From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 10:29:23 -0600

Throughout the October discussion of Community in books for children and young adults I've continued to think about the novel "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye (already mentioned earlier this month).

I've remembered almost all of the books by Vera B. Williams, whose works were discussed in September. Her books "Music, Music for Everyone" and "Scooter" most certainly expand the theme of Community.

I've also been thinking about the novels written by Frances Temple.

Perhaps "Tonight, by Sea" offers the best example of this enormously gifted writer's unique narratives exploring the theme of Community. Here's what was written in
"CCBC Choices 1995" about the contemporary novel "Tonight, by Sea" (A Richard Jackson Book / Orchard, 1995; pbk. Harper 1997): "Darkness approaches as Paulie runs to borrow a live coal from a neighbor in Belle Fleuve on a Haitian beach. After the girl fans a flame from the ember placed on seaweed, her Grann Adeline will cook a small fish for supper. Paulie's uncle, the village coffin-maker, has begun to build a boat. Uncle will craft the vessel by cunning, construct it with used boards and nails, caulk it using pig hair with burlap, and grace it with a worship pole. Until now, Uncle, Grann, and their community have struggled to survive under the slavery of constant hunger, the shadow of a teacher's disappearance, the gradual erosion of their freedoms and governance through terror. Paulie's parents are already 'across the water' in Miami. An American journalist wants their story to reach the outside world, but his video camera holds as much danger for them as a gun. By the time Paulie and those surviving the voyage reach another shore, readers will be familiar with a folktale about hope. Like Paulie, they will find out about the Amistad, another boat dedicated to life. They will realize that one can be killed or changed by "habits of truth." Temple's fine prose, deft dialogue and compassionate heart fill a terrific story that takes readers behind the faces in the evening news, straight to the people whose lives hang in the balance."

What a powerful book!

I'm also thinking about Frances Temple's linked novels set in the late 13th and early 14th centuries: "Ramsay Scallop"(A Richard Jackson Book / Orchard, 1994; pbk. Harper, 1995 and "The Beduins' Gazelle" (A Richard Jackson Book / Orchard, 1996; pbk. Harper, 1998). Here's what was written about "The Beduins' Gazelle" in "CCBC Choices 1996": "Cousins Halima and Atiyah are close companions who share a deep love and affinity for the desert where they live with the Beni Khalid, their Beduin tribe. Under pressure from their scholar uncle, Atiyah leaves the 'great sand sea' to study in the city of Fez. His loneliness among many in the crowded city is matched by Halima's isolation when she is separated from the Beni Khalid during a violent sand storm and is taken in by an enemy tribe. Readers of Temple's "The Ramsay Scallop" will recognize Etienne, the young man with whom Atiyah eventually forms a friendship with in Fez. Frances Temple's swift-paced story is set in the year 680 of the Muslim calendar [1302 by the Christian calendar]; it has a powerful sense of another place and time and a rich appreciation its characters' cultures. The novel is a small, tightly woven tapestry of life almost 700 years ago in the desert of the north Africa. At its center is a story of love and loyalty to place that is timeless."

Talk about the theme of Community! It's everywhere in the searing "Tonight, by Sea" and action-packed "The Beduins' Gazelle."

I hope those novels will not be overlooked for this and many other reasons, too, just as I hope each of the other fine, fast-paced stories written by the late Frances Temple will live on indefinitely for each generation of readers. They include "Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti" (A Richard Jackson Book / Orchard, 1992; pbk. Harper, 1997) and "Grab Hands and Run" (A Richard Jackson Book / Orchard, 1993; pbk. Harper, 1995). Even though Frances Temple isn't here in person to make author appearances or otherwise be brought to the attention of everyone who would want to know about her superb books, her remarkable vision and voice endure in superior novels about people in communities typically invisible in books for young readers.

Peace, Ginny gmkruse at education.wisc.edu Director Emeritus, Cooperative Children's Book Center, University of Wisconsin - Madison





Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 30 Oct 2003 10:29:23 AM CST