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carabee's review
4.0
In MIDNIGHT WITHOUT A MOON, Linda William Jackson creates a character both inspiring and relatable. Rosa Lee Carter shows readers Mississippi in 1955 with humor and stern honesty. In one scene she tells us "that sun beat down on me like I owed it money from six years back." But only a few pages later, Rosa is shaken to her core by the death of a friend, and doesn't mince words while describing the screams and tears that she couldn't hold back, the violence that made her sick to her stomach. MIDNIGHT WITHOUT A MOON is a perfect elucidation of the early days of the civil rights movement, and will give readers a more complete understanding of the tragic death of Emmett Till and the society which would allow such a crime to not only occur but to go unpunished. As many reviewers have said this book is a better fit for older middle grade readers, if reading alone, or for younger middle grade readers with substantial adult support. Pairing MIDNIGHT WITHOUT A MOON with a book about the Great Migration would also be beneficial so that readers might see what sort of life Rosa Lee Carter imagines for herself in the North, against the reality. It was a privilege to read this book and a huge thanks to Netgalley and HMH for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my thoughts.
brandypainter's review
5.0
Originally posted here at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.
It's always exciting when the very first book you read in the New Year is an instant favorite magnificent work you will be pushing at everyone you see for the foreseeable future. Midnight Without a Moon, the debut novel by Linda Williams Jackson, is such a book for me. Prepare to hear about this book for months to come.
It is summer of 1955 in Mississippi and Rosa Lee Carter lives with her grandparents, brother, and cousin on a wealthy white man's cotton plantation. Her best friend is the preacher's son. Her life's goal is to finish school and find a way out of Mississippi. As the summer heat rises, Rose spends her time working in the cotton fields and quietly trying to learn all she can about the NAACP. But her grandmother insists they are group who are just going to cause trouble for good people. When a neighbor is shot after registering to vote and tensions continue to rise across the state and Rose's small community, she must decide what she believes, how much she is willing to risk to stand up for that, and whether it is better to stand and fight or find a way out.
Rose's voice and character are absolute perfection. It works well for the time period while also being accessible and relatable for today's readers. Her life revolves around her closest relationships and is not entirely her own. She is a smart girl who desperately wants to finish school and become more, but her grandparents decide whether or not she goes to school. She works hard in the cotton fields and helping her grandmother while her older cousin gets to lounge around a good amount of the time. Relationship and family dynamics are the core of this book. Rose's mother had her and her brother young and out of wedlock. She married someone later and left her children with her parents. This is also the case for Rose's cousin. It makes for fraught family dynamics and the relationships are complicated by what her grandparents believe and the new ideas of beating down Jim Crow that are filtering in from so many of their relatives moving north and returning for visits. I can not even begin to explain in a short review how intricately Jackson pulls all of these together, layers them, and shows their complex importance simply by breathing life into the characters and making them real. I loved and felt so much for Rose, found her relationship with Hallelujah (her best friend) endearing, and adored her grandfather. Her grandmother filled me with rage, while at the same time that I found myself reluctantly understanding and empathizing with her. The complexities of all these people and their relationships make the story rich. It's a true picture of family and community that is not always comfortable, but shows the ties that bind us even when we don't necessarily like a person.
This story of Rose's self realization and her family's facing new challenges and questions is set against the summer of Mississippi in 1955 and the murder of Emmet Till and the trial of his murderers. This is kept in the distance though, and his is not the first murder discussed in the book. The book opens with the shooting of a man Rose knows because he registers to vote. The historical context of the book is important and the way the story is told even more so. This is a story about a black family living in a black community. It in no way shies away from or sugar coats what life was like in this time or place. In many aspects Rose's family life looks the same way it would have a hundred years before under slavery. Jackson does not attempt to make the reader comfortable with it in any way. The language she uses and the way people talk may make many squirm, but it makes the book that much richer and authentic. I think it is important to note that this book coming out this year, as the Voting Rights Act is being gutted, is a much needed reminder of exactly what things were like, why we need to keep fighting, and for a significant portion of the population the 1950s were Hell on earth and not a time we want to revisit.
The sentence level writing in the book is excellent as well. Jackson has a true way with words. She can write beautiful poetic imagery and also say much with one simple sentence. Few authors are able to find a balance between the two and wield them well together. Jackson can. The book is also infused with a sly, tongue-in-cheek humor that I love. This comes from Rose herself, who is quite a smart mouth in her own head even if she doesn't let it out much, and from others as well. There are some truly great pithy one liners.
This is pretty much a perfect book in every way: character, theme, setting, plot. It's being marketed as MG and I think it is a must have for every middle school library and classroom. I believe it will also have crossover YA appeal and that both the 2018 Newbery and Printz committees better be discussing it.
I read an ARC provided by the publisher, HMH Books for Young Readers, via Edelweiss. Midnight Without a Moon is on sale now, and you should buy it immediately.
It's always exciting when the very first book you read in the New Year is an instant favorite magnificent work you will be pushing at everyone you see for the foreseeable future. Midnight Without a Moon, the debut novel by Linda Williams Jackson, is such a book for me. Prepare to hear about this book for months to come.
It is summer of 1955 in Mississippi and Rosa Lee Carter lives with her grandparents, brother, and cousin on a wealthy white man's cotton plantation. Her best friend is the preacher's son. Her life's goal is to finish school and find a way out of Mississippi. As the summer heat rises, Rose spends her time working in the cotton fields and quietly trying to learn all she can about the NAACP. But her grandmother insists they are group who are just going to cause trouble for good people. When a neighbor is shot after registering to vote and tensions continue to rise across the state and Rose's small community, she must decide what she believes, how much she is willing to risk to stand up for that, and whether it is better to stand and fight or find a way out.
Rose's voice and character are absolute perfection. It works well for the time period while also being accessible and relatable for today's readers. Her life revolves around her closest relationships and is not entirely her own. She is a smart girl who desperately wants to finish school and become more, but her grandparents decide whether or not she goes to school. She works hard in the cotton fields and helping her grandmother while her older cousin gets to lounge around a good amount of the time. Relationship and family dynamics are the core of this book. Rose's mother had her and her brother young and out of wedlock. She married someone later and left her children with her parents. This is also the case for Rose's cousin. It makes for fraught family dynamics and the relationships are complicated by what her grandparents believe and the new ideas of beating down Jim Crow that are filtering in from so many of their relatives moving north and returning for visits. I can not even begin to explain in a short review how intricately Jackson pulls all of these together, layers them, and shows their complex importance simply by breathing life into the characters and making them real. I loved and felt so much for Rose, found her relationship with Hallelujah (her best friend) endearing, and adored her grandfather. Her grandmother filled me with rage, while at the same time that I found myself reluctantly understanding and empathizing with her. The complexities of all these people and their relationships make the story rich. It's a true picture of family and community that is not always comfortable, but shows the ties that bind us even when we don't necessarily like a person.
This story of Rose's self realization and her family's facing new challenges and questions is set against the summer of Mississippi in 1955 and the murder of Emmet Till and the trial of his murderers. This is kept in the distance though, and his is not the first murder discussed in the book. The book opens with the shooting of a man Rose knows because he registers to vote. The historical context of the book is important and the way the story is told even more so. This is a story about a black family living in a black community. It in no way shies away from or sugar coats what life was like in this time or place. In many aspects Rose's family life looks the same way it would have a hundred years before under slavery. Jackson does not attempt to make the reader comfortable with it in any way. The language she uses and the way people talk may make many squirm, but it makes the book that much richer and authentic. I think it is important to note that this book coming out this year, as the Voting Rights Act is being gutted, is a much needed reminder of exactly what things were like, why we need to keep fighting, and for a significant portion of the population the 1950s were Hell on earth and not a time we want to revisit.
The sentence level writing in the book is excellent as well. Jackson has a true way with words. She can write beautiful poetic imagery and also say much with one simple sentence. Few authors are able to find a balance between the two and wield them well together. Jackson can. The book is also infused with a sly, tongue-in-cheek humor that I love. This comes from Rose herself, who is quite a smart mouth in her own head even if she doesn't let it out much, and from others as well. There are some truly great pithy one liners.
This is pretty much a perfect book in every way: character, theme, setting, plot. It's being marketed as MG and I think it is a must have for every middle school library and classroom. I believe it will also have crossover YA appeal and that both the 2018 Newbery and Printz committees better be discussing it.
I read an ARC provided by the publisher, HMH Books for Young Readers, via Edelweiss. Midnight Without a Moon is on sale now, and you should buy it immediately.
librariandest's review
4.0
A powerful novel that put me in mind of a more sophisticated [b:Stella by Starlight|22546133|Stella by Starlight|Sharon M. Draper|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1420938354s/22546133.jpg|42002485]. There are a lot of things to admire about this story: strong characters, vivid historical setting, and a moving premise. Rose faces a central question: Should I stay or should I go? Why stay in the Mississippi Delta when it's so dangerous for black people? Why stay and fight for your rights when you could get killed? How should she judge her relatives that have left Mississippi to go north? And how should she feel about those who seem to accept their lives as second-class citizens?
I would put this on par with [b:Night on Fire|25407290|Night on Fire|Ronald Kidd|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1432759913s/25407290.jpg|45161761], which was also a great eye-opener on a subject about which much has already been written. This book is not cliche-ridden. It's not about a perfectly heroic kid overcoming inequality. It's a coming-of-age story about a realistically scared and unsure 13-year-old kid discovering how the world works and trying to decide her place in it.
This is a middle grade book for a relatively mature reader. Someone who can understand how colorism (the privileging of light skin over dark) lives alongside racism. Someone who can understand why the n-word is used both casually and dramatically throughout the book. Someone who can understand how different generations of African American families can feel so differently about white terrorism. It is challenging to read some of the dialect. It is challenging to keep some of the characters straight because they are referred to by different names. It would be helpful to go into this book knowing the story of Emmett Till (so they know it's not fictional). Obviously, there's a lot of violence - not just white terrorism but also domestic violence in Rose's family. It would be a great book club book because there is so much fodder for discussion and analysis.
I took a star off for a few clunky didactic parts that took me out of the story. For example, on page 260, Monty rattles off a pretty long quote from the Emmett Till trial. Later he rattles off the origins of the name Rosa. On page 272 Rose says Monty is a "walking, talking Encyclopedia Britannica." In other words, he's conveniently there to inform the reader. But this is a pretty minor quibble.
I will certainly pick up the sequel and I hope there are many great books to come from Linda Williams Jackson.
I would put this on par with [b:Night on Fire|25407290|Night on Fire|Ronald Kidd|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1432759913s/25407290.jpg|45161761], which was also a great eye-opener on a subject about which much has already been written. This book is not cliche-ridden. It's not about a perfectly heroic kid overcoming inequality. It's a coming-of-age story about a realistically scared and unsure 13-year-old kid discovering how the world works and trying to decide her place in it.
This is a middle grade book for a relatively mature reader. Someone who can understand how colorism (the privileging of light skin over dark) lives alongside racism. Someone who can understand why the n-word is used both casually and dramatically throughout the book. Someone who can understand how different generations of African American families can feel so differently about white terrorism. It is challenging to read some of the dialect. It is challenging to keep some of the characters straight because they are referred to by different names. It would be helpful to go into this book knowing the story of Emmett Till (so they know it's not fictional). Obviously, there's a lot of violence - not just white terrorism but also domestic violence in Rose's family. It would be a great book club book because there is so much fodder for discussion and analysis.
I took a star off for a few clunky didactic parts that took me out of the story. For example, on page 260, Monty rattles off a pretty long quote from the Emmett Till trial. Later he rattles off the origins of the name Rosa. On page 272 Rose says Monty is a "walking, talking Encyclopedia Britannica." In other words, he's conveniently there to inform the reader. But this is a pretty minor quibble.
I will certainly pick up the sequel and I hope there are many great books to come from Linda Williams Jackson.
jennchandler's review against another edition
4.0
This was very good. The only reason I’m not giving it five stars is because I’m not sure I would read it again. But it’s definitely worth reading okay least once!
neumanzoo's review
3.0
3.5 stars only because Papa was my favorite character and had more depth to him than the other characters. The storyline is good, and definitely important, but I've read better. The first half was very dull, with the storyline grabbing my attention on the back half (or back third, really). I'll read the sequel just to see how the pieces fit in the puzzle.
jademelody's review
3.0
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
What a random find in the middle grade/young adult section of Half Price Books. I'm glad that the title and spine of the book intrigued me enough that I picked it up and ended up taking it home with me that day.
Summary
Rose Lee Carter, a 13-year-old African-American girl, dreams of life beyond the Mississippi cotton fields during the summer of 1955. Her world is rocked when a 14-year-old African-American boy, Emmett Till, is killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
This is truly a powerful story. It is written about a time in America's history where racism and injustice was a huge part of everyday life, especially in the South. While I am glad that this book reminded me how prominent of an issue injustice was, and still is, it made this book hard to read for 85% of the story. Especially the parts where Ma Pearl refused to believe Aunt Belle and Monty about the way life could be better and that she didn't have to live below Ms. Robinson to have a happy and successful life. It hurts me to realize that while that specific incident is fiction, there are many true stories that are most likely very similar.
This is my first time reading a book where I am not the intended audience (even though anyone should be able to read any book) and I think this book would have been informative to the middle grade "intended" audience, while in my case it just riled me about injustice rather than letting me enjoy the story.
However there were also some things that bothered me about this book besides racial injustice. First was the lack of recognition for Rose from just about anyone besides Hallelujah. It's like she didn't exist to almost anyone and that really bothered me. Second, Ma Pearl. In general as a character, I really really REALLY disliked her. As I previously mentioned, just her negative outlook on life and on all of the people in her life and her general disrespect towards everyone is terrible. She is another reason why I couldn't enjoy this book because I was constantly mad at her and her actions. Third, the ending.
All of my issues might again be that I am not the intended audience for this book and I accept that. However, I still wanted to share my opinions because I still think they are valid to the book as a whole.
Pre-Review
This was book was good but it also hurt my heart. Injustice is terrible and it chills me to the core to know that some people still believe that all people aren't equal; men, women, black, white, transgender, bisexual, gay, anyone. A person is a person. Sorry to get all real but sometimes it's necessary and this book reminded me of how terrible it used to be (this book is set in 1955).
Full Review to come on both Goodreads & my blog, https://jademelody.wixsite.com/melodious
What a random find in the middle grade/young adult section of Half Price Books. I'm glad that the title and spine of the book intrigued me enough that I picked it up and ended up taking it home with me that day.
Summary
Rose Lee Carter, a 13-year-old African-American girl, dreams of life beyond the Mississippi cotton fields during the summer of 1955. Her world is rocked when a 14-year-old African-American boy, Emmett Till, is killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
This is truly a powerful story. It is written about a time in America's history where racism and injustice was a huge part of everyday life, especially in the South. While I am glad that this book reminded me how prominent of an issue injustice was, and still is, it made this book hard to read for 85% of the story. Especially the parts where Ma Pearl refused to believe Aunt Belle and Monty about the way life could be better and that she didn't have to live below Ms. Robinson to have a happy and successful life. It hurts me to realize that while that specific incident is fiction, there are many true stories that are most likely very similar.
This is my first time reading a book where I am not the intended audience (even though anyone should be able to read any book) and I think this book would have been informative to the middle grade "intended" audience, while in my case it just riled me about injustice rather than letting me enjoy the story.
However there were also some things that bothered me about this book besides racial injustice. First was the lack of recognition for Rose from just about anyone besides Hallelujah. It's like she didn't exist to almost anyone and that really bothered me. Second, Ma Pearl. In general as a character, I really really REALLY disliked her. As I previously mentioned, just her negative outlook on life and on all of the people in her life and her general disrespect towards everyone is terrible. She is another reason why I couldn't enjoy this book because I was constantly mad at her and her actions. Third, the ending.
Spoiler
I understand that the whole point of it was to show that you don't have to escape the South, you can fight the injustice, which I 1000% support, however in this case I don't think there was anything wrong with Rose going to live in Saint Louis with Aunt Belle & Monty. Since they are both clearly civil rights activists, Rose still could've been involved in fighting the injustice in a safer environment and taught how to do it better by them rather than living in it. The only reason I understand her not leaving is because she doesn't wanna leave her brother and Queen, and she doesn't wanna disappoint her Papa. But you can clearly tell that while he doesn't want her to go, her potential is what means she should go and he recognizes that!All of my issues might again be that I am not the intended audience for this book and I accept that. However, I still wanted to share my opinions because I still think they are valid to the book as a whole.
Pre-Review
This was book was good but it also hurt my heart. Injustice is terrible and it chills me to the core to know that some people still believe that all people aren't equal; men, women, black, white, transgender, bisexual, gay, anyone. A person is a person. Sorry to get all real but sometimes it's necessary and this book reminded me of how terrible it used to be (this book is set in 1955).
Full Review to come on both Goodreads & my blog, https://jademelody.wixsite.com/melodious
molly_dettmann's review
4.0
4.5 for sure. I wanted to hug Rose so badly during this entire book! She was so sweet and sassy and everything her and her community went through just had me feeling all the feels. Jackson's writing reminds me of Mildred Taylor which only made me love this story even more. An important, poignant, bittersweet, and heartbreaking novel that I would recommend to all.
blakehalsey's review
5.0
This story is a lovely, sometimes brutal portrait of 1955 Mississippi and a black girl trying to figure out how to survive, how to fight, how to love who she is. It blends a fictional family struggling in the south with the factual accounts of the south during this time, specifically the Emmett Till trial. It's raw and real, the language visceral and piercing. Beautiful and eye-opening.
wyntercrystal9's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
lemon_drop's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0