Locomotion and Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
Lonnie C. Motion, aka Locomotion, became an orphan when his parents perished in a house fire. Lonnie and his younger sister survived but were separated into different homes afterward. Told through a series of Lonnie’s poems assigned by his teacher, we learn all about the tender-hearted Lonnie and his sweet sister in Locomotion.
Through Lonnie’s optimistic and honest perspective, we glimpse the heart of an honest child making his way through a world that seems set against him, not in obvious or purposeful ways, but in all the subtle ways that can tear a child apart. And Lonnie knows what he’s up against, “…alotta those people are white. Maybe it’s that if you’re white you can’t see all the whiteness around you” (p13). But Lonnie is strong. He affects those who would wish him absent (his sister’s new ‘mother’) or silent (his ‘mother,’ Miss Edna), changing them for the better, and sees straight through those with evil intent (the drug store guards who are suspicious of him because he is black, p 7). He clings to those who build him up: his sister and his teacher. Locomotion was a National Book Award Finalist and a Coretta Scott King Honor winner.
In Peace, Locomotion, Lonnie writes to his sister. He doesn’t send the letters, but writes them “because I love writing and I love you and when me and you are together again, I’m gonna want us to remember everything that happened when we were living apart” (p 8). Just wonderful writing. Genuine, insightful, and beautifully optimistic even when dealing with the horrors of war, loss, and separation. A Printz Award nominee that could go the distance.
Read more at: BCCLS
Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue by Julius Lester
Julius Lester has woven a deeply touching personal account of young slave girl, Emma,and the people connected to Emma as she is sold from one slave master to another during the largest auction of slaves in American history. The slaves were property of Pierce Butler, a man whose misfortune at cards resulted in the auction in order to pay down his debts. Drawing from written accounts by Fanny Kemble (Butler’s ex-wife), Frances Butler (Pierce’s daughter), and historical documents found in the Library of Congress, Lester provides a variety of viewpoints through use of a play-like direction and dialogue.
I wish I could make this book and others like The Road to Paris required reading for children in middle school.
The Road to Paris by Nikki Grimes
Paris and her brother are victims of their mother’s alcoholism, cruel men and the foster care system. Beaten by her first Foster mother, Paris and Malcolm run away. Finally forced to separate by Child Services, Paris goes to live with the Lincoln’s, where she finds a family to love and a friend at school. When her mother calls, asking for Paris to return home, Paris must first define home.
I immediately drew association between The Road to Paris and Han Nolen’s Born Blue. Both: follow children after being abandoned by their mother, deal with racial tensions, deal with children being separated and with the concept of returning home to a mother, no matter how unworthy she may be. Of course, Paris is a juvenile book while Born Blue is for an older teen.
Both are excellent. Both drew me in to stories that couldn’t be further from my own experiences as a child, and yet made me feel as if I knew what is was like for these kids.
