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

Book Review: MANIAC MONKEYS ON MAGNOLIA STREET

A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Johnson Angela. 1998. MANIAC MONKEYS ON MAGNOLIA STREET. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 067989053.

B. PLOT SUMMARY
This is a story about Charlie who starts her new friendships and her family has a new life on Magnolia Street. Charlie has an elder brother, Sid, who always makes fun of her. As the story starts, he tells Charlie about Magnolia Street is full of maniac monkeys. Charlie and her new best friend, Billy, have a magic experience when they wait to see maniac monkeys under willow trees. Miss Marcia, a statue artist, make statue of Charlie as a gift to her, and Mr. Pinkton who held the whole house with fish, are two wonderful neighbors and friends of Charlie and Billy. Charlie, a sweet and enthusiastic girl, likes to be a helper for her neighbors and with sense of imagination and curiosity to explore unusual events in her neighborhood with Billy.

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Without looking at the cover of the book and the one illustration in Chapter one, it is hard to tell the story is about an African American girl begin a new life in a dominated Black neighborhood at the very beginning. The author also does not describe the physical portrayals of characters and indoor settings in detail. Therefore, only few cultural markers can be found in hair styles and dressing in illustrations, such as Charlie always wear braid hair and boys with a buzz haircut and wear overall pants.

Charlie is a sweet and friendly girl and she looks like a tomboy always wears a T-shirt and short pants. Children in this story are typical African American children. They like outdoor activities more than indoor activities. Charlie plays jumping ropes in the front yard, hanging around on streets with Billy, exploring adventure with street boys in the neighborhood and visiting neighbors just knocking their doors. The neighbors always open their hands and prepare dessert to welcome them. It sounds like another cultural marker in African American society.

Language dialects play an essential role throughout the story, and there are many conversations, greetings, and daily lives between Charlie with her friends, and Charlie with neighbors; however, it does not present too much cultural markers in it. It is hard to find the black dialect, but Charlie and Bill enjoy singing tongue twister and rhyme song in this story.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
School Library Journal: “This introduction to the main characters and the people in the neighborhood is the best of the bunch with a strong plot and a great platform for the two friends to bond and show off their cleverness. The stories that follow have less action but Charlie's antics will keep readers' interest. The realistic dialogue will make this comfortable reading for kids, though the few grammatical informalities ("Me and Billy") are unnecessary. Black-and-white sketches appear throughout this entertaining, if not gripping, beginning chapter book.”

Booklist: “Newly independent readers will enjoy Charlie's escapades as she makes herself at home on her new street.”

Kirkus: “Writing for a younger audience than that for any of her previous novels, Johnson (The Other Side, p. 1460, etc.) works in a more prosaic style; it lacks her usual lyricism, but is breezy and light, affectionately conveying Charlie's penchant for landing in trouble. Her sunny outlook and the recurring emphasis on friendship may win fans.”

E. CONNECTIONS
Other books by Johnson Angela
Daddy Calls Me Man. 1997. New York: Orchard Books.
Down the Winding Road. 2000. New York: DK Ink.
The Girl Who Wore Snakes. 1993. New York: Orchard Books.
Heaven. 1998. New York: Simon & Schuster Books.
Dav Pilkey. 1993. New York: Orchard Books.
The Leaving Morning. 1992. New York: Orchard Books.
Looking For Red. 2002. New York: Simon & Schuster Books.
One Of Three. 1991. New York: Orchard Books.
The Other Side: Shorter Poems. 1998. New York: Orchard Books.
The Rolling Store. 1997. New York: Orchard Books.
Songs of Faith. 1998. New York: Orchard Books.
Tell Me A Story, Mama. 1992. New York: Orchard Books.
Toning The Sweep. 1993. New York: Orchard Books.
The Wedding. 1999. New York: Orchard Books.
When I Am Old With You. 1993. New York: Orchard Books.

Book Review: UNCLE JED'S BARBERSHOP

A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mitchell Margaree King. 1993. UNCLE JED’S BARBERSHOP. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671769693

B. PLOT SUMMARY
The story happens in the early 19th century in the Southern America. Uncle Jed, Jean’s best friend, is the only black moving barber in the county. He comes to visit his customer with very little pay everyday and see Jean every Wednesday night. Jean has fun playing pretend hair cut and listening to his dream about his own barbershop, and what is the plan about his dream. Even though he is frustrated by unexpected events, Jean’s medical bills and the Great Depression put off his dream, he never gives his dream up and starts saving all over again. By the age of seventy-nine, he finally has his own barbershop and all people from the county come to celebrate with him and be his customers on the date of his birthday.

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This book not only involves that characters portray a variety of physical, social and emotional attributes, but also depict relatives and friendships between two generations and dream accomplishment. It is easy to find the cultural markers of African American in this book, such as children’s hair styles, a male’s pants, patch quilts and house style in the South.

Mitchell does not directly depict people’s lives in the South. She uses the fist person of the protagonist, a little girl, to mildly describe the life people live, and their political status in the South, such that “most people were sharecroppers and travel about twenty miles into town to the hospital by wagon” and “in the hospital, we had to go to the colored waiting room.” The most outstanding part in this book is the description about relationship between Uncle Jed, and the protagonist in contents and illustrations. Mitchell does not disclose the protagonist’s name until Uncle Jed state that “he couldn’t let anything happen to his Sarah Jean” to show how important Jean for Jed. In the cover, it shows that Jed very carefully and seriously pretend cuts Jean’s hair and how happy and satisfied Jean is. Every picture of Jed and Jean is full with happiness and joy besides the one Jed with frown face stand in front of Jean’s bed and is anxious about her illness.

The majority settings are very simple involving with African American lives about desolated farm scenery and plain indoor furnishings at that time. Instead of using language dialect, the author use narrative format to display the story; therefore, it is difficult to find black dialects in this story.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Publishers Weekly: “Convivial descriptions of family life are enhanced by Ransome’s spirited oil paintings.”

E. CONNECTIONS

The website of lessons and activities about Uncle Jed’s Barbershop:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/socialStd/grade2/Uncle_Jed.html
http://www.kidseconbooks.com/html/uncle_jed_s_barbershop.html
http://pbskids.org/readingrainbow/parents_and_teachers/activity_117.html
http://tech.psdr3.org/projects/HERO/html/Bueckendorf/html/lesson_plan_12.html

Awards:
ALA Notable Children's Books

CBC/NCSS Notable Children's Book in Social Studies

Coretta Scott King Award Honor Book

Horn Book Fanfare

IRA Children's Book Award Honor