With allusions to people like Mary Bethune, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Jessie Redmon Fauset, James Weldon Johnson, and Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Kwame Alexander commemorates Black History with his latest book: Black Star. But this novel in verse for middle grade readers goes beyond that preservation to tell the story of Charlene (aka Charley) Cuffey.
The only thing Charley enjoys more than listening to her Nana Kofi tell stories about courageous ancestors and epic journeys is playing baseball with Willie Green and Henry Jones. With Grandpa’s inspiration, it’s impossible for Charley not to dream big.
Charley’s mother, on the other hand, admonishes her asthmatic daughter for “getting all sweaty” and believes “that girls should stay clean, be graceful, [and] play piano or flute” (20), not do something as inelegant as playing baseball. Still, Charley, who is confident and ambitious, dreams of being in the Hall of Fame some day for her pitching. And, according to Nana, “dreams are today’s answers for tomorrow’s questions” (125).
When Charley challenges a neighborhood bully to a baseball game at the church picnic, her choice brings consequences she never could have imagined. Because he wants to protect Charley, Willie does something traitorous, so Charley shares a moral with him: “If you choose to make friends with a pig, you must be prepared to live in the mud” (278). As she struggles to forgive Willie, Nana tells Charley: “The words you say to tell the truth are as important as the decision to be truthful. . . [And] when we water our words, they grow our minds” (310).
This is Alexander’s second book in the Door of No Return trilogy, and he effectively fulfills his objective to write about America through the lens of sports while also acknowledging the humanity of “regular families.” Along the way, Alexander shares some key truths, with one of those being: “The true worth of a society is measured by the opportunities it offers its children” (191-192).
- Donna