Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman
After reading Jimmy’s Stars by Mary Ann Rodman (read my book review) and participating in an interview with the author, I knew that I had to read Yankee Girl. I loved Jimmy’s Stars and Yankee Girl was just as satisfying.
Yankee Girl was inspired by Mary Ann Rodman’s own childhood, who like the main character lived in Jackson, Mississippi during the height of the civil rights movement. Alice is the daughter of a FBI agent and when the civil rights movement down south excalates, Alice and her family move from Chicago to Mississippi. They are placed smack dab in the middle of a culture that they don’t understand, nor does she understand why people treat blacks differently. To make matters worse, Alice doesn’t fit in at school because she’s a Yankee. She knows what it feels like to be the one that’s different.
Alice soon discovers that she’s not the only one in need of a friend when Valerie Taylor joins her sixth grade class – the first of two black students at her new school as a result of a mandatory integration law. Valerie doesn’t want to be there as much as everybody else but her father is a high profile civil rights leader who travels with Martin Luther King. Alice is torn between the prospect of befriending Valerie or harassing her so she can fit in with the popular girls. This story gives an awesome narrative of the dangers of racist motivations and the consequences for following the crowd instead of your heart at a time when it matters most.
Mary Ann Rodman is quickly becoming one of my favorite children’s authors this year. Yankee Girl was a wonderful book and I highly recommend it, as well as Jimmy’s Stars. Both are great historical fiction novels! I’m now off to read My Best Friend and will anticipate anything that she publishes in the future (which she can tell you about that here).
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Category: Book Reviews, Fiction, Middle Readers
Tags: civil rights movement, coming of age, historical fiction, Q-T Author, U-Z Title
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After reading Jimmy’s Stars and loving it, I tried to find this at our local library but to no avail. Sounds like I might have to buy it for my daughter!
on September 19th, 2008 at 6:29 amThis sounds fantastic. I love stories in that setting anyway.
on September 19th, 2008 at 7:56 amI remember wanting to read Jimmy’s Stars after you reviewed it and now I want to go find a copy of this book as well. It sounds like Rodman writes some interesting books.
on September 19th, 2008 at 10:41 ami have Jimmy’s Stars on my wishlist after you wrote about it and now this one joins the list as well.. i am particularly interested in reading this one. Since I am from India, I have never really read about the civil rights movement and i think books like this take you to the crux of the matter..
on September 19th, 2008 at 12:46 pmwow. that sounds amazing! to the list! btw, great review!!!! =]
on September 19th, 2008 at 2:39 pmI love this cover!
on September 19th, 2008 at 3:15 pmI just finished a book last night and will start Jimmy Stars later today. This author has been getting alot good reviews.
on September 19th, 2008 at 3:50 pmI’m going to hang on to this one and read it to my daughter in a month when they study the civil rights movement. Sounds like a great book for teaching tolerance while giving a feel for the general attitude towards people of color during this time.
It’s good for kids to know that equality that we have today did exist not so long ago.
on September 19th, 2008 at 7:18 pmThis looks REALLY fun (and I love the cover art). Thanks for talking about this book! I’m going to hunt it down.
on September 20th, 2008 at 10:26 amI’m going to look into adding this to our homeschool curriculum this year.
on September 20th, 2008 at 7:25 pmThank you, Natasha, for the shout-out for YANKEE GIRL (and JIMMY’S STARS)! For those of you have read it (and those who are thinking about it), you should know that although it is an
“easy” read (the reading level is about third grade), the content is more suitable for readers, fifth grade and older. The book is based on my own childhood in Mississippi as the daughter of an FBI agent, and 97% of the book was taken directly from things that happened to me, my family, or someone I know personally. Very little fiction involved, although it is “fictionalized.” When I visit schools, teachers and students are usually absolutely astounded when I tell them this…unless the teacher is about my age and grew up in the South. That teacher will usually sidle up to me after my presentation and whisper “You got it right. It really was that bad.” What I am trying to say is that I don’t gloss over how unpleasant those times were…including the racial epithets I heard every single day. Sometimes those words shock the reader, but to use more politically correct terms would not be telling the historical truth as I experienced it.
It also drives home the fact that words, however carelessly we utter them, MATTER!!!
I am tickled that some of you guys like the YANKEE GIRL cover art! One of my most frequently asked questions is
“What kind of tree is that on the cover?” I sometimes call it
“the DNA tree” because it reminds me of a DNA double helix model (snicker), but the artist meant for it to be symbolic of lives entwined. If you live in the South, you might recognize the trunk as being very cypress-like, with the leaves and blossoms a cross between a magnolia and a dogwood.
I am so happy so many people are reading about Alice and Ellie. I love history, which to me is a collection of great stories. I write the kind of books I wished had been around when I was growing up. Hopefully, you adults are sharing your books with whatever children are in your lives!
Oh, and all of you people who have gone to your local bookstores in search of JIMMY’S STARS or YANKEE GIRL…please ask them to order the books for you or to stock JIMMY. (I doubt anyone would still be carrying YANKEE GIRL. It’s been out for four and a half years, and will be coming out in paperback around the end of the year.) JIMMY’S STARS, however, was not nationally distributed by the chain stores. I have yet to find a copy of it on a bookstore shelf within 300 miles of my home in Atlanta (save the indie children’s store who did my book signing…and I haven’t checked in with them lately). I did find ONE copy in Nashville this weekend (I was at a writer’s conference…which was bought by one of my fellow writers.) I depend on your word of mouth (or cyberword of mouth!) to let others know how much you enjoy my work.
You children’s lit fans are a special breed, and I love you!
Thank you again, one and all, for finding my books.
on September 21st, 2008 at 5:56 pmMary Ann
P.S. My next two books will be out in March and April 2009.
They are both picture books…A TREE FOR EMMY (Peachtree) and SURPRISE SOUP(Viking…illustrated by G.Brian Karas.)
Thanks Mary Ann for your awesome comments! It’s always a delight to have the author stop by. It’s to bad both books are not disturbed more. Barnes and Noble here in Utah had your picture book First Grade Stinks because I sat down right there and then and read it. I didn’t look for the others because I already had them. My library has all of them. I can’t wait to read your future books. I think I’ve been converted to a life long fan!
on September 22nd, 2008 at 12:41 amMy Library has “First Grade Stinks”, “My best Friend”, and “Yankee Girl”, but not “Jimmy’s Stars.” Bummer…I wanted to read that one too. My Library does have a request and suggestion selection, I will be adding it to the list.
on September 22nd, 2008 at 9:29 am[...] by Lori Wick)18. Alessandra (Does My Head Look Big in This?)19. Alessandra (The Historian)20. Maw Books (Yankee Girl)21. Maw Books (Saturday)22. Maw Books (Hope Was Here)23. Maw Books (The First Hurt)24. Maw Books [...]
on October 10th, 2008 at 10:05 pm[...] Burg reminded me of Mary Ann Rodman, author of Yankee Girl (link will take you to my review and from there an interview with Mary Ann). Both authors had [...]
on October 27th, 2008 at 2:34 amMary Ann
I have started several book clubs at my children’s school and selected Yankee Girl for Black History Month for the fourth grade class. Most of the children finished the book in 3 days. The LOVED your book.
Because I have so many book clubs it’s impossible for me to read all the books in a month. It would be nice if you listed discussion questions in the back of your books or on your website.
I purchased your book at Barnes & Noble
on March 2nd, 2009 at 7:56 pm