Letters to Missy Violet

November 15, 2011
This Depression-era gem, a follow-up to Hathaway's debut (Missy Violet & Me, 2008), offers a child's-eye view on America's racial inequities. Like its predecessor, the novel utilizes the epistolary format with minimal narration. Viewed primarily through the lens of young Viney, the letters feel real, as though discovered in an old cigar box. Viney updates Missy Violet, a midwife traveling to care for a sick relative, on everything from the sour disposition of her schoolteacher to a fearful encounter in the woods with the Ku Klux Klan, from the hilarious wedding of a homely spinster to the courtship of a curmudgeonly codger called "Som Grit" with the honest simplicity of one who has lived these events. Missy Violet's responses are measured and reassuring. Hathaway's tone never surpasses a child's reckoning, allowing readers to respond to its gentleness and the authenticity of its voices. She imbues delicate little passages with more love than a Valentine and weaves difficult bits of history into everyday life, reminding readers that America was born from hard times and that its people continue to develop roses amid thorns. Like a warm cup of alphabet soup, this offering packs several essential ingredients--hope, love, despair, courage, family, honor--into a hearty, child-size blend. (Historical fiction. 6-9)

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January 1, 2012

Gr 4-6-In this continuation of Missy Violet & Me (Houghton Harcourt, 2004), Hathaway again brings the African-American Windbush family and the rural South of 1929 to life through episodic chapters. Missy Violet, the midwife who enlisted 11-year-old Viney Windbush as her assistant in the healing arts, has been called to Florida to care for her sick brother. In her absence, Viney navigates the tricky waters of adolescence on her own, but finds it helpful along the way to confide in Missy Violet through letters. Whether Viney is expressing frustration about her cousin Charles, who is living with them temporarily, or fear about the run-in she and Charles had with the Ku Klux Klan, she finds guidance in Missy Violet's wisdom. Secondary characters are well developed through the correspondence: Viney's parents are at odds on whether to move the family North for more opportunity; her older sister has begun courting; her brother carries around so much anger toward whites that Mrs. Windbush fears he will be killed. In addition to the Windbush family members, readers learn about the various townspeople as Viney makes the rounds in Missy Violet's absence to ensure that Miss Roula is getting her boneset tonic and that little Maggie Dockery is exercising her underdeveloped hands. A few letters to Missy Violet from Charles and Mrs. Windbush provide a nice counterpoint to Viney's voice. This engaging piece of historical fiction is a solid choice for fans of the "Dear America" series (Scholastic), and the length of the book will appeal to reluctant readers.-Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2012
Grades 3-5 In this sequel that continues the warm realism of Missy Violet and Me (2004), Viney, 11, talks about growing up in a southern black family in 1929, and she shares her hopes and problems in letters to her beloved mentor, the midwife Missy Violet, who writes back with loving concern. History is personalized in Viney's frightening encounter with the Klan and in Papa's dream of migrating north when he is laid off; and whether the setting is a wedding, a funeral, or a classroom, Viney's spare narrative will hold readers with the dramatic details of her daily life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)