Once again I'd run out of library books. So I had to dip into my emergency stash of random yard sale and thrift sale books. A few pages into Karyn Parsons' How High the Moon I realized I'd acquired a real gem. It's one of the most beautifully crafted juvenile historical fiction narratives I've ever had the pleasure of reading.
Parsons' mother grew up Black in the 1940s and 1950s in the Jim Crow South. Yet she claimed to have had a happy childhood.
"How could that be? I wondered. Rather than just reading about a dangerous world, she had actually lived in it, been surrounded by it at a particularly dangerous time for black folks. Black people were routinely discriminated against and systemically excluded from white society. They had few rights and could even be murdered since there was little recourse for crimes and injustices against black people."
How High the Moon and its characters were born out of Parsons' desire to reconcile these seemingly irreconcilable truths--that kids could experience happy childhoods in such traumatic times. To this end she incorporated both real and fictional characters.
George Stinney Jr. and his family were real. In 1944 George, then only fourteen years old, was falsely accused of murdering two white girls, tried, and executed.
Ella, Myrna, and Henry, Parsons' alternating narrators, are fictional characters living with their grandparents. Ella longs to be with her mother, who is trying to establish herself as a jazz singer in Boston, rather than in rural South Carolina. She also wants to know who her father is. He most definitely is not in the picture. Perhaps if she goes to live with her mother she can finally know who he is.
And she finally gets the longed for invitation. But life with her mother is nothing like she'd expected. Just four months later she's sent back to South Carolina...
...Arriving as George is arrested and imprisoned. The children are frantic with worry about their friend and in danger from whites angered by the death of the girls and literally out for blood.
What I really love about the book is its ability through the plot and characters to embody the reality that Parsons was striving to conceptualize.
"But to have a "happy" childhood? I needed to see how you could live through those times. How communities and family could make you feel loved and important and like you had a place in the world."
Although How High the Moon is historical fiction, unfortunately there are so many kids today who must find their childhood happiness in very perilous times. One group that especially comes to mind is the children of undocumented immigrants in America today. Can you imagine what it's like to live with the knowing that any day your beloved parents can be separated from you and deported or killed by ICE agents?
On a purrrsonal note, Monday was a very special day in Black Bear Nation. Maine Hello is a beloved tradition. First year students and their parents arrive to find well organized volunteers eager to lug their belongings to their rooms. I have a special role--the parent whisperer. Having three children of my own start college I can empathize with the moms and dads. I talk to them and reassure any who are anxious. They really appreciate it. I also have fun chatting with the other volunteers and our wonderful new Black Bears. Classes start next Monday.
A great big shout out goes out to all who participated in Maine Hello with best wishes for an amazing fall semester.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
