James Henry was always one of the bravest kids around, at least that is what his twin sister Hattie used to say. But the day he and his mother went searching for their dog by the lighthouse at night is a day of tragedy, and James Henry stopped being brave. Interested by space, and fascinating by the moon and by Buck Rogers, James Henry can't go to school, so every day he watches his sister leave, and eagerly waits for her to return home so they can play together. Scared by the outside, James Henry rarely ventures out of his house, and every time he does he anxiously looks around, hoping to avoid the Baker boys, the local bullies. With his father in Detroit working hard to help his mother heal in the hospital following the tragedy, James Henry and Hattie live with Gran in segregated North Carolina of 1939.
When Hattie returns home one day with Lottie Jean, a new friend she made at school, James Henry realizes that their uncomplicated lives will never be the same. Lottie tries hard to connect with James Henry, but he wants nothing to do with her. All he wants is to go back to his spaceship and his sister. Hattie knows that things must change, however, for Hattie has been offered the opportunity to go to school in Philadelphia, which would leave James Henry alone at home. Working with Lottie Jean, Hattie eventually convinces James Henry that he must leave his home on the blue moon and return to the lighthouse to confront his fear and the tragedy that took place there when his mother got hurt. Along the way, James Henry learns how to see the world again, and grows out of his shell.
Told in verses, James Henry's story is slow moving at first, but it builds a powerful picture of a boy who is grieving for a life that no longer exists, and who must learn to deal with the world as it is, not as it could be. Inspired by the author's father and his life as an African-American child in North Carolina in the 1930s, this powerful story will stay with the reader long after they put down the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment