Papa's Markby Gwendolyn Battle-Lavert
Publishers Weekly
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At the start of this affecting story, Simms and his papa ride into their Southern town on their weekly shopping trip. It's a few weeks before election day, when African-Americans will be allowed to vote for the first time. The kind white shopkeeper gives Simms a poster announcing the election and, after the purchases are completed, asks Samuel to put his "mark" on the store pad. "Every Saturday Simms watched Papa put an X on the pad. Simms's gaze fell to the floor," explains the understated narrative. When they return home, the boy offers to show his father how to write his name so he'll "never have to make that X again," but Samuel gently rebuffs the offer. Yet late that night, the sleepless boy arises and spies his father hunched over a piece of paper, producing letters that, in his own words, look "like chicken scratch." Soon the father asks for his son's help, which is willingly given. In a triumphant denouement, Samuel signs his name on voting day and asks Simms to join him in putting the ballot in the box. Battle-Lavert (previously teamed with Bootman for The Music in Derrick's Heart) broadens the historical scope of her story with references to blacks' hesitancy about voting, as they fear trouble from angry whites. Bootman's oil paintings contrast emotion-filled character studies with softly focused backdrops of the rural landscape or with relatively spare interiors. Judicious use of light and shadow underscores the message of hope. Ages 4-8. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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School Library Journal
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Gr 2-5?This story revolves around the descendants of freed slaves struggling to assert their right to vote after the Civil War. Despite being legally enfranchised by the Fifteenth Amendment, many roadblocks still stand in the way of black men like Samuel T. Blow: functional illiteracy, the lingering bigotry of the white men in power, and the spiritual paralysis born of many years spent with no rights at all. But Samuel's young son, Simms, helps his father learn to read and write his own name, which gives the man the courage to lead their community to the polling place on Election Day. Battle-Lavert employs regional colloquialisms and a simple narrative structure to tell her story, and Bootman's dense oil paintings evoke the mood and setting of the period. An epilogue covers the politics and other complications that kept African Americans from voting as freely as whites before 1966. Minor problems arise in the text, however, as when it suggests that Samuel?who has only recently learned to read and write his own name?could manage a written ballot without help. Since the plot focuses on his illiteracy, it seems a bit facile for the text to imply that learning to sign his name was the only educational hurdle for him to clear. Nevertheless, this is a powerful story with a lot to offer to young readers.?Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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