Welcome to Windows & Mirrors, where we feature books that provide us windows to lives outside our own and mirrors to our shared common human experiences.
Today we are featuring Zora and Me: The Cursed Ground by T.R. Simon.
The Curse Ground is the second novel in the Zora and Me series. The first book, Zora and Me written by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon, won the 2011 John Steptoe New Talent Award. Both books are fictionalized childhood tales of the life of Zora Neale Hurston, an influential African-American author and a celebrated anthropologist who wrote books for adults about racial struggles in the American South (Jonah’s Gourd Vine, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Tell My Horse, and many others) and about research she conducted on Haitan voodoo.
When Zora and her best friend Carrie discover that the town mute, Mr. Polk, can speak, they become obsessed with his secret. They discover his silence is connected with a much bigger mystery, one that is related to the tragic story of an enslaved girl almost 50 years earlier. Throughout the story we get a dual narrative and begin to understand the connections between the current day (1903) issues threatening Eatonville, America’s first incorporated black township, and Lucia’s struggles nearly a half century earlier.
The interweaving of early 20th century history with a fascinating mystery was masterful. Knowing that the book’s foundation was based on the imaginings of Zora Neale Hurston’s childhood added yet another dimension that made me turn pages at a fevered pace. The Curse Ground illuminates the power of our memories and why slavery still affects our country today in a way that is easily understood. This combined with its message about the importance of community and positively combatting violence woven into a story that is richly detailed and interesting makes this thought-provoking book a must-read for ages ten and up. It’s also a great classroom read and conversation starter.
The Cursed Ground can be read and completely understood as a standalone. Readers who are fascinated by this story will want to read the first book in the series.
Warning: For those who are sensitive, the graphically detailed scenes with violence towards slaves may be upsetting. These are very important to the narrative and are well-done, but they may still be disturbing.
The Cursed Ground has already received starred reviews from Horn Book and Kirkus. Preorder from your favorite bookstore to pick it up on its release date 9/11/18 or request it from your local library today.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc for The Cursed Ground in exchange for an honest review.
T.R. Simon is a children’s book writer. Her first book, Zora and Me, co-authored with Victoria Bond, won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent and was nominated for an Edgar Award in the category of Juvenile Fiction. Zora and Me was also a Junior Library Guild Selection, ABC New Voices Selection, SIBA Okra Award Winner, Fall Indie Next Top Ten Pick, Kirkus Best of 2010 Children’s Books, Booklist 2010 Editor’s Choice, The New York Public Library 2010 list of 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, the Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award, and a 2014 World Book Night U.S. pick. T.R. Simon is also the co-author with her husband, Richard Simon, of Oskar And The Eight Blessings, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for children’s literature and named a 2015 best children’s book by the Miami Herald, a Jewish Telegraph Agency’s 5 Best Books for Hanukkah in 2015, a Junior Library Guild 2015 picture book selection.
She also has an M.A. in cultural anthropology and is an adjunct lecturer at the City University of New York Publishing Certificate Program where she teaches a course on children’s book publishing. She and her husband live in Westchester County, New York with their daughter, and very cuddly dog. To connect with T.R. Simon, check out her website.
Posted by Michelle Leonard.
