Tag Archives: Black

Review: Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas

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Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas

Swim Team
Johnnie Christmas
HarperAlley
Published May 17, 2022

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About Swim Team

Bree can’t wait for her first day at her new middle school, Enith Brigitha, home to the Mighty Manatees–until she’s stuck with the only elective that fits her schedule, the dreaded Swim 101. The thought of swimming makes Bree more than a little queasy, yet she’s forced to dive headfirst into one of her greatest fears. Lucky for her, Etta, an elderly occupant of her apartment building and former swim team captain, is willing to help.

With Etta’s training and a lot of hard work, Bree suddenly finds her swim-crazed community counting on her to turn the school’s failing team around. But that’s easier said than done, especially when their rival, the prestigious Holyoke Prep, has everything they need to leave the Mighty Manatees in their wake.

Can Bree defy the odds and guide her team to a state championship, or have the Manatees swum their last lap–for good?

My Review

I’ve heard so many great things about this book– I’m really glad I finally had a chance to read it. Bree’s relationship with her dad is so sweet. When the story opens, they’re driving to Florida, where a new apartment awaits them. Bree makes new connections, from the neighbor who helps with her care, to a girl living in the apartment complex, and eventually, to a whole team of girls on the swim team.

As Bree explores her fears of the water and braves learning to swim, she learns some of the history behind why many Black Americans don’t feel safe at a public pool or have experience swimming. Her neighbor explains the impact of segregation. She talks about how it prevented people of color from accessing pools or beaches in the past.

I had never really thought about this myself until several years ago when one of the contestants on the show Survivor spoke about it. I just hadn’t put those pieces together, but as soon as the contestant explained, it made (awful) sense.

In light of that history, watching Bree claim ownership of her skills and find joy in the water as a swimmer and member of a competitive team is really moving. I also loved the way the relationships in the book are portrayed. I especially enjoyed those between the girls on the team, Etta and Bree, and Bree and her dad. The ending, which shows Bree sharing her expertise by helping someone else overcome a fear of the water, is absolutely perfect.

This is a fabulous choice for readers interested in swimming as a sport or looking for a graphic novel about friendship.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A few mean comments from one girl to another. References to segregation in America and how it affected Black citizen’s access to public pools. One page shows protests against segregation.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

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All American Boys
Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Simon & Schuster
Published September 29, 2015

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About All American Boys

Rashad is absent again today.

That’s the sidewalk graffiti that started it all…

Well, no, actually, a lady tripping over Rashad at the store, making him drop a bag of chips, was what started it all. Because it didn’t matter what Rashad said next—that it was an accident, that he wasn’t stealing—the cop just kept pounding him. Over and over, pummeling him into the pavement. So then Rashad, an ROTC kid with mad art skills, was absent again…and again…stuck in a hospital room. Why? Because it looked like he was stealing. And he was a black kid in baggy clothes. So he must have been stealing.

And that’s how it started.

And that’s what Quinn, a white kid, saw. He saw his best friend’s older brother beating the daylights out of a classmate. At first Quinn doesn’t tell a soul…He’s not even sure he understands it. And does it matter? The whole thing was caught on camera, anyway. But when the school—and nation—start to divide on what happens, blame spreads like wildfire fed by ugly words like “racism” and “police brutality.” Quinn realizes he’s got to understand it, because, bystander or not, he’s a part of history. He just has to figure out what side of history that will be.

Rashad and Quinn—one black, one white, both American—face the unspeakable truth that racism and prejudice didn’t die after the civil rights movement. There’s a future at stake, a future where no one else will have to be absent because of police brutality. They just have to risk everything to change the world.

Cuz that’s how it can end.

My Review

This book has been on my reading list for years. I’ve heard so much about it, from the awards that it garnered to the way the story moves readers. In some ways, I feel like I don’t have anything to add to the conversation that hasn’t already been said. It’s an incredible book.

I love that the authors chose to tell this book from two different perspectives: a black boy who experienced brutality at the hands of a police officer and a white boy who bore witness.

Through Rashad’s perspective, we are asked to walk through the physical pain, the shame, and the rage that he feels as a result of his experience. We see his family’s different reactions. His friends.

Then we step into Quinn’s point of view, and we walk through his discomfort. We watch him wrestle with how to respond and what actions to take. We have to sit with the discomfort that he feels. Like Quinn, we go beyond sympathizing with the boy in the hospital. His perspective asks us to do that emotional work for ourselves.

Having point of view characters of two different races also crafts the conversation about race within the story in terms of how racism and privilege impact us all. This is the kind of book that makes you think, and it’s couched in such an accessible story. Both points of view are written conversationally, so it feels like a friend relating what happened directly to you.

I read this book in a single day. It’s the kind of book that you don’t want to put down. Even though I’ve finished, I find myself returning to some moments in the story to think about them again. There’s a lot to think about in these pages.

If you haven’t read All American Boys, add it to your reading list. It’s the kind of book that asks you to listen and bear witness in a really necessary way. Especially now.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity appears in the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to some romantic attraction.

Spiritual Content
References to church service and prayer. Rashad shares his anger at the idea that God watched what happened to him and allowed it to happen. He wonders if he’d feel better if God was looking away or busy instead. He shares these feelings as he’s processing what happened to him and the things that other people say to him about it.

Violent Content
References to police brutality. One scene shows a police officer beating up a teenage boy from the boy’s perspective. Other scenes reference this moment from other perspectives.

Another officer shares an experience in which an unarmed teen was shot.

Police wait at the site of a permitted protest with a tank as if they expect rioting and violence.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol from a flask. One boy convinces a man to buy beer for him and his friends, who are on their way to a party.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

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The Color Purple
Alice Walker
Penguin Books
Published December 10, 2019 (Orig. 1982)

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About The Color Purple

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award

A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker’s epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.

“Reading The Color Purple was the first time I had seen Southern, Black women’s literature as world literature. In writing us into the world—bravely, unapologetically, and honestly—Alice Walker has given us a gift we will never be able to repay.” —Tayari Jones

“The Color Purple was what church should have been, what honest familial reckoning could have been, and it is still the only art object in the world by which all three generations of Black artists in my family judge American art.” —Kiese Laymon

My Review

This is my first time reading The Color Purple. I went back and forth between an ebook version and the audiobook version read by Alice Walker. She’s an excellent reader– I really enjoyed listening to her bring her characters and the story to life.

As you can see from the content section below, The Color Purple is a pretty heavy story about a woman who is abused by her father and then her husband before she falls in love with a woman. Through it all, the closest relationship, and the one she cherishes most, is the one between her and her sister, who has moved to Africa with a missionary couple.

It’s also an epistolary novel. At first, the book is the letters Celie writes to God. Later, it’s filled with the letters exchanged between Celie and her sister, Nettie. If you know me, you know I love sister stories, so this one has been on my reading list because of that.

I loved the relationship between Celie and Nettie. They may be far apart, and they may not know whether their sister has received any of their letters, but they continue writing and sharing their lives with one another.

Reading The Color Purple made me think a lot about women’s relationships because, at its heart, that’s really what this story is about. It’s about the power of friendship and love between women and what it can do. It teaches a lonely woman to love and be loved. It gets a woman out of prison. Love inspires a woman to open her own business. It connects women across seas, continents, and decades.

Conclusion

I really liked this book. Between the sister bond and the way that the women in the story developed relationships and cared for one another and one another’s families, I really invested in the story. I kept thinking about Celie and the other characters when I wasn’t reading. I can see why this book remains so popular and beloved. It’s got some heavy content, so this won’t be a story for everyone, but I think it’s beautifully written, and I’m so glad I read it this year.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some explicit language used infrequently to describe sex. Some racist words used.

Romance/Sexual Content
The opening scene briefly (but graphically) describes a girl’s father raping her. She states that those attacks continue, but doesn’t further describe them. Later, she references sex with her husband in detached language, showing it’s not something she enjoys.

Another woman talks to Celie about her body and encourages her to explore her body on her own, which she later does. Two women kiss and touch each other (briefly described) and fall asleep together.

Another character reports that someone assaulted her.

Spiritual Content
Celie’s sister, Nettie, joins a Christian missionary group. Shug reminds Celie that the bible says not to kill anyone, and that Jesus faced his own trials and challenges.

Celie and Shug discuss God’s identity and how they imagine God. Shug rejects the idea that God is white or a man and instead thinks of all of creation as part of God and God being in all of creation. They discuss how the Bible describes Jesus’ hair as being like lamb’s wool.

Nettie describes the Olinka people’s worship of roofleaf, a plant they use to cover the tops of their homes.

Violent Content
Three scenes show brief but graphic descriptions of sexual assault or attempted assault. Brief descriptions of domestic abuse.

Two women briefly fight. A white man slaps a Black woman. She punches him in the face. The next time Celie sees her, she describes the horrific bruises and swelling left after the police brutally beat her.

References to FGM. References to colonialism, the history of slavery, and the abuse of plantation workers.

Drug Content
Adults drink alcohol and smoke. References to smoking marijuana as a habit or as part of a spiritual experience.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
Random House
Published April 21, 2009 (Orig. 1969)

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About I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.
 
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.
 
Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin

Thoughts About Reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

As I read this book, I thought back through my English literature education. Other than at least one poem by Langston Hughes in seventh grade, I can’t remember specifically reading any Black authors. It’s possible we read poetry by Maya Angelou. I especially do not remember ever reading about life in segregated America from a Black perspective, which seems like a huge thing when I think about it.

It is honestly a little bit alarming to me that I’m this old and just now reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings for the first time. I’ve read a pathetically small amount of classic literature by Black authors and/or authors of color in general. This is a problem I’m working to fix.

My Review

I love the way the author describes things. Some of the descriptions are pure poetry. Others vividly recount a moment or experience with such specificity that I felt like I was there witnessing the scene.

I listened to the audiobook version, read by the author, which I deeply enjoyed. She sings the hymns written in the text. She reads in a way that shows off the beauty of the poetic descriptions in the text while inviting the reader into each moment.

As I mentioned above, I think this is the first book I’ve read that shows segregated life in America from a Black perspective. (The more I think about it, the more I think that should absolutely be a requirement for high school literature. Wow.) I’m not sure I will ever forget the scene in which Maya and her brother hide her uncle in a vegetable bin and pile onions and potatoes on top of him because they’ve been warned that the Klan will be riding through their town looking for someone to harm.

The author describes the people in her life really well, too. As I read, I could sense both her admiration and her frustration with her mother and grandmother. These were both strong women with different values. They protected her and wounded her, sometimes knowingly, and sometimes without meaning to do so.

Conclusion

I’m so glad I read this book. It’s haunting and beautiful. There are some scenes that are hard to read (see content warnings below), but I really believe books like this are important. I am looking forward to reading more of Maya Angelou’s work.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A couple uses of the N-word as Maya heard it used. In one scene, she lists other derogatory terms she heard used.

Romance/Sexual Content
A man abuses Maya (a child) multiple times, the last time being the most violent. Descriptions are brief. It’s hard to read, but it does show the trauma and the complicated feelings and conclusions she drew from the experience as a child.

Maya worries about her body’s development. She reads about lesbianism and intersex conditions at the library and then speaks with her mom, who helps her understand that what’s happening to her body is normal development. There’s a little bit of biological description here.

One scene briefly relates Maya’s first (consensual) sexual experience. It’s not very specific except to relate how functional rather than romantic it was.

Spiritual Content
References to attending church and singing hymns. Maya’s grandmother, Mama, believes that if you’re good, God will love you.

Violent Content
Brief mentions of harm to children. Maya’s uncle threatens to burn her on the stove if she can’t answer his questions. She believes, looking back, that he never would have harmed her. Reference to a woman hitting a child’s legs with a switch if they didn’t wash properly or teachers striking the palms of students with rulers if they disobeyed.

Maya’s grandmother hits her as punishment for using the term “by the way,” which her grandmother considers swearing.

Drug Content
Several scenes reference adults smoking cigarettes.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Banned Book Review: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

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The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison
Vintage
Published June 24, 2007 (Orig. 1970)

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About The Bluest Eye

Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison powerfully examines our obsession with beauty and conformity—and asks questions about race, class, and gender with her characteristic subtly and grace.
 
In Morrison’s bestselling first novel, Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.

My Review

Parts of this book were a hard read for me. The writing is moving, fierce, and compassionate. The story explores not only Pecola’s wish to have the blue eyes she believes will make her beautiful but also the lives of the people around her. It follows two sisters, Frieda and Claudia, whose family takes Pecola in when social services remove her from her home. They forge a connection with her that opens and closes the story and offers some reflection on the events that take place.

We also watch what happened to each of Pecola’s parents before they met and after they were married. At one point, Pecola asks for help from a spiritual man who positions himself as having God’s power, and the story illuminates some of his background and past as well. By doing this, Morrison shows not only what happens to Pecola (often from the perspective of a perpetrator) but also why it happens.

It’s a hard read. I loved reading the author’s note at the end of the book in which Toni Morrison reflects on her intentions in telling the story and her evaluation of whether she achieved them. That added some context to the story that I think I needed to hear.

On the whole, I am glad I read this book. The writing is so powerful. I want to read more of Toni Morrison’s work, but already I feel like I see she’s made valuable contributions to literature and our ongoing conversations about race, class, and gender roles.

Discomfort in Literature

One of the things I’ve thought a lot about while reading The Bluest Eye and some of the other books I’ve read lately is the discomfort I experience while reading certain parts of the book. I remember in school really wrestling with stories that left me feeling uncomfortable for various reasons. I wish someone had been able to explain to me the purpose of that discomfort and that discomfort serves an important purpose.

Sometimes, discomfort is a warning sign of danger. It means we need to escape a situation quickly. At other times, though, discomfort is recognition of injustice or wrongdoing. Literature gives us a safe space to experience that discomfort without being in actual physical danger.

This doesn’t mean that reading about trauma can’t be triggering. Sometimes it can. There are certain things I can’t read.

But I’m learning that discomfort isn’t always an indicator that I’m experiencing danger or trauma. Sometimes discomfort means I’m experiencing the injustice or the sense of wrongness in someone else’s story. Sometimes sitting with that discomfort helps us develop empathy or understanding of someone else’s experience.

One of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2023

The Bluest Eye was one of the top ten most challenged books of 2023. It has some graphic content, though it’s limited to a few scenes. I definitely think this is a hard book to read, though its messages and perspective are deeply important.

Content Notes for The Bluest Eye

Content warning for graphic sexual assault of a child.

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Major characters are Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few F-bombs and profanity used infrequently. The N-word appears a few times.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to sex and incest. (A girl is pregnant with her father’s baby.) References to nudity. One character befriends and visits three women who are sex workers. More than one scene shows two people having sex. In one, the description is detached and uncomfortable. Others show more pleasure.

In one scene, two white men stumble onto a Black couple having sex. They force the couple to continue while they watch.

One scene shows a man assaulting a child from the man’s perspective. Another passage relates a man’s preference and reasons for preying on girls. He describes some of the things he does.

Spiritual Content
References to prayer and reading the Bible.

Violent Content
References to domestic violence. A man and woman have a violent marriage in which they attack one another. During these episodes, their child wishes she was dead.

Drug Content
A man goes to bed drunk, as is his habit.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: Gone Wolf by Amber McBride

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Gone Wolf
Amber McBride
Feiwel & Friends
Published October 3, 2023

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About Gone Wolf

Award-winning author Amber McBride lays bare the fears of being young and Black in America, in this middle-grade novel that has been compared to the work of Jordan Peele and praised as ” brilliantly inventive storytelling” by Publishers Weekly.

In the future, a Black girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined — to be used as a biological match for the president’s son, should he fall ill. She is called a Blue — the color of sadness. She lives in a small-small room with her dog, who is going wolf more often – he’s pacing and imagining he’s free. Inmate Eleven wants to go wolf too―she wants to know why she feels so Blue and what is beyond her small-small room.

In the present, Imogen lives outside of Washington DC. The pandemic has distanced her from everyone but her mother and her therapist. Imogen has intense phobias and nightmares of confinement. Her two older brothers used to help her, but now she’s on her own, until a college student helps her see the difference between being Blue and sad, and Black and empowered.

In this symphony of a novel, award-winning author Amber McBride lays bare the fears of being young and Black in America, and empowers readers to remember their voices and stories are important, especially when they feel the need to go wolf.

My Review

The first book I read by Amber McBride was ME: MOTH, which is a novel in verse. I loved the twisty storytelling. It’s one of those books where you reach a point where everything changes, and you look back at everything you’ve read with a new perspective. I loved that about the book.

GONE WOLF is prose rather than poetry. It also has some twisty storytelling, and I felt like there was the same kind of turning-point moment where I looked back at everything through a different lens. (This is hinted at in the cover copy, so I don’t think I’m spoiling anything.)

The book definitely delves into some tough topics in a pretty unflinching way. The juxtaposition of the Civil Rights Movement, slavery, and a futuristic setting was really thought-provoking. It was interesting to see familiar pieces of history alongside dystopian elements. Somehow, it made them resonate more sharply, maybe because it had that awful ring of the worst kinds of history repeating themselves.

I found it easy to get lost in the story and in trying to figure out how the two narratives connected. Future Imogen’s horror at her discoveries about the world she lives in and the ways she tries to break out of that world hit hard. I rooted for her from the beginning to end.

On the whole, I found this to be a truly captivating story. It’s got a young narrator– I think Imogen is twelve– but I would not call this middle grade. I think it’s actually a coming-of-age story.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Imogen is Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some brief strong violence, including violence against an animal.

Imogen witnesses a woman being beaten. She sees someone execute a dog. Imogen and a friend offer ice to people who’ve been attacked as part of a Civil Rights protest.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything but help support this blog. I received a free copy of GONE WOLF in exchange for my honest review.