Midnight Without a Moon

Midnight Without a Moon

Melody Gerard
Literature

There is no shortage o MG books about African Americans fight for civil rights. It's a large part of our history, so it makes sense. I'm delighted that every book I've read on the subject treats the story of our country's formative years with dignity. However, I can't think of a book that has crafted characters so beautifully as Linda Williams Jackson in Midnight Without a Moon.

This book was so wonderful that I carried it with me everywhere, including lunch at Sunshine's, one of Houston's best vegetarian restaurants.

This book was so wonderful that I carried it with me everywhere, including lunch at Sunshine's, one of Houston's best vegetarian restaurants.

Rose Lee Carter is 13 years old in 1955 Mississippi. Rose Lee's mother has moved north with her new husband, leaving Rose Lee and her brother to leave with their sharecropping grandparents. Rose Lee longs to join the Great Migration north to escape the ills of the south, her mean cousin, Queen, who is light enough to pass, and her meaner grandmother, Ma Pearl, who believes a dark skinned girl like Rose Lee belongs in the cotton fields and not the classroom.

The two people Rose Lee knows she would miss the most if she leaves is her gentle grandfather, Papa, and her best friend, Hallelujah, the preacher's son and budding activist. Rose Lee is just about sure she wants to leave Mississippi when she learns that a 14 year old boy from Chicago has come up missing.

The author intertwines the fictional story of Rose Lee Carter with the story of Emmett Till in a way that is not only emotional, but also dignified and endearing. This is a novel that will make you feel; a novel you want to ensure makes your students feel. Each character became my family and friend. I cared about them. I was concerned for them.

This book is amazing and the perfect book for cross-genre study and for studying character motivation and development.

If you'd like to learn how to develop a unit around this novel, contact me.

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