The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis

I listened to the audiobook and didn't realize this was written in a southern dialect.  No problems here understanding Little Charlie's southern accent by an excellent narrator.  Little Charlie is from a poor white sharecropper family in the 1800s and at 6 feet two inches he is anything but little. The nuanced characters come alive making this tale hard to put down. Little Charlie is a flawed character that changes from his experience into a better person. The exploration of prejudice, racism, violence, and heroic behavior guarantees spirited discussions.

Twelve-year-old Charlie Bobo's father dies in a freak accident, leaving Charlie and his mother vulnerable to being taken advantage of by those that want their land. Sure enough, they become victims of the evil Capt'n Buck, an overseer of the landowner who is notorious for his violence against slaves and tenants. Charlie is conscripted by Capt'n Buck to find a family of runaway slaves in Canada claiming he has to pay off his father's debt. Capt'n Buck is a nasty piece of work whose claims at borrowing money to their father sounds fishy from the get-go. Little Charlie's mother is so frightened by Capt'n Buck that she tries to shoot him when he comes to collect the money. As Capt'n Buck and Little Charlie journey north, Little Charlie has new experiences that lead him to make moral decisions regarding following the crowd or listening to his conscience.

Charlie is a flawed character. He's racist at the beginning and less so by the end and he represents a white Southern upbringing, but as his mom says, he has a good heart and the reader is left with the hope he'll grow into a decent human being. He makes mistakes along the way, refers to blacks as "darkies", and is jealous of the educated and more polished runaway black boy going to school that he's been sent to catch. Little Charlie's jealousy leads to errors in judgment and the reader is able to really get inside his head thanks to some great writing. The history of Canada and protection certain towns provided for runaway slaves is fascinating. Make sure to read or listen to the author's notes.

5 Smileys

Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan by Ashley Bryan

This captures African culture and universal human desires juxtaposed with slavery. I'm living in South Africa. Last weekend we went to Soweto to see Nelson Mandela's house. A young man wanting money walked us across the street pounding on his chest creating a drumbeat and singing a Soweto welcome song trying to earn some money. The song was fun, joyful, and uplifting. Music is an integral part of this culture. Students break into spontaneous song and dance and any student-centered event includes open mic. A day later I read in this book, "Drums were forbidden./Owners feared that messages could be carried by drum./We used our bodies /to beat out rhythms/Clapping hands, slapping sides/stamping feet." Through free verse Ashley Bryan describes how slaves used talents such as music to ease burdens and help with survival.

Bryan is now 93 and still cranking out books and artwork. This tale captures an indefatigable spirit and vibrant culture in an oppressive time as it shows 11 slaves being sold on the Fairfield estate. His illustrations show the face of each slave and the money they are being sold for at an auction. Each slave has unique skills that give them pride and they find freedom in performing each day. The first page explains their skills and situation while the following page has the slave's dreams that contain their given name from Africa and his or her desire for a better future. Slavery was meant to strip blacks of their dignity and demoralize them. The section of each slave's dreams shows their humanity and universal desires that all people have regardless of race.

The free verse repeats the words, freedom, dreams, and memorable phrases such as "My knowledge makes me/ hunger for more" and "Learning how to work/ with measurements and tools/ gives me an inner strength." This would be good for class discussions grades 3-5. You could just read part of it if the students get twitchy. The illustrations remind me of woodcuts and some are very detailed while others are not. I read this as an ebook and the format was fine. I can see why it has won three awards.

5 Smileys

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Unlike most readers that seemed to love this book, I could not get into it. The character development and lack of internal monologues, made me feel like I was reading historical facts rather than sweeping me into a good story. Even though the facts were interesting and had the author's own twist - enough to keep me going - I know I'll forget this one in the long haul. Every time I thought the character's arc was becoming interesting, there'd be a jarring narrative by a minor character or when I started to actually get into the story, the plot veered in a direction that was predictable because of a forced showdown with the villain. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Give this a go if you like speculative fiction and history, just don't expect much character development.

Cora is abandoned by her mother on a Georgia cotton plantation where she has to survive on her own. When the owner dies and the twin son takes over the plantation, he tortures, beats, and uses the slaves for his own degenerate entertainment and lusts.  Violence and fear reign, instilling terror in the slaves to deter escapes and keep them oppressed. But Cora can't be subdued. Her early survival training course from when her mom took off has created a strong woman. When another slave approaches Cora about escaping, she puts him off until she feels her life is threatened. The two seek out the underground railroad and the reader discovers it is a real railroad that is literally dug underground. I wondered if the novel was going to be a steampunk fantasy at that point, but the author doesn't head in that direction, instead the railroad is a symbol of blacks fighting for freedoms and their vital contributions to building this country into what it is today.

The next alternate historical account is regarding doctors who are practicing eugenics on unsuspecting black women sterilizing them. When some find out what has happened, they go insane. Irony abounds as Cora gets a job working for a living museum where the only live people or actors are the three black women. They live out history as it is falsely told in some of the scenes. Colson Whitehead is reminding readers with his speculations that an alternate history is relevant today. The reader has to make his or her own connections. As Cora says, the U.S. has "stolen bodies working stolen land." He pounds home the message that the U.S. is not one group of peoples' land. Manifest Destiny was a way for white people to conquer and oppress those in the way. It was not justified. The author points to the Trail of Tears and creates his own horrific Freedom Trail where the bodies of blacks are hung from trees mutilated and tortured mile-after-mile.

The strength of Whitehead's novel is how he shows different versions of the past and how literary or historical narration influences the authenticity of history. When Cora reflects on the Bible and the Hebrew slaves she comments how people got things wrong by "accident" and "on purpose." She's watching a minstrel show as she questions history. The white men dressed up as blacks are mocking her culture and ancestry, trying to change the facts. They lie to create a truth that justifies their inhumane actions. The narration is bent to fit the group that is dominant in the society. To acknowledge blacks are human beings that helped build the country is a narration that will not happen in Cora's lifetime. Later when the blacks form a community or safe-haven in which education, freedom, food, and politics flourish, Cora is forced to see that it is a delusion as it is destroyed by threatened white people in town.

The klunky transitions between chapters were jarring and the third person narration pulled me even more out of the storyline. The bounty hunter was interesting but when he isn't killed in one section of the book it was obvious that he'd show up again. Here the plot is forced and lost steam for me. While I see why many liked the uniqueness through the author's use of speculative fiction, the weak character development left me wanting more.

3 Smileys

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: The Underground Abductor (Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #5) by Nathan Hale

I can't recall a graphic novel series where I've read five books and given them all four or five stars. This guy just nails 'em every time infusing humor with his own creative juices to create a fictional account of history that is loaded with accurate facts. How the heck he takes grizzly information and makes it entertaining is the work of an author that knows his craft. I didn't even realize this book was about Harriet Tubman. I know... black woman on cover with the word, "underground." Duh. Must have been the jet-lag. I miss details on a normal day. Toss in a 20 hour door-to-door trip with a 12 hour time gain and my brain responds like a zapped zapata. Wherever your lightning bolts zap, make sure they hit this winner.

Speaking of messed up neurons, zappings, and lightning, Harriet was a bit scrambled in her brains too after an angry overseer accidentally fast-pitched several pounds of lead into her skull while she was protecting another black man. The injury left her with narcolepsy, a disease where she nods off to sleep. Imagine being on the run with slave-catchers and dogs hunting you, and your guide or abductor falls asleep in the middle of it! Yet, Harriet was one of the most successful abductors and when she did nod off she'd wake up and tell people she had a vision from God and usually it was a warning that danger was ahead.

The author doesn't gloss over the brutalities and continues to use the hangman for comic relief. Different people in history used violence to try and end slavery and they justified killing others to accomplish their means. Nat Turner and John Brown died violently but they did inspire others to seek changes in laws. Hangman reacts to their violence in shock even asking if Nat Turner got knocked on the head with a piece of lead like Harriet. Their suicidal strategy to end slavery is ripe for discussions and can be compared with current events.

Harriet, on the other hand, started her career in rescuing people because she was trying to save her family. Under the ownership of an oppressive white family, she was abused as a young girl and mistreated by other owners. Her amazing ability to not get caught as an abductor, led to her helping other families and at one point she helped Colonel James Montgomery on a raid where 800 families escaped north. The Colonel used more violence with his methods, burning down homes and Harriet shows she wasn't opposed to it. Again, I think the contrast between violent means and the later civil disobedience during the 1960s is interesting. Is there a best way to enact change in societies? How do people get laws changed? If they don't have access, how do they get societies attention? These are just a few questions that electrically discharged in my brain. You could pair this with the picture book, "Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation" by Duncan Tonatiuh. A thunderbolt series.

5 Smileys

The Complete Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

As a kid, I loved Tom Sawyer's imaginative adventures and bucking of authority. He had the nerve to run away and didn't care if he got in trouble. I envied his manipulation of adults and kids. When Tom talks the neighborhood boys into painting the fence for him because it was fun, I remembered wishing I had his smooth talking ways so I could convince my neighbors to help me rake what amounted to 100 bags of leaves - an endless fall chore of mine and my siblings. Not only does Tom psychologically motivate the neighborhood boys into begging him to paint the fence, but he convinces them to barter their most treasured possessions to participate in doing his chore. I lived vicariously through the mischievous Tom who pulled pranks and snuck out his bedroom window at night. He gave me ideas too. I had adventures based on favorite books, made blood oaths, and giggled my way out the bedroom window with my best friend on sleepovers.  Like Tom, we purposefully made our adventures harder to represent the literature. We'd forsake a flashlight for candles, make a raft out of cattails (that sunk), eat clam chowder and Velveeta cheese (think plastic cheese) because that was what we thought pirates ate, chiseled a port hole in a wood door that was our ship, built a tree house out of shingles (what a spectacular fall when that broke), used a Swiss knife to chisel holes out of ice on a hill pretending we were mountain climbers, and more. Reading Mark Twain's books as an adult, I see his serious themes, satire, and  how he is capturing a nostalgia for imaginative childhood play.

The Romantic pastoral emerged in Europe as a reaction to the burgeoning industrial revolution and Twain represents an American counterpart movement. The pastoral genre is a look back on simpler times in an idealized way. Heroes are oftentimes alone, powerless, and alienated from society. Whereas Tom Sawyer is satirical and entertaining and creates an idealized childhood, Huck Finn shows an outcast boy that wants to live within social conventions but can't because he morally struggles with them. Nothing is cut and dry with Twain. His messages are ambiguous and what I like so well about Huck is his internal struggles with his friend, Jim, a black slave and how Huck can't treat him in the way society deems correct. Huck thinks he's sinful and doesn't question societies' ethics or morals, he just recognizes he can't follow them with a clear conscience. He's a fascinating character because he flips back and forth from racist thoughts and prejudices to ones that see Jim as a human being that deserves better. One minute Huck is concerned about Jim, his friend, and later he is telling a white woman that a steamer cylinder blew and no one was hurt. As an afterthought he tells her a black man was killed, assigning slaves to a subhuman status once again. Twain's creation of the character of Jim, the slave, is also ambiguous. On the one hand, Jim gives deep and rich answers to some of Huck's actions or questions, and on the other he is a complete buffoon. This makes me wonder is Jim relegated to a stereotype because he is just protecting himself from whites or is the author reflecting the attitudes of his time? Nothing is clear-cut which makes this such a fascinating read. But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's back up and look at Tom's story first.

Tom is depicted in a series of events in the American West during the 1840s that romanticize small town life on the frontier. Tom gets together with his buddies and plays pranks on them, the school teacher, and acts out books. His guardian is exasperated by his rebellious behavior but loves him all the same. When the school master "whups" him, Tom doesn't feel bad about it nor does he think of the injustice of it. In the face of tyranny, Tom represents freedom and he seems to have this idyllic (pastoral) life and attitude. He bucks social conventions but always goes back to Aunt Polly; thus, never coming across as a complete rebel or delinquent. When Tom acts out his imaginative adventures many come true. When he dreams of being a pirate and finding treasure, it happens in real life. When he fantasizes about his own funeral, it happens. When he has mock-battles and wars, he witnesses a murder. Tom's belief in his swashbuckling tales shape his world and the adults in it are as childish as him often mirroring his actions. When he's in church teasing a pinch-bug that torments a stray dog, his amusement is mimicked by the congregation. The adults are hiding their boredom and going to church as a social convention following peers rather than out of pleasure. While children have to go, the adult church-goers intentions appear hypocritical. When Tom has to recite scriptures for Sabbath School, there is a guest of honor that the adults and children respond by "showing off." This satirical look at adult hypocrisy shows a deeper level than just a child's story about imagination and friendship.

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" take a darker turn where Tom Sawyer's imaginative play-acting takes on a cruel aspect and Huck is confronted with the morally corrupt institution of slavery. At the end of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," Huck is living with the Widow Douglas who is good to him  and he is rich from the treasure he and Tom discovered in the caves by their town. When Huck's drunken pap gets wind of the wealth he comes after Huck, kidnapping him and locking him in a cabin. Huck doesn't mind at first but as his father gets more violent he flees the cabin on a raft where he meets up with Jim, a runaway slave that doesn't want to be sold to another family. Jim dreams of being free and reunited with his wife and kids. Huck does not want to be civilized and is running away from the controls of society.

Huck and Jim have adventures on the raft that has become their refuge from society. They meet a wealthy family, the Grangerfords, that is having a feud with another family, the Shepherdsons. When the daughter of one family runs off with the boy from the other family, a brutal shoot-out occurs that shows the senselessness of the family's code of honor that makes Huck sick at heart. Next Huck and Jim get wrapped up with a couple of con men who claim to be a Duke and King. Huck tries to fix the immoral actions of the two in some humorous scenes as they try to swindle others out of money. Twain seems to be ridiculing aristocratic pretensions reflected in certain Americans, as well as, reflecting the carpetbaggers that came from the North to the South during the reconstruction trying to seek monetary gains at the expense of others.

Huck's journey with Jim is a moral quest or crisis of conscience resulting from interactions with others and Jim himself. He starts to see Jim as a human being and not how society views slaves, but interestingly enough, Huck never questions the institution of slavery; instead he always blames his decision to help Jim and not sell him as being a product of him not being civilized and sinful. The last third has Huck abandoning his quest and enlisting Tom Sawyer's help to free Jim. Jim becomes a caricature of a docile and ignorant slave while Huck and Jim let Tom act out his fantasies that are more harmful and less innocent as in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." Huck cared about Jim's feelings and vowed to never play tricks on him again while they were on the river, but with Tom he doesn't seem to care anymore letting Tom turn Jim's escape into a game. His development seems to have come full circle with Huck acting childish again. The ending makes it impossible to determine if the novel speaks against racism or merely reflects racist attitudes in society. It is understandable that some view the novel as a satire on racism and others can't reconcile the stereotypical depictions of slaves.

Twain wrote burlesques a popular form of parody that were favorites of working-class theatergoers in the 1840s and it is evident he uses the same technique in the subplot involving the Duke and King and Tom's escape game. Burlesques were a form of satire and Twain pokes fun at a host of people and subjects: religion, African Americans, upper classes, Britain, Native Americans, education, to name a few. While some might find his stereotypes disturbing, others might find them funny and enlightening. There's a good reason his book consistently shows up on banned book lists. It's controversial and it makes for good discussions. If we want to recognize racism, then we have to discuss it.

5 Smileys