Available:*
Library | Audience | Home Location | Material Type | Shelf Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Central | Kid/Juvenile | Open Stacks Fiction | Open Stacks Kids Book | GORDO | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
All over Rebecca's village everyone is talking about the bulldozers. She and her friends wonder if the government will really send bulldozers to destroy their homes to make way for a new whites-only town. The government says they must move and promises a modern new village -- but Rebecca's parents and her granny say this is their home and they will never leave.One day Rebecca sets out for school only to learn that her best friend's family has moved away in the middle of the night. The villagers who are left must take a brave stand, and Rebecca's family may be torn apart. Soon Rebecca and her family and friends find help from a surprising source -- and learn that the eyes of the entire world are on their tiny village.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
A childhood spent playing under the velvety leaves of the jacaranda tree is threatened for nine-year-old Rebecca and her best friend, Noni. Their village in the veld of South Africa is an area designated for development by whites as soon as the black residents can be relocated. Many of the residents urge the families to resist relocation, fearing that the promises of larger homes and jobs are lies. Noni's family leaves; Rebecca's family stays. Rebecca's anxieties take on reality when her father is arrested at a demonstration against the relocation. The story ends on a hopeful note with the father's release from prison, closely coinciding with Nelson Mandela's release, and with the potential return of Noni and her family. Although written for a somewhat younger audience than Gordon's Waiting for the Rain (Orchard, 1987), this story captures the same real feeling for the South African land, people, and language. Apartheid, with its sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant prejudice, is revealed from a young girl's perspective in this rich family story. --Sylvia V. Meisner, Allen Middle School, Greensboro, NC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
As emotionally intense and enlightening as Gordon's Waiting for the Rain , this contemporary novel, set in South Africa, reveals how that government's policies affect a black child, her family and their friends. When plans are made to raze Rebecca's village in order to build a new suburb for whites, officials try to force residents to move to a dismal settlement many miles away. Although her father and brother refuse to be intimidated, Rebecca is terrified that white men will bulldoze her house. Her fears increase when friends begin to disappear in the night and her own father is arrested after making a public speech. Gordon offers a graphic portrayal of life in a troubled nation as she depicts Rebecca's experiences at home and in the white community, where her mother works as a maid. Rebecca is initiated into a world filled with prejudice, but before she grows as embittered as her older brother, she witnesses some signs of positive change. After the villagers' plight receives worldwide attention, Rebecca's father is released from prison, and one battle for justice is won. Ages 9-11. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Rebecca is frightened by government threats to bulldoze the homes in her township in order to build a white suburb and by the pressure to move to a 'made' city hours away from their jobs. Her father, angered and desperate, joins the resistance efforts and is jailed, leaving the family to manage without his wages. Another ugly aspect of apartheid and its effects is depicted with sympathy and outrage. From HORN BOOK 1990, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The author of Waiting for the Rain (Jane Addams Peace Prize, 1988) again tells of the South African struggle for justice. Though her parents try to reassure her, Rebecca is continually anxious that her village will be forcibly moved to a homeland. White promises of better housing and jobs lure some neighbors, including the family of Rebecca's best friend, Noni; but Noni's aunt comes back to report that the assurances were lies: the schools and factory are not yet built; conditions are even worse than at home, where work is so far away that parents, like Rebecca's Mama, often can't make it home on weekends. The new knowledge strengthens resolve and organization; a demonstration, with foreign observers and worldwide publicity, succeeds in averting the threat--though Rebecca's father, who makes a stirring speech, is imprisoned for months afterward. Taking place in the recent past (news of Mandela's freedom comes near the story's end), this is a relatively hopeful book, perhaps unrealistically free of violence (in sharp contrast to Naidoo's Chain of Fire, p. 428/C-78). It is, however, appropriate for younger children, and presents a poignant, telling picture of a little girl who can treasure a discarded, blue-eyed doll even as she gets used to having ""Feeling sad [become] part of what she did every day"" while she longs to have her parents back home. A compassionate book that effectively presents an important part of the truth. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 4-7. Gordon dedicates her story "to the children of the three and a half million black South Africans who have been involuntarily or forcibly removed from their homes under the government's policy of reserving certain areas of the country for whites only." Naidoo's Chain of Fire [BKL Mr 15 90] told that harsh and terrible story from the point of view of teenagers leading the struggle; Gordon's docunovel is quieter and more hopeful, set right now. Nine-year-old Rebecca dreads the coming of the bulldozers to smash down her home; however, the village resistance works, the world media pay attention, and for the moment the removal is stayed; and though her father spends months in prison, he's released, and so is Mandela. The violence takes place off stage; Rebecca is protected: she nurses her doll, obeys her grandmother, tries to do well in school, and longs for her mother's occasional visit home from her job as maid with a rich white family. This isn't as good as Gordon's Waiting for the Rain [BKL Ag 87]; the characters are politically "correct" but have little vitality, and there's some intrusive explanation about the system. Nevertheless, with its glowing cover, the story will be much in demand as a nonexploitative introduction for younger children to the way in which apartheid brutality invades home and family. ~--Hazel ~Rochman
