FREEDOM'S FRUIT

Hooks (Where's Lulu?, 1991, etc.) offers another conjure tale set in the days of slavery. Mama Marina, conjure woman, has her heart set on buying freedom for her daughter, Sheba, but she's a long way from saving the hundred gold pieces Master Alston demands. Opportunity knocks, though, when Alston asks her to put a spell on his grapes to protect them from pilferage by slaves. Mama Marina feeds Sheba and Sheba's beau Joe Nathan a conjured bunch, knowing that the two will sicken, then purchases them cheap and hustles them off to a Quaker meeting house before Alston can see that they are healing and change his mind. Sturdy, brown-skinned figures in neatly patched clothes fill Ransome's tidy plantation scenes; though Mama Marina faces Master Alston with simple dignity, alone she becomes a regal, commanding presence, towering heroically in a low-angled final view. Marina's victory owes more to wits than to magic; Hooks has laid historical, realistic trappings on a typical trickster tale. Thoughtful readers will see the connection. (Picture book. 9-13)