Juba! A Novel- A Review and ARC Giveaway

Congratulations to Linda Andersen and Monica M., a new Twitter follower, who each won a copy of OF BETTER BLOOD on last week's blog.

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Writing historical fiction is hard. You read shelves full of books, study documents, interview experts, ponder maps, photographs, and data. You work really hard to insert authentic details (what color dress would she have worn to the dance? What did he eat for lunch? What bus would she have taken to work?) and then plunge forward to create as authentic a character as possible.

But when you're writing a story about a young man who lived over a hundred and fifty years ago to whom you want to pay tribute, but yet there is little "real" data, your task becomes even more difficult. You have a few bones to build your story around-- perhaps a death certificate and a few photographs. If you're lucky, maybe you'll find a few newspaper articles you can dig up to authenticate your story.

Such was Walter Dean Myers challenge when he wrote Juba! (Harper Collins, 2015)

This book for middle grade or young adult readers, is based on the true story of a talented young black dancer considered to be the inventor of tap dancing. While performing in New York City, he was noticed by Charles Dickens who wrote about him in American Notes:

"Single shuffle, double shuffle, cut and cross-cut; snapping his fingers, rolling his eyes, turning in his knees, presenting the backs of his legs in front, spinning about on his toes and heels like nothing but the man's fingers on the tambourine; dancing with two left legs, two right legs, two wooden legs, two wire legs, two spring legs - all sorts of legs and no legs - what is this to him?"  "And in what walk of life, or dance of life, does man ever get such stimulating applause as thunders about him, when, having danced his partner off her feet, and himself too, he finishes by leaping gloriously on the bar-counter, and calling for something to drink, with the chuckle of a million of counterfeit Jim Crows, in one inimitable sound!"

Engraving from American Notes by Charles Dickens (1842) showing 

Master Juba being observed by Dickens and an associate.

www.masterjuba.com

Walter Dean Myers, in his last book before his death, told the story of William Henry Lane (Juba's real name) using just a few resources: Dickens' writings, a smattering of newspaper articles and images, and Juba's death certificate. Here are a few of my favorite quotes.

Initially Juba seeks dance instruction from an Irish teacher named Margaret. (This particular passage reminded me of a comment my current dance partner--my husband's 85-year-old uncle--made. "When you see old people dancing, they're imagining themselves as teenagers.")

"If you weren't so thickheaded, you'd know they [the audience] were watching you because they want to enjoy themselves, not marvel at you. You ever go to an Irish dance and see the young people swinging themselves around and kicking up their heels and the old people watching them? The old people are thinking back on a time when they were young and they could do the same thing the young people are doing. But you have to give them something they can do, if only on the floor between their ears, if you get my drift." (p. 44)

The reader hears Juba's despondency and realism in the following line. He has just auditioned as a dancer and thinks he won't get the job. 

"My dancing didn't mean a thing. The only thing they see in a black man is a clown or a slave. "(p. 55)

www.masterjuba.com

Juba finally gets a few gigs as a dancer but when Mr. Charles Dickens comes to New York and watches him, he dances as he never has before. This quote begins with Mr. Dickens speaking.

"...There's a freedom about the way you move that makes me wish I could dance. Have you ever had a difficult time in your life?" 

"At times, everything seems hard," I said. "I'm not sure what tomorrow is going to be like. I'm just hoping it's something good." 

"I imagined--and I know I'm talking too much--that you must have had some difficult times along the way. I think that's the mystery of greatness and of people who achieve wonderful things," Mr. Dickens said. "That somewhere in their lives they have felt the cold winds of despair, but have kept their hearts warm themselves." (p. 104)

In order to make a small living Juba is forced to make compromises.

Jack [his "fair minded" white landlord] knew how black people were treated in New York. We were second-class people every day and third-class performers when we tried to exercise our talents outside of the black community. What he did was to needle me so I wouldn't give up all together, and in a way, I appreciated it. In a way, I didn't, though, because sometimes he made me feel that when I accepted a job with a minstrel band or put on blackface I was betraying my people. To me, putting on blackface was the strangest thing in the world. I was born black, and yet the promoters wanted me to dress up like some kind of strange image of a black person that really wasn't a true Negro. It was as if a lot of white people had a place in their heads for black people and you had to fit in that place in a certain manner or they didn't want you. They wanted black performers to talk bad, say stupid things, and be like pets. Jack said a lot of white people were afraid of real black people. (pp. 123-4)

Even after Juba was well received by Londoners who had read accounts of him by Charles Dickens, he still encounters this same prejudice from fellow performers.  

Huff [another performer] walked across the room and put his nose an inch from Gil's. "What I see with my own two eyes is that I'm not going to make no kind of steady living working for a nigger. And that's what I'm doing over here, working behind Boz's Juba or whatever it is he's calling himself. In America you make a living working with white men, and for white men. And I aim to go back to America, back to Mableton, Georgia and make a living. And if I want any coloreds around me, I'll buy a few!" (p. 157)

Possibly depicting Juba performing in England
www.masterjuba.com

 Walter Dean Myers did an excellent job of bringing this forgotten, yet important, performer to life. Juba's life was full of sorrow, yet it also held love and accomplishment. I hope whoever wins my gently read ARC, will pass it along to a young person who can be encouraged by an inspirational story of a man who, despite many obstacles, followed his dreams.

To enter this giveaway, please leave me a comment by noon on Thursday, February 25. If you are new to my blog, please leave your contact information also. For extra chances to win this ARC, post on Facebook or Twitter and let me know what you have done.  

Where are the People of Color in Children's Literature? An Answer from Vanessa Newton

As a member of SCBWI, I follow topics of interest through LinkedIn. Recently the question, "Where are the People of Color in Children's Literature?" generated many comments. When I read a personal response from a Charlotte, NC illustrator, Vanessa Bradley-Newton, I asked her permission to post it here. Vanessa is also our featured illustrator in this issue of Talking Story. I am a child of the 60's. I remember a time when I didn't see myself in children's book. I loved Golden Books and Humpty Dumpty magazines, but they never got around to putting people of color into their stories. We were not a thought really. My mom and dad would purchase these books for my sister and I and we never saw ourselves through the pages, even though we could identify with the characters in our own way. The Little Golden Book about prayers was very important to my sister and I. My mom and Dad used it to teach us our prayers and that was the thing that we identified with. As a child, when I saw a person or person of color in pictures book, they were often crudely depicted. They weren't drawn beautifully as in other picture books.  One day when I was about five, a teacher named Mrs. Russell, put me on her lap and read a book that set my very soul and heart aflame with passion. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jacks Keats was a life changing book for me.   Since I am dyslexic, the words at the time didn't make sense  but the pictures spoke volumes!!! There was this deliciously yummy chocolate boy that looked like me. He was beautiful and exciting. His Mama looked like my Mommy and this Daddy had a mustache just like my Daddy. Even the wall paper in his house looked like mine. Peter and I were brother and sister in my world or head. It was the very first time that a black character would be at center stage in a book. It was drawn so beautifully that now at 51, the illustrations still make me cry and smile and feel proud.  While visiting the Jewish Museum in New York one year, I got to see the Ezra Jacks Keats show. It was wonderful!! They displayed a letter written by an editor to Mr Keats. The editor wanted to know why Ezra made Peter black. "Are you trying to make a statement?" she asked.  Mr Keats replied, "I am not trying to make a statement. I'm just saying that Peter should have been there all along." It moved me to tears again.  There are many wonderful writers and illustrators of color just waiting for an opportunity to illustrate the multicultural world around us. I just illustrated a book with the fabulous Debbie Levy called, We Shall Overcome with Disney-Hyperion Books.  We put a little black girl on the cover of the book. A week or two later, l read an article that stated, "Black children on the cover of children's book don't sell." Sometimes I ask myself, "Are we still there?" and answer, "Yes we are." I'm not talking about just being inclusive, but we need to be intentional when creating books. There is a great need for diversity. Children live in a real world with many different cultures all around them and we can't shelter them from this truth. It helps children with their self-esteem when they can identify with people that look like them or the people in their communities. There are more blended families and the need is ever before us as writers and illustrators to meet the need [of representation] or not.  I come from a very, very blended family. I am Gullah Geechee and we come from Low Country, South Carolina. My grandfather was Chinese and Gullah and my dad had Gullah and Jewish roots.   Just recently I was at a conference and I was going upstair to my room when I passed the cutest little golden blonde-haired and blue-eyed 4-year-old holding the hand of her dad. I had on a full face of makeup and conference attire as well. As I strolled by, I spoke to them and said, "Hello there!" (Because Ms.V can't pass up a chance to have a chat with a 4-year-old!) The little girl waved at me and then asked her dad, "Was that a black person, Daddy?" Just being real, I said to myself, " Y'all need to get baby girl out a little bit more!" But then it made me even more conscious that not only children of color need to see themselves, other cultures need to be exposed to them as well!   It disappoints me greatly when people say that there is no need for diversity in children's publishing, but it also means that we STILL have a long ways to go and lots of work to be done. I have had editors ask me to lighten the characters as well as remove some. But at the same time, it is refreshing and reassuring to see that many writers and illustrators are seeing the need and are filling in some of this great gap in children's publishing. It is important for all children to be represented in books.  An Illustrator and writer of children's books as well as a collector of them, I can visibly see the gap. It's getting better, but we still have a ways to go.

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Congratulations to Vanessa and Debbie Levy for winning the 2014 Honor Award given by the Jane Addams Peace Association. 

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Interested in reading more? Here is an excellent article by author Walter Dean Myers on this topic.

Riot: Multi-Racial Read #6

This powerful novel written in screenplay format, takes place during four hot days in July, 1863. Walter Dean Myers layers conflict after conflict into this little known story about the riot between African Americans and Irish immigrants in New York City. 


On the national level, the Civil War rages and Abraham Lincoln has just instituted the first draft law. Wealthy businessmen can pay $300.00 to any man willing to take their place on the battlefield. Tensions are high as Irish immigrants compete with blacks for jobs. 


Into this hot stew of passions and emotions, Myers places Claire, a 15-year-old light-skinned daughter of a black man and an Irish woman. Her struggles for racial identity and adulthood scaffold this dramatic narrative.


Here are some of the poignant questions which she asks during these tumultuous days. During the riots she asks, "If it's my skin that makes me unsafe, can I take it off and put it in the drawer somewhere until the streets are safe again?...Can I change [my skin] like I change my dress or my apron?"


To her mother she asks, "Where is this safety you're talking about? And if I'm black and you're white, where is this family you're talking about?"


As she muses about her own experiences during the riot she says, "I just wanted to be a human being...without a race or a place in life. What is so wrong with that?" And, "Our skin made us targets, not our hearts."


She realizes she is growing up when she says, "I'm finding a black woman where there was only a girl before."


She thinks about the future, after the war, and asks, "Will we be trapped in our skins? Forever held to being different because we are not white?"


Towards the end she concludes hopefully, "If we can't go back, we should try even harder to go forward."

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I listened to the audio book which was enhanced by sound effects of the street scenes and period music, including a moving African American spiritual. The interview with Myers at the end was also insightful. I would recommend Riot for girls and boys of ages 12 and up; it will enhance American history classes as well as discussions on prejudice, immigration, economics, and race relations.