Zora and Me
Autor Victoria Bond, T. R. Simonen Limba Engleză Paperback – 27 dec 2011 – vârsta de la 10 ani
Descoperim în Zora and Me o incursiune fascinantă în universul copilăriei unei viitoare legende literare. Copiii vor experimenta o aventură plină de mister, unde granița dintre poveștile fantastice spuse în jurul focului și realitatea aspră a Sudului american devine surprinzător de subțire. Subliniem faptul că, deși este o lucrare de ficțiune, atmosfera este ancorată în istoria reală a orașului Eatonville, Florida, oferind tinerilor cititori o perspectivă valoroasă asupra identității și comunității. Suntem de părere că forța acestui roman rezidă în dualitatea sa: pe de o parte, avem imaginația debordantă a tinerei Zora, care inventează un „om-aligator” ce bântuie mlaștinile, iar pe de altă parte, misterul unei crime reale care tulbură liniștea orașului. Această structură narativă îi învață pe copii despre puterea cuvintelor și despre responsabilitatea care vine odată cu actul de a povesti. Copiii care au iubit Jump at the Sun de Alicia D. Williams vor găsi aici aceeași pasiune pentru folclor și pentru „prinderea poveștilor”, într-un context nou, mai complex și orientat către cititorii de peste 10 ani care caută un strop de mister detectivistic. Stilul propus de Victoria Bond și T. R. Simon este unul cald, dar onest, reușind să echilibreze momentele de tensiune cu cele de solidaritate profundă între cele trei personaje principale. Este o lectură care nu doar captivează prin intrigă, ci și educă prin contextul său istoric și cultural, fiind prima operă neautorizată de Hurston, dar recunoscută oficial de fundația care îi poartă numele.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 0763658146
Pagini: 192
Ilustrații: 1-COLOR
Dimensiuni: 136 x 200 x 30 mm
Greutate: 0.18 kg
Editura: Candlewick Press (MA)
De ce să citești această carte
Recomandăm această carte părinților care doresc să le ofere copiilor (10+) o lectură cu greutate istorică, dar prezentată sub forma unui mister captivant. Cititorul câștigă o înțelegere mai profundă a puterii narative și a importanței comunității. Este o poartă excelentă către literatura clasică americană, oferind un model de protagonistă puternică, inteligentă și creativă, într-un format de roman de formare (coming-of-age) premiat.
Despre autor
Victoria Bond și T.R. Simon s-au cunoscut în domeniul editorial și au decis să colaboreze din admirație pentru opera Zorei Neale Hurston. Victoria Bond deține un master în scriere creativă, în timp ce T.R. Simon are o pregătire academică în antropologie, un mix perfect pentru a recrea viața unei autoare care a fost, la rândul ei, antropolog și scriitoare. Pasiunea lor comună pentru explorarea sentimentului de apartenență și a istoriei culturale se reflectă în acuratețea și sensibilitatea cu care au construit acest univers literar.
Notă biografică
From the Hardcover edition.
Extras
That Saturday, while our mamas were shopping, Zora and I were sitting under the big sweet gum tree across the road from Joe Clarke's storefront making sure we were in earshot of the chorus of men that perched on his porch. We sat under the tree, digging our feet into the rich dark soil, inviting worms to tickle us between the toes. We pretended to be talking and playing with the spiky monkey balls that had fallen from the sweet gum branches, but we were really listening to the menfolk's stories and salty comments and filing them away to talk about later on. That's when Sonny Wrapped strolled up in his Sunday suit, strutting like he owned the town and not just a pair of new pointy shoes, and calling for folks to come watch him whup a gator.
Sonny was a young welder from Sanford who had come to Eatonville to court Maisie Allard. For three weekends straight, he'd been wooing her with sweet talk and wildflowers. When he wasn't with her, he was shooting his mouth off about how tough he was. That particular day, Sonny had managed to track down the king of the gators, the biggest and oldest one in Lake Maitland, Sanford, or Eatonville. The gator's name was Ghost, and for good reason. One minute he was sunning on a mud bank or floating in the pond, his back exposed like a twenty-foot-long banquet of rocks; the next minute he'd have disappeared, and the pond would be as still as a wall.
Anyway, Sonny got a couple dozen men to walk the short distance to Lake Hungerfort to watch him wrestle the gator. Zora's father, her eldest brother, Bob, and Joe Clarke were among them. Nobody was thinking about the two of us, but we still had sense enough to lag behind and make ourselves invisible. Everyone stood a good ways back from the lake—close enough to see but far enough to have time to scoot up a tree if Sonny lost control.
Ghost lay still as death, but as Sonny approached, his eyes were like two slow-moving marbles. Before Sonny could jump Ghost from behind, the old gator swung his tail around and knocked Sonny off his feet.
To this day, I can still see Joe Clarke running toward Sonny, yelling, "Roll! Roll!" If Sonny could tumble out of the reach of Ghost's jaws, he might have a chance.
But Sonny was too stunned to get his mind around Ghost's cunning. He gaped, wide-eyed and mute, as the gator clamped down on his arm and dragged him into the water.
People began to scream. I think I remember screaming myself. One thing I remember for sure is Zora, just standing and watching without a sound, tears streaming down her face.
Joe Clarke is a big man, but he hesitated for a second—a grown man paying respect to his fear—before diving into the water. Two other brave men—Mr. Hurston and Bertram Edges, the blacksmith—dove in a moment later.
It took the three of them to drag Sonny back on dry ground. I'll never know how. They were bruised like prizefighters. But they were better off than Sonny, whose arm had been mangled past all recognition.
Back in our homes, we chewed on silence and thought about Dr. Pritchard, awake all night trying to patch up Sonny and make him right.
The next morning, Joe Clarke rode to all the churches in his capacity as town marshal and gave the pastors the news: Sonny didn't make it.
For two weeks after that, you would see pairs of grim men with shotguns scouring the ponds for a sign of Ghost, but they found nothing.
In the days that followed, Zora's father said it "wasn't fitting" to talk about what had happened to Sonny in front of women and children. Even Joe Clarke, who loved a story better than almost anyone, refused to talk about Sonny and Ghost.
Sometimes when I think back on that steamy afternoon, I can see my own father emerging soaking wet from Lake Hungerfort, Sonny's broken body in his arms. But that was impossible, because my daddy had already been gone six months by then. And that's another reason I remember that summer so clear: it was the summer my mama gave up believing my daddy would come home. She had cried just about all a person can cry.
As for Zora, while every kid in the schoolyard could talk of nothing else for days and pestered Zora and me for eyewitness reports, she quietly closed in on Sonny's death, like an oyster on a bit of sand. A week later, she had finally turned that bit of sand into a storied pearl.
Descriere scurtă
Racial duplicity threatens an idyllic African American community in the turn-of-the-century South in a dazzling debut inspired by the early life of Zora Neale Hurston.
Whether she’s telling the truth or stretching it, Zora Neale Hurston is a riveting storyteller. Her latest creation is a shape-shifting gator man who lurks in the marshes, waiting to steal human souls. But when boastful Sonny Wrapped loses a wrestling match with an elusive alligator named Ghost — and a man is found murdered by the railroad tracks soon after — young Zora’s tales of a mythical evil creature take on an ominous and far more complicated complexion, jeopardizing the peace and security of an entire town and forcing three children to come to terms with the dual-edged power of pretending. Zora’s best friend, Carrie, narrates this coming-of-age story set in the Eden-like town of Eatonville, Florida, where justice isn’t merely an exercise in retribution, but a testimony to the power of community, love, and pride. A fictionalization of the early years of a literary giant, this astonishing novel is the first project ever to be endorsed by the Zora Neale Hurston Trust that was not authored by Hurston herself.