Dear America

Jenna's Book Club

Tonight, we're reviewing *two* books that are highly recommended. While at a young adult reading level, I believe that all young teens and up-including adults-will find these of interest-particularly those who are interested in history!

Growing up, I was a fan of several titles in the "Dear America" series. These books are told through a "diary format" of young girls living in various periods of U.S. history. Some years ago, the series was "revamped" with new covers and several new titles were introduced. I am reviewing two of the "newer" books that are of great interest to me. 

With The Might of Angels by Andrea Davis Pinkney

 Dawnie Rae Johnson is an African-American tomboy living in 1950's Virginia, who loves baseball and her pogo stick, and idolizes Jackie Robinson. Dawnie describes in great detail her segregated school, which is dark and filthy. Students are expected to use outdated, recycled textbooks and there's "a clock that has never worked." 

After the Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. The Board of Education, Dawnie learns that she will be transferring to an all-white school. Parents of white children are furious, and some even pull their children out of school. Dawnie walks through furious, screaming throngs of people held back by the militarized police and soldiers to attend this "white" school. Bravely, she keeps her head up. At the school, she is bullied and ostracized by her white classmates. Her strength, however, as well as her friendship with a white girl shunned for her Jewish faith, helps her pull through.

Andrea Davis Pinkney, the author, writes that she herself was one of the first black students at an all-white school. This isn't ancient history. It's both sobering and inspiring that brave men and women like Dawnie are very much alive today-and many are very involved in the fight for equal rights. 

Dawnie also has an autistic younger brother. To write in an autistic black kid living in the 1950's was a bold move indeed, and I applaud Andrea Davis Pinkney for doing this. There is a scene where her brother is beaten up by white boys, and called "n*gger retard" (just keep that in mind if you're sensitive to such descriptions.) Goober, nicknamed for his love of peanuts, however is Dawnie's life. He himself is an inspiration to her, due to his ability to always see the beauty in things.  

While a fictional character, Dawnie is a huge inspiration. She shows how far we've gone-and how far we still have to go.

Down The Rabbit Hole by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

This is easily one of the most intriguing reads in the series. It tells the story of class division and strikes in the Victorian times through the eyes of Pringle-her real name is Priscilla Duncan Rose(!)-a wealthy, privileged girl who loves Alice in Wonderland and driving fast in the carriage. Pringle has it good, until she's pulled out of her upscale boarding school to be told that her parents have died in a terrible carriage accident. 

Devastated, Pringle is sent home to go into mourning and live with her sullen aunt and spoiled cousin. She finally gets up the nerve to sneak out of the house with her brother Gideon and board a train on the way to Chicago to start a new life. 

The story is amazing, and definitely worth a read. I've always found the Victorian era fascinating-particularly the "death culture" and stance on mental health and disabilities, both of which you get great information about in here. (I've even considering taking up the "Victorian goth" culture.) 

Like Dawnie, Pringle has a special needs sibling. It's obvious from early on that her brother Gideon is a child with Down Syndrome. Wow! What a leap, to write about a character with Down Syndrome that takes place in the Victorian era! Pringle's parents, naturally, have been told to give up on Gideon and institutionalize him. However, the people who told them that "can go to blazes." I'm not sure if in real life, however, people with Down Syndrome really were kept out of the institutions. However, this was a great move for the author. 

Gideon was obviously traumatized-and hasn't spoken since the accident. Imagine Pringle's terror when he runs out of the house into Chicago-just as the Great Chicago Fire breaks out. 

These two books are highly recommended and definitely worth a read. While I enjoyed this series as a child, too many of the earlier books were too "feel good" and described incidents that really wouldn't have been realistic. The newer books in the series, particularly "Down The Rabbit Hole" and way more historically accurate, and aren't afraid to describe things the way they really were. As I said, in the real world I bet Goober and Gideon's parents would have been coerced into institutionalizing them. However, other than that, these books aren't afraid to get gritty, and are a bit darker and more disturbing.

Another thing I LOVE about these two characters is, according to the Epilogue, neither ever married (and both stayed very content), which I think is terrific.  I do think we need more examples of young women-men too!-who choose to never marry. We need more examples for those who never wish to get married themselves-such as myself.