An imperfect but sometimes-stirring tragedy.
Cheatham relates the story of a troubled teenager in this fourth installment of a historical-fiction series.
It’s 1910, and 11-year-old Trudy Cameron is enjoying her life. Since her mother, Zoe, married Sam Benton, she now has two extra siblings, including younger stepsister Bailey. The two White girls spend their days doing fun activities, which include catching frogs and building houses for them out of sand. Trudy is intrigued by their Black neighbors, the Blaynes, including Nettie, a woman who has troubling seizures that cause her to wander off. The girls are fascinated by Nettie’s 13-year-old granddaughter, Manuela, when she becomes part of the Blayne household even though Trudy’s brother, Will Cameron, mysteriously warns them to stay away from her. The girls befriend Manuela, nonetheless, and attempt to catch her up on what they’re studying in school. Manuela strongly dislikes Old Man Aaron, the Whitecotton farmer who employs her family as pickers, but Trudy doesn’t understand why; after all, he’s always nice to Trudy and her siblings. Then Manuela is mysteriously attacked and injured; later, the girls see her in town, crouched in an alley with her hair cut short. What exactly is she going through? The brutal truth,when Trudy learns it, will change her perspective on her world. Cheatham’s prose, as narrated by Trudy, is textured and finely tuned to the time period and setting: “When Sunday came, all of us Camerons and Bentons, dressed in our second-best Sunday clothes, loaded into the Model T and motored down the dirt highway toward Hot Coffee. Papa Sam turned onto a bumpy road, no wider than a cow’s trail, to Antioch Church.” The inherent tension between Trudy’s cheery worldview and Manuela’s family’s troubled lives makes for a compelling read. However, many readers will likely guess the secret at the heart of the tale. Also, the fact that Manuela’s story is filtered through Trudy’s perspective feels antiquated and slightly exploitative, as the Black girl’s unvoiced suffering is presented, in part, as a learning experience for the White protagonist. Still, the book does succeed in demonstrating the girls’ starkly different life experiences.
An imperfect but sometimes-stirring tragedy.Pub Date: July 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-888141-02-3
Page Count: 183
Publisher: Southeast Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A contemporary hero’s journey, brilliantly told.
The 17-year-old son of a troubled rock star is determined to find his own way in life and love.
On the verge of adulthood, Blade Morrison wants to leave his father’s bad-boy reputation for drug-and-alcohol–induced antics and his sister’s edgy lifestyle behind. The death of his mother 10 years ago left them all without an anchor. Named for the black superhero, Blade shares his family’s connection to music but resents the paparazzi that prevent him from having an open relationship with the girl that he loves. However, there is one secret even Blade is unaware of, and when his sister reveals the truth of his heritage during a bitter fight, Blade is stunned. When he finally gains some measure of equilibrium, he decides to investigate, embarking on a search that will lead him to a small, remote village in Ghana. Along the way, he meets people with a sense of purpose, especially Joy, a young Ghanaian who helps him despite her suspicions of Americans. This rich novel in verse is full of the music that forms its core. In addition to Alexander and co-author Hess’ skilled use of language, references to classic rock songs abound. Secondary characters add texture to the story: does his girlfriend have real feelings for Blade? Is there more to his father than his inability to stay clean and sober? At the center is Blade, fully realized and achingly real in his pain and confusion.
A contemporary hero’s journey, brilliantly told. (Verse fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-310-76183-9
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Blink
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
PERSPECTIVES
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.
In this YA graphic novel, an alienated Métis girl learns about her people’s Canadian history.
Métis teenager Echo Desjardins finds herself living in a home away from her mother, attending a new school, and feeling completely lonely as a result. She daydreams in class and wanders the halls listening to a playlist of her mother’s old CDs. At home, she shuts herself up in her room. But when her history teacher begins to lecture about the Pemmican Wars of early 1800s Saskatchewan, Echo finds herself swept back to that time. She sees the Métis people following the bison with their mobile hunting camp, turning the animals’ meat into pemmican, which they sell to the Northwest Company in order to buy supplies for the winter. Echo meets a young girl named Marie, who introduces Echo to the rhythms of Métis life. She finally understands what her Métis heritage actually means. But the joys are short-lived, as conflicts between the Métis and their rivals in the Hudson Bay Company come to a bloody head. The tragic history of her people will help explain the difficulties of the Métis in Echo’s own time, including those of her mother and the teen herself. Accompanied by dazzling art by Henderson (A Blanket of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) and colorist Yaciuk (Fire Starters, 2016, etc.), this tale is a brilliant bit of time travel. Readers are swept back to 19th-century Saskatchewan as fully as Echo herself. Vermette’s (The Break, 2017, etc.) dialogue is sparse, offering a mostly visual, deeply contemplative juxtaposition of the present and the past. Echo’s eventual encounter with her mother (whose fate has been kept from readers up to that point) offers a powerful moment of connection that is both unexpected and affecting. “Are you…proud to be Métis?” Echo asks her, forcing her mother to admit, sheepishly: “I don’t really know much about it.” With this series opener, the author provides a bit more insight into what that means.
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55379-678-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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