YA historical fiction that treads the line between white savior narrative and profound meditation on racism.
A white teenager grapples with racism in Baldwin’s YA historical novel.
Katie, a 15-year-old white girl living on a rural tobacco farm in North Carolina in 1950, dreams of a life beyond her family’s land. Her mother comes from a long line of farmers; her father, born into a wealthy Charlotte family, gave up his own gilded future to support them. When the KKK parades into town with support from much of the white working-class community—including Katie’s grandparents—she begins asking questions. Her father has always believed in equality (“Other stores in town won’t serve colored folk. Somehow, Daddy persuaded Mr. Smith that it was the right thing to do”), and Katie follows suit. Outraged by the rising hatred, she brings her observations to Horace Carter, the town’s progressive newspaper editor (and a real historical figure), who publishes them. The experience propels Katie toward journalism, and her parents agree to send her to live with her paternal grandparents in Charlotte to receive a better education. There, Katie faces new class expectations and the deep-seated racism in elite white society. She bonds with Lillian, the granddaughter of her grandmother’s Black maid. As their friendship deepens, a family secret comes to light. Katie’s decision to write about the revelation cements her determination to stay in Charlotte and become a journalist. Katie’s story closely hews to the “white savior” narrative, focusing on a white character’s journey toward allyship. However, the novel also makes space for Black characters to speak. Additionally, the narrative’s intersectionality regarding race, class, and gender complicates the trope, posing a question too few white-centric historical novels ask: What does it mean to benefit from systems you also want to critique? Despite its flaws, the novel is a worthwhile read.
YA historical fiction that treads the line between white savior narrative and profound meditation on racism.Pub Date: April 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781957656854
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Monarch Educational Services, L.L.C.
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.
In this YA graphic novel, an alienated Métis girl learns about her people’s Canadian history.
Métis teenager Echo Desjardins finds herself living in a home away from her mother, attending a new school, and feeling completely lonely as a result. She daydreams in class and wanders the halls listening to a playlist of her mother’s old CDs. At home, she shuts herself up in her room. But when her history teacher begins to lecture about the Pemmican Wars of early 1800s Saskatchewan, Echo finds herself swept back to that time. She sees the Métis people following the bison with their mobile hunting camp, turning the animals’ meat into pemmican, which they sell to the Northwest Company in order to buy supplies for the winter. Echo meets a young girl named Marie, who introduces Echo to the rhythms of Métis life. She finally understands what her Métis heritage actually means. But the joys are short-lived, as conflicts between the Métis and their rivals in the Hudson Bay Company come to a bloody head. The tragic history of her people will help explain the difficulties of the Métis in Echo’s own time, including those of her mother and the teen herself. Accompanied by dazzling art by Henderson (A Blanket of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) and colorist Yaciuk (Fire Starters, 2016, etc.), this tale is a brilliant bit of time travel. Readers are swept back to 19th-century Saskatchewan as fully as Echo herself. Vermette’s (The Break, 2017, etc.) dialogue is sparse, offering a mostly visual, deeply contemplative juxtaposition of the present and the past. Echo’s eventual encounter with her mother (whose fate has been kept from readers up to that point) offers a powerful moment of connection that is both unexpected and affecting. “Are you…proud to be Métis?” Echo asks her, forcing her mother to admit, sheepishly: “I don’t really know much about it.” With this series opener, the author provides a bit more insight into what that means.
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55379-678-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage.
Adrian, the youngest of the Montague siblings, sails into tumultuous waters in search of answers about himself, the sudden death of his mother, and her mysterious, cracked spyglass.
On the summer solstice less than a year ago, Caroline Montague fell off a cliff in Aberdeen into the sea. When the Scottish hostel where she was staying sends a box of her left-behind belongings to London, Adrian—an anxious, White nobleman on the cusp of joining Parliament—discovers one of his mother’s most treasured possessions, an antique spyglass. She acquired it when she was the sole survivor of a shipwreck many years earlier. His mother always carried that spyglass with her, but on the day of her death, she had left it behind in her room. Although he never knew its full significance, Adrian is haunted by new questions and is certain the spyglass will lead him to the truth. Once again, Lee crafts an absorbing adventure with dangerous stakes, dynamic character growth, sharp social and political commentary, and a storm of emotion. Inseparable from his external search for answers about his mother, Adrian seeks a solution for himself, an end to his struggle with mental illness—a journey handled with hopeful, gentle honesty that validates the experiences of both good and bad days. Characters from the first two books play significant secondary roles, and the resolution ties up their loose ends. Humorous antics provide a well-measured balance with the heavier themes.
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage. (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-291601-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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