Midnight Without a Moon

October 15, 2016
The ugly brutality of the Jim Crow South is recounted in dulcet, poetic tones, creating a harsh and fascinating blend. Fact and fiction pair in the story of Rose Lee Carter, 13, as she copes with life in a racially divided world. It splits wide open when a 14-year-old boy from Chicago named Emmett Till goes missing. Jackson superbly blends the history into her narrative. The suffocating heat, oppression, and despair African-Americans experienced in 1955 Mississippi resonate. And the author effectively creates a protagonist with plenty of suffering all her own. Practically abandoned by her mother, Rose Lee is reviled in her own home for the darkness of her brown skin. The author ably captures the fear and dread of each day and excels when she shows the peril of blacks trying to assert their right to vote in the South, likely a foreign concept to today's kids. Where the book fails, however, is in its overuse of descriptors and dialect and the near-sociopathic zeal of Rose Lee's grandmother Ma Pearl and her lighter-skinned cousin Queen. Ma Pearl is an emotionally remote tyrant who seems to derive glee from crushing Rose Lee's spirits. And Queen is so glib and self-centered she's almost a cartoon. The bird's-eye view into this pivotal moment provides a powerful story, one that adults will applaud--but between the avalanche of old-South homilies and Rose Lee's relentlessly hopeless struggle, it may be a hard sell for younger readers. (Historical fiction. 10-12)

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August 1, 2017

Gr 4-8-Life in a sharecropper's shack on a cotton plantation in Mississippi during the summer of 1955 is harsh and unyielding, especially for 13-year-old Rose Lee Carter. Rose lives under the guardianship of her grandmother, who openly mocks her looks and favors her lighter-skinned cousin. Opening with a tense scene of brother Fred Lee's birth and Rose's terrifying encounter with local white supremacists, readers are immediately drawn into the deep poverty and racism that Rose faces on a constant basis. Although conditions at home, physical and emotional, are hard to bear, she enjoys a strong friendship with the son of the local preacher, Hallelujah Jenkins. African Americans registering to vote are routinely harassed-and the murder of Emmett Till reverberates through the community as feelings of anger and fear intensify. Rose is a relatable, endearing, and fully developed character. Her heartaches are striking and acute. The change from her fervent desire to join her mother and stepfather in Chicago to her determination to stay in Mississippi and join the fight for civil rights is believably heroic. Descriptions of the family's severe poverty are shattering but never salacious. Preferential treatment for lighter-skinned African Americans in Rose's family and even in the mainstream African American media is painfully depicted. Recommend for fans of Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming and Mildred Taylor's "Logan Family" saga. VERDICT An unflinching and sensitively-told coming-of-age story from the perspective of a smart and thoughtful young girl in 1950s Mississippi.-Jennifer Schultz, Fauquier County Public Library, Warrenton, VA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

devenitycrystal - This book is definitely a must-read. Rose Lee is a black girl who lives a pretty unfair life. Slaves are freed, but what is freedom if you can't vote without the fear of getting killed? Hallelujah (his real name isn't Hallelujah) and Rose try to figure this out during their struggle against racial discrimination. Blacks are pushing on the right to vote, but Rose's grandma Pearl, or ma, says otherwise. She says that we shouldn't meddle with that kinda stuff. The roof that Rose and her family live underneath is provided by a White owner who pays them so little for housekeeping and cotton-picking, so Ma Pearl doesn't want to be kicked off their land. But that isn't the only unfairness that Rose has to endure. She lives with unfairness everyday under her own roof! For one, her cousin, Queen (that is her real name), doesn't do squat around the house! Her complexion is too light, and musn't be out in sun darkening her skin, as Grandma Pearl says. Not only that, Rose and her brother were given to their grandma when their mom married off to a different family to take care of their kids. Rose feels as if her mom doesn't like her because she's so dark, she's a midnight without a moon. Dive into these pages as you feel the pains of Black's in the South. This book is amazing and cannot go being unread. There is a sequel called- A Sky Full Of Stars. You will like it a lot!