Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
What a random find in the middle grade/young adult section of
Half Price Books. I'm glad that the title and spine of the book intrigued me enough that I picked it up and ended up taking it home with me that day.
Summary
Rose Lee Carter, a 13-year-old African-American girl, dreams of life beyond the Mississippi cotton fields during the summer of 1955. Her world is rocked when a 14-year-old African-American boy, Emmett Till, is killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
This is truly a powerful story. It is written about a time in America's history where racism and injustice was a huge part of everyday life, especially in the South. While I am glad that this book reminded me how prominent of an issue injustice was, and still is, it made this book hard to read for 85% of the story. Especially the parts where Ma Pearl refused to believe Aunt Belle and Monty about the way life could be better and that she didn't have to live below Ms. Robinson to have a happy and successful life. It hurts me to realize that while that specific incident is fiction, there are many true stories that are most likely very similar.
This is my first time reading a book where I am not the intended audience (even though anyone should be able to read any book) and I think this book would have been informative to the middle grade "intended" audience, while in my case it just riled me about injustice rather than letting me enjoy the story.
(SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION)
However there were also some things that bothered me about this book besides racial injustice. First was the lack of recognition for Rose from just about anyone besides Hallelujah. It's like she didn't exist to almost anyone and that really bothered me. Second, Ma Pearl. In general as a character, I really really REALLY disliked her. As I previously mentioned, just her negative outlook on life and on all of the people in her life and her general disrespect towards everyone is terrible. She is another reason why I couldn't enjoy this book because I was constantly mad at her and her actions. Third, the ending. I understand that the whole point of it was to show that you don't have to escape the South, you can fight the injustice, which I 1000% support, however in this case I don't think there was anything wrong with Rose going to live in Saint Louis with Aunt Belle & Monty. Since they are both clearly civil rights activists, Rose still could've been involved in fighting the injustice in a safer environment and taught how to do it better by them rather than living in it. The only reason I understand her not leaving is because she doesn't wanna leave her brother and Queen, and she doesn't wanna disappoint her Papa. But you can clearly tell that while he doesn't want her to go, her potential is what means she should go and he recognizes that!
All of my issues might again be that I am not the intended audience for this book and I accept that. However, I still wanted to share my opinions because I still think they are valid to the book as a whole.
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