Children Of The Sun by Heru Ptah, is an action-packed adventure tale that visits the ancient cultures and civilizations of those that are not always read about in our history books. Two children, empowered by their grandmother, and their neighborhood friend travel back in time to different eras of ancient history to retrieve parts of a supernatural being in order to bring balance back to the Earth. During these travels ancient civilizations are revealed, a great history lesson for kids and all, while the protagonists are on an adventure. There are thirteen pieces, located in different times and places, that have to be found
For Women’s History Month, here’s a title, Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, about a runaway enslaved woman, owned by George Washington’s family. It’s the year 1796. The first president of the United States and his wife, slave owners from Virginia, are living in the country’s capital, Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Ona Judge, owned by the president and his wife, first went with the family in 1789 to the capital, New York, and then on to Philadelphia, when the capital was moved in 1790. There she was exposed to a city with a community of free blacks and organizations that helped enslaved people. She experienced more freedoms in the North than on the Washington plantation in Virginia.
In the spring of 1796, Ona Judge received devastating news – she was to return to the southern state of Virginia to be gifted to Martha Washington’s recently married granddaughter. Judge decided to make a bold move, in May 1796, while the family was having dinner, she walked out of the Washington home in Philadelphia and never returned. The author became aware of Judge while researching another project. Decades after her escape, Judge gave two interviews describing her story that appeared in abolitionist newspapers in the 1840’s.
Searching For Happy by Venus Knight is the author’s debut novel. This would be a great gift for someone or yourself for the holidays. It was simply a wonderful page-turner. Ms. Knight is Brooklyn, NY based and is a childhood friend of my sister. This talented writer has been writing short stories and poems for years, so of course, I had to get a copy and give it a read. It deals with the everyday struggles of a young woman, her mental instability, the causes, her crushing, emotionally and physically paralyzing symptoms and the brave steps she takes to find peace and help herself. And it was great reading a realistic book that takes place in Brooklyn, from an author that knows – Brooklyn!
The novel opens with a prologue called Mr. Charlie. A nice man, a veteran, married, living an ordinary, routine life, witnesses something he decides he has to make right. Mr. Charlie murders his coworker. Ok, so it starts off with a bang. Now as a reader, when I finish reading a prologue, it leaves me wondering about the story that follows, how the event fits into the rest of the plot. Right? So definitely, approaching chapter one, you’ll want to keep reading.
The main character, Happy Williams, a high school teacher, who is not doing well mentally, struggles to get through her daily routine. She lacks the drive to get out of bed in the morning, has panic attacks and self-worth issues. Having an abusive adoptive mother, in addition to being in a relationship with a married man, isn’t a help to Happy’s well-being. Happy knows that she isn’t alright. She knows she could be in a better place mentally. But how can she get there?
She doesn’t know the exact steps to take, but she follows her instincts, step by step. First a road trip to connect with her family, possibly to find answers about her past. And through this journey, things begin to unravel and fall into place for her. Throughout Happy’s trials and experiences, the author through her storytelling delves into what a person may experience with mental illness. This was woven into the story with humor and thoughtfulness. While reading, you are literally laughing out loud at some points and tearing up at others.
And oh, the prologue. It has the novel kicking off with a great exciting start and we know it is linked to the story in some way – but how? It begins to unfold with matching names, family history and revealed secrets. So, while you are enjoying and being moved by Happy’s journey, you have to pay attention as the answers unfold – I enjoyed that and it was well done. It all comes together, giving the reader closure. I’m not giving details on purpose, because I don’t want to spoil the read for you!
This book was just wonderfully written. It was funny, moving, relatable, and a page-turner. It’s not just the story that’s good – it’s just a nice literary ride! The language, the poetry – brilliantly done! Searching For Happy is a great debut from this author! Venus Knight definitely should write many more novels – can’t wait to read her next one!! Congratulations Venus!
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed, is part history and memoir by an insider, an African American’s prospective on Texas by a Texan. The author, Annette Gordon-Reed, is a proud Texan, because her family’s roots are in the state. It’s where her family has been for generations – It has been, and is, their home. But because of her family’s African heritage, she also is aware and mindful of the more layered history of the state of Texas and what was for generations an African American holiday in Texas, Juneteenth.
June 19th, 1865, shortened to Juneteenth, was the day that African Americans, held under the yoke of slavery, were told that they were free. It was two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1865) and two months after the Confederate forces surrendered to the Union forces at Appomattox, Virginia. Major General Gordon Granger of the United States Army, arrived in Galveston Texas and issued General Order No. 3, which stated that all slaves were free with equality of personal and property rights and the relationship between master and slave was now employer and employee (do I have to tell you guys that the part in italics became a problem?)
The author relates the history of Texas and its racism toward people of color and especially those of African descent. Texas was formed by white settlers, who were originally welcomed by Mexican residents of the area (Tejanos) and the government of Mexico who wanted aid and protection against Native Americans. The white Texans, who embraced the enslavement of Africans and refused to end the practice, later fought against their Mexican allies to secede as an independent territory in 1836. This new Texan republic’s constitution welcomed all free white people with their slaves, said that all slaves would continue to be slaves in perpetuity, and excluded all free Africans and Indians from citizenship and privileges. Years later, in 1845, Texas would join the United States as a slave state and later, secede to form the Confederacy.
Put simply by the author, “Texas is a White Man”. They decided who claimed the country as their own and who had the right to be a citizen – they had the power and wrote the state’s constitution after all, solidifying their beliefs, enslaving others for generations. The author points out that General Order No. 3 was based on the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves “in states rebelling against the Union”. So, it only affected states in the Confederacy – ten in all – South and North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia, Arkansas, and Texas. Slavery was still legal in slave states that did not secede – Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Delaware! Slavery was not abolished in all states until the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified by the necessary number of states (be aware, not all states ratified this amendment originally). And may I point out, even this amendment had an exception – “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the US, or place subject to their jurisdiction”. The 13th Amendment stands as is to this day.
So, given this history, it is no surprise that white Texans resisted freeing their slaves or treating the African with any type of respect or equality. They believed that the African was inferior, and being enslaved to the superior race was a natural condition. The free labor of Blacks was intertwined with the success of the white economy of Texas. The author gives a history of the violence and discrimination of Black people and her family’s in the state of Texas throughout the years and after slavery as common practice, and how the holiday of Juneteenth was celebrated among Black Texans for generations.
This book gives an informative, interesting, personal family account of the history of Juneteenth in Texas and Texas itself. There is definitely more than one version of history, depending on who is telling it. This book is filled with personal, family, and local narratives from the author that gives a truly valuable, interesting inside view of history. On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed is really an excellent read!
Ok, it’s Black History Month and its theme is Resistance. Black Resistance, how Black Americans have endured and fought historical oppression in all forms. So here are three titles I’ve picked for this month. Two titles cover events and histories that are mostly unknown and the third is commentary and history, offering solutions to oppressions blacks face. The three span the years from Reconstruction, to the 1920’s to present day. I hope they pique your interest and you decide to get copies and read them.
Halloween month – graveyards, the dead, the unexplained. The title When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, takes place on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, the locations and places within the novel are fiction, however. The author is from Trinidad and Tobago – it’s her first novel. I was looking forward to reading this one, since my family is from Trinidad.
This mystical novel opens as an elder, Catherine, tells her granddaughter, Yejide, how the forest changed during a war with animals and man, with parrots changing to the Corbeaux – flesh-eating birds, to balance the living and the dead.
Darwin, a young man from a village in the country, travels to the city of Port Angeles, for the first time to find work at the island’s government office. He is assigned to a cemetery as a gravedigger. This type of work goes against his Rastafarian upbringing of not dealing with the dead, but he desperately needs the work to help his ailing mother, even though she rather he did not leave his village to do this kind of work. She is afraid he will end up like his father, who years ago went to the city to work and, without a word, never returned.
The author alternates chapters between Yejide and Darwin, describing their childhoods, their relationships with their mothers. Both Yejide’s grandmother and mother have passed. Her grandmother, Catherine, passed when she was a child and she was never close to her mother. Her mother seems very angry and resistant to her place in life. It’s her mother, however, who tells Yejide of their relationship to the dead, which is the opposite of Darwin’s beliefs. Her mother tells her that the living must take care of the dead, so they can be at peace and in turn, the dead take care of the living.
After her mother dies, the gift of seeing and communicating with the dead, that has been shared by generations of women in her family, is passed on to Yejide, who like her mother, is resistant to receiving this gift. She can see people’s light or energy; she can see death. As she receives this gift, she travels to a cemetery and sees a young man alone in this cemetery and he sees her.
Darwin struggles with working in the graveyard among so many dead. His first grave digging assignment is difficult, emotionally and spiritually, taking something from his spirit. He feels he is betraying his beliefs. He also thinks he’s seeing things as well that aren’t real, but he’s not sure – a young woman at the gates one evening, a Rasta man walking through the grounds and also fresh graves that his crew did not dig.
Yejide travels to Darwin’s cemetery to make arrangements to bury her mother. Darwin is summoned to escort her to her family’s plot – they recognize each other immediately and feel a connection. He worries about getting involved with her, while having questions about her and also about the mysterious events happening at the cemetery.
Darwin soon finds out about the fresh-looking graves in the cemetery – bodies are delivered to the cemetery at night for his crew to bury and they are also grave robbers. As Darwin is pulled into this scheme, he gets in trouble with his crew of gravediggers, who will have no problem getting rid of a young guy from the country that they believe no one will miss.
Darwin and Yejide find closure and understanding of their family’s pasts as they find a path toward each other. The language of the novel, the storytelling, which was always oral in my family at least, is familiar and refreshing to read in book form. The ending literally choked my up, so, please give When We Were Birds a read. I’m looking forward to see what the author, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, comes up with next! And for the Trini’s reading this post – please give this novel a read and let me know what you think!!
Side comment, I had to publish from my phone today, due to a wifi outage at home. So, couldn’t do all the optics I wanted.
I’ve read several books over the years, beginning in middle school, about young people, that describe their early childhood, circumstances and surroundings, that led them some of them to tragedy or some to success. Here in this entry is one title that I read recently and because I now have this blog, I share with you. I have to say the one common factor in all the books I’ve read was poverty. Poverty deprives a person of opportunity, and what and who is available in your community really matters and could make the difference on how a young life turns out – tragically or successfully.
My nephew suggested I do an entry on the recently released movie, The Harder They Fall, since it did have somewhat of an historical foundation, using names of black people that actually lived. But since this blog is BG’s Reads, I thought I’d read a book on the subject, TheBlack Westby William L. Katz. I’ve always favored the work of historian and author, William L. Katz, who over the years has been a guest on WBAI and WNYC radio talking about his work on blacks of the old West. This is a 2019 new edition to Katz’s The BlackWest, originally published in 1971.
My nephew suggested that I start a section called BG’s Picks for books that I have read in the past and would like to inform readers about. So, for this month of February, I thought it would be a good time to tap a few titles of black interest for readers. These titles I’ve read were quite interesting and worth mentioning for those who like history and reading accounts of real people’s struggles and triumphs. There are three titles below:
