissed the protagonists as stereotypes (Hepperman 2001), the use of stereotypes is necessary to illustrate the myriad of opinions as the Klan’s influence extends throughout the town. Streaming, free-form verse unfolds the innermost thoughts of the characters, revealing the influences of fear, peer pressure, guilt, conviction, and uncertainty on their behavior.

Witness begins with a Carl Sandburg quote, followed by a Cast of Characters list, and the five acts of the book. Until the characters (including the doctor, preacher, newspaper editor, rumrunner, and others) are established, the Cast of Characters is a welcome reference. Aged photographic renderings of the fictional characters help the reader to distinguish them further.

Vermont is not the usual setting for tales of the KKK and the ugliness of racism and bigotry. Witness tells an ugly chapter of history from an unusual perspective that will intrigue readers. The tale is both disturbing and hopeful. Readers will find it believable and memorable.

Review Excerpts:
In the September 2001, School Library Journal, authors Persson, et al, wrote, "...includes some quiet yet irreducible moments that resonate long after the book is put down. The small details seem just right, and demonstrate that this is much more than a social tract. It's a thoughtful look at people and their capacity for love and hate."

Writing for Horn Book Magazine, Christine Hepperman, had a different view of Witness, writing in the Nov/Dec 2001 issue, "Karen Hesse's latest free-verse novel employs eleven different voices to record the Ku Klux Klan's effects on a Vermont town in 1924, with dubious success. The fictional cast, comprising two children and nine adults, is introduced with sepia-toned photographs to boost their verisimilitude and help sort out who's who. Yet many still feel more like types than complex individuals."

Connections:
Readers who enjoy this book will also enjoy Hesse's Newbery Award winning title Out of the Dust.

The short verse entries and multiple voices, make Witness and excellent choice for reader's theater. Readers should be encouraged to delve into the characters and find the motivation for their behaviors.