Sometimes you have a week in which every day yanks you in a different direction and leaves you wondering just who is in charge. Red is headed into just that kind of heavy weather.
Red used to have a Dad. Red used to have a best friend named Thomas. Red used to go to school every day and never miss. Red' mom used to cook dinner every night. But these days the world has turned upside down. Red's daddy up and died. Red's best friend has some really good reasons for not being Red's friend for another minute. Red's mother barely knows it's time to eat dinner and she sure as heck isn't making those yummy meals anymore.
But the worst thing has just found its way to Red's door. His mother is going to sell their house and move the entire family away from everything that is familiar and comforting. Now Red is determined that the house will never be moved and that he and his family will stay in the house. The best of intentions can lead you down a path you don't expect to choose. The worst of intentions can do the same.
Sometimes it's hard to see beyond the niceties of the best of intentions and the darkness of abuse and the worst of intentions. Red will find himself caught in both. Prejudice and discrimination never lead to a place of light.
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Fathers and sons make history together. Boys who grow up together as best friends make history together. Sometimes life comes along and cuts that history short.
Twelve year old Red Porter has grown up in the small town of Stony Gap, Virginia, following his father's every move and sharing his spare time with his best friend Thomas. Red can listen to the sound of an automobile engine and tell you exactly what make and model you are hearing before his eyes catch the first glimpse. His father can fix anything and stands well-respected in the town. His mom cooks and cleans and takes care of Red's seven-year-old brother, nicknamed Bamm-Bamm for all of his formidable banging.
But this well-ordered and respectable family has just been turned upside down. It was Red who found his father lying in his shop with a life ending heart attack. Now their home is filled with sorrow and anger and loss. Red's mother can't take the pain of losing her soulmate any more and she's decided to sell the house and move to Ohio to live with family.
Red can't let his father go. He can't move away from everything he loved and valued. It's in the walls of the shop and the home that his father still lingers. When his mother allows the For Sale sign to go up in the front yard, Red turns desperate.
This is the story of generations of families who have lived side by side and shared struggle. It's also the story of deceit and discrimination. Red finds himself caught in a gray world when he decides to destroy his mother's chances of selling the house. Red finds himself caught in the horror of betraying himself and his best friend. Born of his best intentions and his deep grief, he has created a new space where he stands and that space is shameful and hateful and represents everything he and his father fought against. So Red sets out to put the world right and overcome a deep injustice from decades past.
Seems civil rights come down to the level of two men or two boys and the values they choose to stand for, fight for and live by. It's easy to turn the pages of a book about America in the 1960s and it's something else again to turn the pages of generations of family beliefs and family practices.
History. Say the word and plenty of kids check out into somewhere in the ozone layer. Civil rights. Say the words and plenty of kids think about something the U.S. struggled with in the 60s and 70s. But where are we now? What history have we lived and what history do we have the chance to make with our own lives and our own choices? What if you bring history down to the level of one family whose choices may have touched the lives of other families and created a chapter of history in your own community?
So, here is the chance to ask yourself how your family plays into the game of discrimination. What choices did your people make to help themselves get ahead in life? Who did they turn against? Who did they ignore? Who did they disregard? What can you do to right the wrongs and what choices are you making now that tear holes in the web that connects us?
Thought provoking, courageous and above all perfectly timed, here is a coming of age story that asks us all to examine our lives a bit deeper and won't let us off the hook of pretending that discrimination and prejudice are old relatives, long gone, and no longer casting their shadows into our choices and our local communities.
It's a must have for every library.
Ages 10 and up 353 pages 978-0545464406
Recommended by: Barb
