The World Belonged to Us by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Leo Espinosa

The World Belonged to Us 

written by Jacqueline Woodson,

illustrated by Leo Espinosa

Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin, 2022, 32 pages

Schools out for summer and these kids are happy, excited, and anticipating a great time all summer long, playing games with friends and running free: "Free as air. Free as sun. Free as summer." Just look at those joyous faces. Oh, I remember that feeling, do you? Woodson has captured those past summers in Brooklyn perfectly in this charming picture book fictional memoir, and I know it's spot on because, well, I grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, too. 

With school out, it's life on the streets for two whole months. On hot days, the fire hydrants are opened and everyone races to get a cooling shower, clothes and all. The streets are chalked with game boards, jump ropes are pulled out and double dutch is the name of the game. 

Hanging with friends on a stoop, telling stories, learning about life from the older kids (I became a pretty good poker player hanging out on Ismael's stoop), other times a ball and stick are pulled out and a game of stickball happens in the street (only stopping when someone yells "car"). Ice cream trucks roll down the street and moms toss money wrapped in a scarf to the lucky kids who always share with the kids who have no money (for us, it was Mister Softee, Good Humor, and Bungalow Bar). And at the end of the day, as everyone knows, it's time to go home when the streetlights came on. 

If Jacqueline Woodson got summer all right in her text, Leo Espinosa got it right in the illustrations. Kids in the 1970s were probably the last of the free range children and in his illustrations it feels almost as if they knew and had to make it all extra special. The kids seem to be extra loud, just look at those wide open mouths and you can practically hear the kids calling to each other, and extra energetic, the kids are depicted in almost constant motion. And don't you just love those clothes. The kids are all diverse, just like Brooklyn was and is. And it really did feel like the world belonged to us.

I had a friend once who grew up in the suburbs and told me she felt sorry for me growing up in Brooklyn, because I must have been so bored. Bored? Really? Just look at these kids.  

This book really brought back memories of growing up in Brooklyn for me and the games we used to play during summer vacation. It was every bit as wonderful as this book says it was. 

I loved playing skelly as a kids and this is one of my favorite pictures in the book. Kids shooting their bottle caps (ours were filled with clay not tar), and a group of kids on the sideline watching and talking. And I'm happy to see that the thirteenth square is still surrounded by poison (land in poison and you lose a turn). 

In my Flatbush neighborhood, we called this game skelly,
not skully

,

In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord

I originally posted this on my other blog, The Children's War, but I thought I would share it here as well. In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson is just such a classic story, perfect for the Lunar New Year.

It is the Year of the Dog (1946), the war is over and China is no longer an occupied country.  In Chungking (now Chongqing), members of the House of Wong are preparing to celebrate Chinese New Year when a letter arrives from Brooklyn, NY that will change the life of Sixth Cousin AKA Bandit and her mother forever.

And so as the Year of the Dog became the Year of the Boar (1947), Sixth Cousin Bandit becomes Shirley Temple Wong and soon she and her mother were sailing off to their new life.  Arriving in Brooklyn, Shirley finds herself living in a small third floor apartment.  And it wasn't long before she is enrolled in P.S. 8, regretting that she hadn't bothered to learn any English from the records her father had sent from America as her mother had done. 

Confused and anxious, Shirley is put into Mrs. Rappaport's 5th grade class.   She begins be feel very lonely and isolated because she doesn't know English or American games and no one really wants to play with her once they discover that.  When her father buys her roller skates, roller skating proves harder to do than she had expected and she gives it up.  When Shirley proves to be a poor stickball or stoopball player, she is left out of the game.  One day, she gets into a fight with Mabel, the tallest, toughest girl in class, but Shirley stands her ground despite two black eyes.

Seeing her eyes, her parents insist on reporting it to the police, but on the way, Shirley notices Mabel is following them and she determines to say nothing about the fight.  Impressed by Shirley's silence, Mabel takes her under her wing and teaches her how to roller skate, and play ball.  And she introduces Shirley to the thrill of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson, the first African American baseball player to play in the major leagues.

Though no without its trials and tribulations, Shirley life has definitely taken a turn for the better.  But there is a big surprise in store for her before the Year of the Boar comes to an end.

Though this novel may feel a little dated, it remains a wonderful story for any young reader who may also be an immigrant to the US.  It is, after all, a tale of coming to terms with two cultures - that of your own and that of your adopted country.  And to her credit, Bette Bao Lord has really captured some of the difficulties involved in adjusting to a new life in a new country, showing us that it isn't always easy.  Perhaps she was drawing on her own experience of coming to the US as an 8 year old. 

Lord does include a nice, though subtle tip of the hat to Shirley's two cultures - because this novel starts at the beginning of the Chinese New Year, the chapters are divided into months of the year 1947, with both the English word and the Chinese character given for each month.

I loved her depictions of Brooklyn and the fact that Shirley goes to a public school, where she has the opportunity to meet all kinds of different kids - Latino, African American, Jewish among others.  This kind of diversity was how it was when I was in school in Brooklyn and why I sent my Kiddo to public school.  And the Brooklyn Dodgers - well, people were still taking about them when I was a kid even though they had long ago moved to LA. 

So in respect of New York, Lord did indeed get it right, but I had a little problem with what felt like a romanticized picture of China and the House of Wong.  The war hit China pretty hard and Chungking (Chonqing) was very badly bombed.  I seriously doubt there were family compounds like the House of Wong left.   Perhaps it was done to show the difference between the two cultures that are so much a part of Shirley's life and who she is. 

The colorful cover and the black and white illustrations at the beginning of each chapter were whimsically illustrated by the late Marc Simont.

This book is recommended for readers age 7+
This book was purchased for my personal library

祝好运、健康、佳肴伴你度过一个快乐新年

Good Luck, Good Health, Good Cheer and Pass a Happy New Year

P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia

For all of you who became fans of the Gaither sisters - Delphine, Vonetta and Fern - in One Crazy Summer, the girls are back.  And for anyone who doesn't know the Gaither sisters - they are a delight to meet.

The girls have just returned to Herkimer Street in Brooklyn after spending the summer with the mother Cecile in Oakland, CA (see One Crazy Summer).  Gone for one short summer, when they get back home things are definitely different.  For one thing, their father is a changed man now that he has a girlfriend, Miss Marva Hendrix, and it looks like they are getting serious.  And they beloved Uncle Darnell is coming home from Vietnam.  Of course, the girls have also changed.  Now they know about the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panthers and the new Feminist Movement.  But Delphine, Vonetta and Fern soon learn that sisterhood begins at home.

The Jackson Five have hit the pop charts hard and soon they will be coming to Madison Square Garden.  Papa isn't too crazy about the idea of the girls going to their concert, but Miss Marva Hendrix is all for it.  And so it is agreed: the girls will save their money and pay half the cost and Marva will pay the other half.  And she puts middle sister Vonetta in charge of the money usurping the power over her younger sisters older sister Delphine always had.  Now she has to trust Vonetta with all her hard gotten cash.

Things have changed at school, as well.  Delphine doesn't get the sixth grade teacher she was supposed to have and ends up with a strict exchange teacher from Africa, Mr. Mwila, who actually expects his students to do the work assigned and do it well.  And when Uncle Darnell comes home from Vietnam, its as if he is a completely changed person and not for the better.  All he does is sleep the days away and go out at night.  And then, the Jackson Five money gets stolen.  Meanwhile Delphine has started writing back to her mother Cecile.  Delphine pours out all her worries and concerns to Cecile and doesn't understand why her mother always ends her letters with the words P.S. Be eleven.

But her mother, even if she is a distant mother, knows that Delphine is taking life too seriously and taking too much responsibility on her shoulders for an 11 year old.

P.S. Be Eleven might sound like a coming of age novel, but it isn't.  Delphine is in the throes of growing pains, changing but still on the coming of age threshold.  And watching Delphine navigate her growing pains as she narrates them to the reader is what makes her such an endearing character and the novel so wonderful.

P.S. Be Eleven is a delight to read and a nice stand alone novel.  I haven't read One Crazy Summer, though I was inspired to go out and get a copy to read, but this works very well as a stand alone novel.  While I am sure that the Gaither sisters has lots of adventures in the first novel, enough is made clear in the second whenever something from it comes up.

Rita Williams-Garcia got so much so right in this novel.  Her depiction of Brooklyn in 1968 is perfection and she has really captured the mood of the times.  The late 1960s was an pivotal time in the history of this country and it effected everyone in one way or another and how it impacted one family in Bed-Sty Brooklyn is all detailed in P.S. Be Eleven.  Surely did!

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL