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Summary
Summary
Sharon M. Draper presents "storytelling at its finest" ( School Library Journal , starred review) in this New York Times bestselling Depression-era novel about a young girl who must learn to be brave in the face of violent prejudice when the Ku Klux Klan reappears in her segregated southern town.
Stella lives in the segregated South--in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can't. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn't bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they're never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella's community--her world--is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don't necessarily signify an end.
Author Notes
Sharon M. Draper was born in Cleveland, Ohio on August 21, 1952. She taught high school English for twenty-five years and received numerous honors including Ohio Teacher of the Year and the NCNW Excellence in Teaching Award. She has also written numerous books including Romiette and Julio, Darkness before Dawn, Double Dutch, and the Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs series. She is a a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Literary Award for Copper Sun, Forged by Fire, Tears of a Tiger, The Battle of Jericho, and November Blues. Her title Out of My Mind made The New York Times Best Seller List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-The action begins immediately as Stella and her brother observe the flames of a KKK ceremony, late one night in 1939 in rural North Carolina. The African American community is alarmed but determined; they pull together to keep their families safe but also march with the three courageous men, including Stella's father, who dare to register and vote. Draper was inspired by her grandmother's secret diary, and reading, writing, and the power of words pervade the book. An itinerant Spoon Man, for example, pays for his supper with a story, while newspapers cover the walls of Stella's house. Although reading them "helped her feel like she was part of something bigger," when Stella tries to write herself, "It feels like (her) brain's a dumpling in somebody else's soup." Heather Alicia Simms evokes the rhythm of storytelling in the narrator's singsong voice. The main characters come alive through dialogue, each individual clearly differentiated by tone, pitch, and accent. With practice and persistence, Draper's Stella uses writing to come to terms with the changing nature of her world through words. VERDICT This excellent work will appeal to listeners who enjoyed Marilyn Nelson's How I Discovered Poetry and Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming.-Toby Rajput, National Louis University © Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
After 11-year-old Stella and her brother witness late-night Ku Klux Klan activity, word spreads through their North Carolina town. It's 1932, and every "Negro family in Bumblebee knew the unwritten rules-they had to take care of their own problems and take care of one another." Draper (Panic) conveys a rich African-American community where life carries on and knowledge is passed along ("My mama taught me. I'm teachin' you. You will teach your daughter"), despite looming threats. While in town, Stella notes the white children's fine school building and speculates about who might be Klansmen; in her parents' backyard, spontaneous potluck celebrations chase away gloom as adults trade tall tales: "remember last summer when it got so hot we had to feed the chickens ice water to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs?" Stella's desire to become a writer parallels her father's determination to vote. In a powerful scene, the entire black community accompanies three registered black voters to the polling location and waits silently, "Ten. Fifteen. Twenty-five minutes," until the sheriff steps aside. This compelling story brims with courage, compassion, creativity, and resilience. Ages 9-13. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Stella by Starlight 1 Flames Across the Water Nine robed figures dressed all in white. Heads covered with softly pointed hoods. Against the black of night, a single wooden cross blazed. Reflections of peppery-red flames shimmered across the otherwise dark surface of Kilkenny Pond. Two children, crouched behind the low-hanging branches of a hulking oak tree on the other side of the pond, watched the flickers of scarlet in the distance in fearful silence. Dressed only in nightshirts, Stella Mills and her brother Jojo shivered in the midnight October chill. Stella yanked the boy close, dry leaves crunching beneath his bare feet. "Shh!" she whispered, holding him tightly. "Don't move!" Jojo squirmed out of her grasp. "It was me that saw 'em first!" he protested. "You'd still be 'sleep if I hadn't come and got you. So lemme see!" Stella covered her brother's lips with her fingers to quiet him. Even though her toes were numb with cold and she knew they needed to get out of there, she could not take her eyes from the horror glimmering toward them from across the pond. "Do you know what would happen if they saw us?" she whispered, shifting her stinging feet, the crushing of dry leaves seeming far too loud. Jojo pressed himself closer to her in answer. Besides the traitorous leaves, Stella could hear a pair of bullfrogs ba-rupping to each other, but nothing, not a single human voice, from across the pond. She could, however, smell the charring pine, tinged with . . . what? She sniffed deeper--it was acrid, harsh. Kerosene. A trail of gray smoke snaked up to the sky, merging with the clouds. "Who are they?" Jojo whispered, stealing another glance. "The Klan." Just saying those words made Stella's lips quiver. The Ku Klux Klan. Here. Here! "What are they doing?" "Practicing, I think." "For what?" Stella paused and smoothed his bushy hair, trying to figure out the best way to answer. Jojo was only eight. "Nothing good," she said at last. A horse whinnied in the distance--it sounded nervous. And there, in the shadows of the trees across the pond, Stella could make out half a dozen of them. The flames must be scaring them, too, she thought. The horses began to stamp and snort as the fire flared. Stella inched forward, trying to get a better look. One of the harnesses seemed to sparkle in the darkness. Or was it just a stray ember from the flames? The men in the white hoods were now all raising their arms to the sky, and they cried out as one, but their exact words were muffled by cloth and wind. "Jojo, we've gotta get out of here!" she whispered, now edging backward. "Should we tell Mama and Papa?" Jojo asked. Stella did not answer her brother. Instead she caught his hand in her tightest grip and ran. Excerpted from Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.