Partly Cloudy by Tanita S. Davis

 

Sixth grade was a pretty stormy year for Madalyn Thomas - her dog Lucy died, her best friend moved away, she found out she was lactose intolerant and, as it things couldn't be worse, her dad was laid off from his job. That meant moving and changing schools and Robinson Howard Middle School was a pretty grim place in which to learn, especially after the shooting that happened there. Now, her mom tells her that "Skies are clearing.... Your dad and I have a plan," which can only mean more changes in Madalyn's life.

Her dad will be working across the country in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her mom, as social worker, works long hours, so the plan is for Madalyn to live with her great uncle Papa Lobo four days a week and come home on the weekend. While this may not be the ideal situation Madalyn would like, the one advantage is that Kingsbridge Junior High is a more promising school that her old school and there's a great library in town.  

It doesn't take long for Madalyn and Papa Lobo to develop a comfortable routine, and except for Jean Duval, Papa Lobo's godson who helps him around the house, things would be pretty good. But Jean, who goes to the same school but in a higher grade, seems to only tolerate Madalyn. She also meets neighbor Mrs. Baylor, a older white woman with a cat and a beautiful garden, but also an on-going-long-running feud with Papa Lobo.

When school begins, Madalyn realizes she isn't just the new kid, she's also the only Black kid in her seventh grade class. First day, first class Madalyn meet Natalie, who seems like a fun, potential friend. It's Natalie who warns her about Carlin and Sydney, the class snobs/mean girls. Sure enough, it doesn't take long for the first microagression when Carlin says to Madalyn "...You're Addy, like that American Girl doll, right?"

Natalie and Madalyn get along well in school, but when Natalie sees Madalyn with Jean, it becomes clear that something is wrong. It turns out that Natalie had an unfortunate bullying experience with a Black boy, and now says her older sister Annica, with whom she lives, demands she not have anything to do by Black boys in general. Madalyn is faced with a dilemma - to continue being friends with Natalie or not - but one thing she is sure of is that she will have to have a tough conversation with Natalie about race. Madalyn spends a lot of time agonizing over when and how to have this difficult conversation. 

When wild fires break out around their California area, Madalyn is worried about her mom, trying to drive from home to be with her but not answering her phone. Then, Natalie calls, home alone and frightened because she can't get her sister on the phone. Papa Lobo insists they pick up Natalie and bring her to his house, leaving a note for Annica with the address, even though Madalyn is still mad at her. A little later, Mrs. Baylor collapses in her garden. She has difficulty breathing and Papa Lobo insists they bring her to his house. 

Partly Cloudy is an interesting novel with a lesson for all readers. It is essentially a slice-of-life story but by putting Madalyn in a basically white school, Davis really highlights the kind of covert and overt prejudice and the regular microaggressions that a person of color experiences on a regular basis. but that a white person seems totally oblivious to. For Natalie, it means seeing people as indivisibles and not stereotypes. For Madalyn, it's the opposite - learning the importance of standing up for herself and not letting other people define who she are based on their expectations or stereotypical ideas. 

Partly Cloudy explores themes of family, friendship, and race through the experience of a seventh grade Black girl living in the bay area in California. It is very much a story of today and one that many readers will relate to. I can't recommend it highly enough.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was gratefully received from Madison Ostrander formerly at Spark Point Studio

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, 

now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle

The ABCs of Black History by Rio Cortez, illustrated by Lauren Semmer

The ABCs of Black History written by Rio Cortez,

illustrated by Lauren Semmer

Workman Publishing, 2020, 64 pages

Black History Month 2021 is coming to an end and I thought I would look at a book that has become one of my favorites and one I have used often with my young readers in the last two months. It is a bold and beautiful book that introduces kids to Black culture, heritage, and history. It is set up like a typical ABC book, but each letter of the alphabet is used to frame and celebrate important dates, events, people, and community structures like the church that are so much a part of the Black experience, with most letters used more than once, but no letter needing to be left out or glossed over. Told in rhyming stanzas, it is a look back at the past and what has been accomplished, a look at the present and what is being done, and a look forward to the future and what more can and needs to be done in the fight for freedom and equality, beginning with A is for anthem.

This is also a book that is meant to empower young readers with pride in who they are (B is for Beautiful - I'm talking to you!/ Your voice, your height, your hair, your hue.); what they can do (R is for rise, to reach for the top,/ relentlessly striving, refusing to stop.); and where they come from (D is for diaspora - pulled from our homes,/ we were carried away in ships on the foam/ to Haiti, Cuba, America, Brazil.) Included in this journey are important and influential roles models, such as scientists like Katherine Johnson,  inventors, politicians like Shirley Chisholm and President Barack Obama, artists, musicians and writers among those celebrated are Toni Morrison. James Brown and, of course, James Brown, as well as places like Harlem where some were able to explore and hone their talent.

Everything included in this work is a unique part of Black history, and yet, the information never overwhelms readers with facts and dates, rather it serves as an invitation to find out more. The illustrations are bright, bold and beautiful, just like the message, digitally done in cut paper collage. There is extensive front and back matter with resources for anyone wanted to explore more, as well as list of Terms and Figures used in throughout the book. So, for example, if your reader doesn't know who Langston is, they can find more detailed information about him there. This is a book that is a wonderful celebration which not only empowers its readers, but it also serves as a call to action for them to add their voice.

I read this with my young readers several times, and while none are African American, they are nevertheless children of color who could relate to so much of what is included in this book. And I think that part of the beauty of it is that it will appeal to all children of color and open their eyes to some of the same ideas about themselves and who they are. 

The ABC's of Black History is a beautifully thought out, well crafted book that every parent, teacher and child should own, read, discuss and use all year round. 

This book is recommended for everyone who cares.

This book was gratefully received from the publisher.

Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee

In the age of #MeToo, as more and more girls and women are speaking out about their personal sexual harassment experiences, author Barbara Dee takes on this issue and shows how easily it can happen and how girls and women are pushed into keeping silent.

For seventh-grader Mila Brennan, all starts with a green fuzzy sweater and the lingering hand of Callum Burley during a birthday hug for her friend Omi, much to the delight of his friends Dante, Tobias, and Leo, a/k/a the basketball boys, and much to Mila's discomfort. When it happens again later that day in band practice where Mila and Callum, both trumpeters, sit next to each other, her discomfort increases and begins to become suspicion.       
The next day, there are smirks from the basketball boys as Leo convinces Mila, who is wearing her fuzzy green sweater again, that it's his birthday and harasses her into giving him a hug. Soon, it's comments, smirks, and more unwanted touching, even when Mila switches to wearing a painted spattered plaid flannel shirt of her mother's instead of the green sweater. But when she tries to tell her friend what's happening, outgoing, flirty Zara, who has a crush on Leo, tells her she's overreacting, so Mila decides to keep things to herself. She doesn't want to bother her mom, either, Mrs. Brennan is divorced, and struggling to make ends meet, plus she works for a boss who keeps her in a constant stressful state, despite working long hours. Then, stress in the house increases when her mother finally quits her job, so Mila really doesn't want to add to that by telling her mother about the harassment at school.

And as luck would have it, Mila's guidance counselor is out on maternity leave. Her friend Max thinks Milas is being bullied by the basketball boys and that she should speak to Mr. McCabe, the vice-principal. He reminds her that when he was bullied the year before, Mila had encouraged him to speak with Mr. McCabe and the bullying stopped.

As Mila's anxiety, discomfort, and isolation grows, she begins to act out, but her actions only get her in trouble and the real problem continues to go noticed by any of the adults at school. But when her mother says that they have two weeks of free classes at the newly opens E Motions, a local gym, Mila determines that if friends don't understand what happening to her, she will "need to take care of myself. By myself." (pg 139) and signs on for karate classes. There, she begins to feel confident and empowered in the karate class, even making a new friend from band who understands what's happening at school. But it all comes tumbling down when Callum makes a cruel comment just before they go on stage for the school's Fall Concert. Desperate, Mila makes one last cry for help - on stage with her trumpet.

Maybe He Just Likes You is a well-written but difficult book to read, filled with exactly the kind of real confusion and honest emotions you would expect of a seventh grader who isn't sure she's the victim of sexual harassment or the subject of a cruel prank. Either way, it's tricky terrain for Mila.

In this well-crafted novel, Dee has captured all the ways in which harassment not only starts, but is allowed to continue. She deftly shows how it begins with Mila's own self-doubt about the boys' motives, reinforced by her friends doubt about it. Maybe Callum just likes you, they tell her, causing Mila to retreat into silence. But while her voice was silenced, her actions weren't.

Why, I asked myself, didn't her mother question Mila's sudden decision to wear her baggy old flannel shirt with paint splotches it, even after a big deal was made about it? An why didn't Ms. Fender, the music teacher, not pull Mila aside and try to talk to her the first time she acted out instead of punishing her? Dee show that there are so many missed opportunities to stop what is happening. But they just didn't notice it and that's what happens, isn't it?

My heart really went out to Mila and I wonder how many middle grade girls are in the same situation. Hopefully, Maybe He Just Likes You will give give them courage to speak out. It can be very empowering, as Mila discovers.

Maybe He Just Likes You will be available October 1, 2019

 This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an EARC received from Media Masters Publicity

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle.