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Summary
Summary
The Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author tells the moving story of the friendship between a young white boy and a Black WWII veteran who has recently returned to the unwelcoming Jim Crow South.
On Gabriel's twelfth birthday, he gets a new bike--and is so excited that he accidentally rides it right into the path of a car. Fortunately, a Black man named Meriwether pushes him out of the way just in time, and fixes his damaged bike. As a thank you, Gabriel gets him a job at his dad's auto shop. Gabriel's dad hires him with some hesitation, however, anticipating trouble with the other mechanic, who makes no secret of his racist opinions.
Gabriel and Meriwether become friends, and Gabriel learns that Meriwether drove a tank in the Army's all-Black 761st Tank Battalion in WWII. Meriwether is proud of his service, but has to keep it a secret because talking about it could be dangerous. Sadly, danger finds Meriwether, anyway, when his family receives a frightening threat. The South being the way it is, there's no guarantee that the police will help--and Gabriel doesn't know what will happen if Meriwether feels forced to take the law into his own hands.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-Twelve-year-old Gabriel, who is white, lives in the small, South Carolina town of Birdsong in 1946. His eyes are slowly opened to the realities of Jim Crow through his relationship with Merriweather Hunter, an African American who saves Gabriel's life when he is almost hit by a car. As their friendship deepens and Mr. Hunter and his daughter, Abigail, begin to trust Gabriel, he begins to see some of the oppressive truths of their existence: the need for the Green Book, the danger from white supremacists, the lack of support from the police when they are the victims of crimes, and the need for Mr. Hunter to keep his identity as a World War II veteran secret. When Mr. Hunter and Abigail are targeted by a white supremacist, Gabriel witnesses the fear, pain, anger, and sense of powerlessness faced by African Americans living under Jim Crow. This title presents the reality of racism in the mid-20th century, as seen through the perspective of a young white boy. VERDICT Hand to readers looking for historical fiction or those who enjoy the works of Christopher Paul Curtis and Rita Williams Garcia.-Kristin Lee Anderson, Jackson County Library Services, OR © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Woods (Zoe in Wonderland) contemplates American history in this sobering novel set in Birdsong, S.C., during the summer of 1946. On the day that Gabriel, who is white, receives a new bicycle for his 12th birthday, he runs a red light and is nearly struck by a car. Meriwether Hunter, an African-American mechanic who is looking for work, saves him. Gabriel helps Meriwether, a U.S. Army veteran who can fix almost anything, land a job at his father's auto shop-much to the frustration of another mechanic, who is white, "mean as a raccoon with rabies," and rumored to have friends in the KKK. Hearing Meriwether's stories, and taking his advice to "try to see the goings-on of life through more eyes than just your own," Gabriel is made aware of the divide between the lives of the town's white and black residents, but his new knowledge might not be enough to save Meriwether and his family from harm. Even readers who have been taught about segregation in the South are likely to deepen their knowledge of the nuanced history through the novel's handling of how white and African-American veterans were treated differently after WWII. The characters of impressionable Gabriel and Meriwether, whose patience is tried by society's unfair rules, ring true as the story shows that "the world, including Birdsong USA, isn't always pretty." Ages 10-up. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
If Opie Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show wrote a book about Mayberry's racism, the voice would be that of Gabriel Haberlin, the 12-year-old white boy who is saved from near tragedy by Meriwether Hunter, a "colored" man.The book opens with the event, when Meriwether, who's begging for a job on Main Street, sees Gabriel pedal through a red light and pushes him out of the way of an oncoming car. The author's use of the word "colored" isn't gratuitousthe book's setting is Birdsong, South Carolina, in 1946. The word also sets the tone of the town's postwar racial references and bigotry, along with The Negro Motorist Green Book, segregated bathrooms, and the way Mrs. Betty Babcock, the white woman who nearly kills Gabriel, addresses Meriwether as "boy." But Gabriel says his parents "taught me differently"and seeks out Meriwether to offer him a job at his father's garage out of gratitude. After meeting Gabriel's grateful parents, Meriwether accepts the offerto the spitting contempt of Lucas Shaw, the other mechanic, who's white and rumored to have friends in the Ku Klux Klan. The town's multitudinous racism keeps Meriwether from admitting where he honed his mechanical skills, lest that fact harm him and his family: the Army, where he was a member of the 761st Tank Battalion, also called the Black Panthers. How that fact affects Gabriel and Meriwether's friendship and Birdsong itself makes for an affectingand realisticstory.Another stellar outing from the always-solid Woods. (afterword, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gabriel Haberlin, 12, lives a kid-friendly life in post-WWII Birdsong, South Carolina, even getting a Schwinn for his birthday. But on his first ride, he's almost hit by a car. Fortunately, Meriwether Hunter pushes him out of the way. A friendship between the African American vet and Gabriel results in Hunter getting a job at the Haberlin gas station, but another employee, a rumored Klan member, starts looking to make trouble. There are many books that show segregation and its corrosive effects through the eyes of both white and black children, and in Gabriel's engaging first-person narrative, one can almost see the wheels turning as he realizes what life is like for Hunter and his family, especially after he learns the vet can't speak of his distinguished service due to white attitudes. The characters aren't always nuanced, but there is shading in actions as they try to uncomfortably fit into their society's mores. Gabriel's strong and questioning voice will have appeal for middle-graders, and the story will give them a history lesson as well.--Ilene Cooper Copyright 2019 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
these days, parents like to think of themselves as responsible for every aspect of their children's happiness and well-being. But often overlooked in this 21st-century conception of parent/child dynamics is the powerful sense of responsibility children feel for adults. A desire to protect their elders is particularly strong during the tween years, when the darkness and complexity of the world come into focus, but the magical thinking of childhood still offers the comfort of solutions. These four middlegrade novels capture something moving and seemingly eternal: When trouble strikes the grown-ups around them, children instinctively put themselves on the emotional front lines. A prime example is Riley James, the 11year-old narrator of Greg Howard's the WHISPERS (Putnam, 226 pp., $16.99; ages 10 and up). After his mother goes missing, Riley sets out to find the magical voices from a local legend that he believes can help him bring her back. A self-proclaimed "mama's boy... without his mama," Riley struggles with bed-wetting plus another "condition" - being attracted to boys - that some in his small, Christian town consider cause for shame. Riley heads into the woods to find the Whispers, accompanied by a "Stand by Me"-like band of misfits including the overweight Gary, his only friend; Gary's tag-along little brother, Carl; and the "Redneck Superhero" Dylan Mathews, an older boy whose sympathy (or perhaps empathy) for Riley's situation makes him a winsome champion. "The Whispers" does not turn out to be the fable it at first seems, but Howard pulls off the trick of making Riley's real quest even more heart-wrenching than the fantasy that drives it. This taut, moving tale delves beyond loss into issues of sexuality, conformity and self-acceptance. Riley's relationship with his missing mother, whom we see in flashbacks teaching him new vocabulary words, is particularly well drawn. "Use it in a sentence, Button," she tells him, encouraging Riley to redefine his world through language - a lesson he takes to heart after she goes missing. "The Whispers" is a masterful exploration into the power of storytelling but also its dangers, including self-denial and escapism. escapism is the guiding philosophy of Rodeo and his 12-year-old daughter, Coyote, the titular heroine of Dan Gemeinhart's THE REMARKABLE JOURNEY OF COYOTE SUNRISE (Holt, 352 pp" $16.99; ages 9 to 12). Since the death of Coyote's mother and sisters five years earlier, the pair have traveled around the country in an old school bus, calling each other by hippie road names and following their hankerings for taco trucks or sandwiches. But for all his whimsy and free-spiritedness, Rodeo has a few "no-go's," as he calls them, including ever returning to their hometown, Poplin Springs, Wash. Coyote is protective of her father and accepts their life of wandering, hiding her loneliness and grief behind bravado. But when she learns that developers are tearing up the local park where her mother and sisters buried a memory box, she enlists an eclectic group of fellow travelers to trick Rodeo into driving her there. Coyote's bold, engaging voice pops off the page and propels this road-trip novel through a series of charming, if unlikely, adventures. Some of the secondary characters serve the plot a little too neatly, but there are exceptions, like the boy escaping domestic violence who becomes Coyote's protector and friend. Gemeinhart infuses the story with moments of lyrical writing and folksy wisdom served up with a dollop of girl power. Coyote's determination to face reality rather than run from it ultimately allows her to heal not just herself but her father. the protagonist of Brenda Woods's the UNSUNG HERO OF BIRDSONG, U.S.A. (Nancy Paulsen, 194 pp., $16.99; ages 10 and up) also protects a cherished adult by confronting reality, in this case the reality of racism in his segregated postwar Southern town. After Meriwether Hunter, an unemployed African-American mechanic and World War II veteran, saves Gabriel Haberlin's life, the 12-year-old tries to return the favor by getting him a job at his father's garage. But as his friendship with Meriwether deepens, Gabriel starts to see the casual racism of friends and family in a new light, and after Meriwether confronts a bigoted fellow employee at the garage, Gabriel must save his savior from a potentially violent end. Woods casts a much needed spotlight on the history of African-American troops in World War II, including the all-black 761st Tank Battalion, which took part in the Battle of the Bulge. Meriwether embodies the dignity and frustration of these men who fought for their country overseas only to return home to prejudice and oppression, especially in the Jim Crow-era South. An underdeveloped villain and a hard-toswallow turn of events in the crucial scene threaten to weaken this important story. But Woods regains control with a realistic ending that incorporates the Great Migration and shows the limits of Gabriel's power to protect his friend. genesis Anderson, the heroine of Alicia D. Williams's stunning debut novel, geneSIS BEGINS AGAIN (Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum, 382 pp., $17.99; ages 9 to 13), is another character who grapples with the legacy of race in America and the challenge of righting adult wrongs. Thirteen-year-old Genesis is tired of her family being constantly evicted, so when her alcoholic father moves them out of Detroit to a middleclass home in the suburbs and promises to start attending Alcoholics Anonymous, she's cautiously hopeful life will change. But Genesis and her family are still haunted by the past - including her darkskinned father's self-loathing and grief over a childhood tragedy and the prejudice of her light-skinned mother's family, who use "the paper bag test" to judge acceptable skin color (a test Genesis herself doesn't pass). When her father starts drinking again, eviction notices appear, and her parents' marriage falters, Genesis tries to fix her family by changing herself; by lightening her skin and straightening her hair, she hopes to make her family, and especially her father, proud of her - and by extension, themselves. In "Genesis Begins Again," Williams explores racism within the black community, creating a fully realized family with a history of complex relationships to one another, and to their own skin colors. The suburban school where Genesis finds herself navigating a diverse cast of friends and foes is no less vivid; a music teacher who introduces Genesis to blues greats like Billie Holiday and inspires her to sing in the school talent show is particularly memorable. But the standout voice in this tender and empowering novel - reminiscent of Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," but appropriate for a much younger audience - belongs to Genesis herself, as she discovers a truth that we adults would do well to remember: Growing up isn't just about taking responsibility for the happiness and well-being of others. It's also about learning what you can and should fix, and what you cannot. As Genesis discovers, there is no true reinvention without self-acceptance. Katherine marsh's most recent middle-grade novel is "Nowhere Boy," a 2018 Times Children's Notable Book.
