Hello, I'm Richard Nicholas Nimz, prospector of the written word. I've covered the Coretta Scott King awards last year, the awards for fiction that represent black people in a positive light. While that is a noble goal, the problem is that people are still reluctant to read stories about black people, even they could relate to the characters, mostly because they think that these books aren't for them. This year, I'm not going to talk about a book that won that award. I'm going to talk about its sequel: P.S. Be Eleven.
Citation: Williams-Garcia, R. (2013). P.S. Be Eleven. New York, NY: Amistad.
Plot: In the previous book, One Crazy Summer, three black girls spent time in San Francisco at a summer camp for Black Panthers (stay with me). In this book, they come home and try to live their lives in New York City. Their uncle comes home from the Vietnam War, but it's obvious he's not the same man he once was. Their father is getting remarried to another woman on a very quick time scale. The three girls are saving up to get into a Jackson 5 concert, but they might not have enough. And the three girls keep seeing politics in the world around them.
Impressions: I'll be honest, when I got this book, I expected to hate it. Stories about racism/sexism/homophobia/general bigotry too often tend to rely less on characterization and plot and more on the message 'white, straight men are stupid/evil and need (insert minority here) to be able to be good/smart' (see Avatar and almost any TV episode that deals with the issue). Now, writing for a message can be done well (in my opinion, see Quantum Leap season 4's "Justice" for an example), but if everyone has heard the message, you're doing nothing except pandering. However, since a book I read called Dear White People wasn't nearly as condescending as I thought it would be, I decided to give this a try.
I'm glad I did, because this was surprisingly good. Instead of cardboard cutouts whose flaws I was expected to adore or excuse, I saw characters that seemed very human. The main character is a kid, and her father and grandmothers' objections to her behavior do actually make sense and are treated as such. Even when they're in the wrong, they're not portrayed as demons given human shape, just people who can be good or bad. So many people refrain from watching stories about minorities, even non-racist people who say they can relate to the protagonists, just because they don't think those stories are for them. Therefore, I want to create a display of exempliary and fair (good and evil) stories about members of various minorities with the title 'This Is For Everyone', and I'd put this book on it. This book shows how to write minorities, as people with one influence of several informing their character.
Second opinion: "[Rita Garcia-Williams] brilliantly gets to the very heart of Delphine and each of her family members and friends... to create complex, engaging, and nuanced characters. Funny, wise, poignant, and thought-provoking..."
Citation: LEMPKE, S. D. (2013). P.S. Be Eleven. Horn Book Magazine, 89(3), 99.
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