GRANDMA’S GENERAL STORE

When their father loses his job and heads north for a better life, Prince and Pearl stay in Florida with their caring grandmother in her general store, The Ark. It’s the Depression, and times are tough for the hardworking black families who rely on Grandma’s products, advice and generous line of credit. Jim Crow laws threaten their dignity, and the Klansmen try to take away their sense of security. Grandma can protect the community from just about anything until a hurricane strikes; then the community has to pull together. Carter’s light touch deftly peppers the story with fascinating historical details. Whether she is discussing the various skin tones in her community, (Grandma is “yaller punkin” colored), listening to her friend bemoan the Klan’s maneuvers (“Lord, I’m the one got to wash all those filthy robes again”), arguing the state of colored schools with the white truant officer or slipping herself some Stanback headache powder, Grandma is one sturdy woman. Let’s hope a sequel will reveal what happens to Grandma in Florida and to Prince and Pearl when they rejoin their growing family in Philadelphia. (Fiction. 9-13)