Book Review: MIRANDY AND BROTHER WIND

A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
McKissack C. Patricia. 1988. MIRANDY AND BROTHER WIND. New York: KNOPF. ISBN 0679883339.

B. PLOT SUMMARY
Mirandy with a happy and smile face dances and swings around her mother’s snug kitchen. She tells her mother that in order to win the cakewalk contest on Sunday night, she would like to invite Brother Wind to be her partner at the junior cakewalk so she has to catch Brother Wind first. However, it is not easy to catch a special and free creature and no one in her neighborhood knows how to catch Brother Wind. On the way to catch Brother Wind, Mirandy meet her friend, Ezel, who hesitates to invite Mirandy to become his partner at the contest and shows his polite for Mirandy to get her dream partner. Finally, Mirandy get helps from the conjure woman and has Brother Wind to be her partner. She does win the cakewalk contest with her real partner, Ezel, but not with her dream partner.

C. RITICAL ANALYSIS
Patricia opens the story with the scenery of a cottage under a colorful and windy forest created by a powerful and blur creature, Brother Wind, with a magic stick. This makes the story begin with an unknowing mystery. Patricia’s stories provide many cultural markers of African American culture in variety of characters portrayals. For example, a young girl like Mirandy in braids and high-button shoes, middle age woman likes Mirandy’s mother in a bun and long skirt under knees and her grandmother in a kerchief and an apron. Indoor and outdoor settings also present many cultural markers, such as, a basket, a bowl and a canister, and the way people hang mugs in kitchen; a pail and water pump, a broken wheel and logs, a patch quilt hang on a clothline, and the way grandmother feeds chicken in backyard.

Language plays an important role in this story. Patricia uses vocal words, swish and swoosh, to let readers vividly feel windy by sound and vision. The language dialects by Mirandy and the other characters are a major part of the content. The black dialects and slang also can easily be found, such as “I’m gon’ get him yet” and “Ma Dear tol’ me” which vividly show African American life and present their culture.

A Cakewalk is a traditional African American dance. The author depicts how Mirandy wants to be the winner of the dance to show the importance of this dance in this culture. It also shows the cultural confidence and proud on Mirandy’s face during her dance. The other import part is friendship in this story. Mirandy shows her kindness and warmth to Ezel by dancing with him instead of with Brother Wind.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Center for Children’s Books: “Illus. in full color."Mirandy is sure she'll win the cake walk if she can catch Brother Wind for her partner, but he eludes all the tricks her friends advise. This gets a high score for plot, pace, and characterization. Mirandy sparkles with energy and determination. Multi-hued watercolors fill the pages with patterned ferment. A treat to pass on to new generations.”

Publishers Weekly: “As a prefatory note explains, this picture book was inspired by a photo of the author's grandparents winning a cakewalk a dance rooted in Afro-American culture and her grandfather's boast that, in her dancing, his wife had captured the wind. In the book, Mirandy determines to catch Brother Wind and have him for her partner in the upcoming junior cakewalk. She tries a number of tactics springing from folk wisdom, and finally succeeds in trapping her prey in the barn. At the contest, Mirandy chooses to dance with her friend Ezelbut, with Brother Wind to do her bidding, the two friends win the cakewalk in style. Told in spirited dialect and rendered in lavish, sweeping watercolors, this provides an intriguing look at a time gone by. As a story, however, it proves somewhat disappointing. After the colorful description of cakewalking in the author's note and the anticipation created through Mirandy's own eagerness, the brief and rather static scenes portraying the dance itself are a letdown.”

School Library Journal: “A captivating story, with a winning heroine, told in black dialect.”

E. CONNECTIONS

Award
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner.

The website about the activities of Mirandy and Brother Wind
http://www.thinkingfountain.org/books/mirandy.html