The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton

Rating: WORTHY!

This was an audiobook which I enjoyed. I read and liked Zeeley by this same author. This one is a short collection of African American folk tales, sadly fueled by the USA's history of slavery and assembled here by the author. It was ably told by Andrew Barnes, and these tales were some of the most weird-ass tales I've ever heard (and that's saying something!). As much as I enjoyed this, I was rather disturbed that this was in the children's section of the local library, because there were some rather gory tales!

For example in one story a man kills his grandmother and tries to sell her body in town. Another tale is a Just-So story of how the tortoise got its shell pattern - which was by being beaten by a magically animated cowhide! I plan on having a word with the librarian at my library to ask them if it really is best suited for the children's area or if it should be in the adult area - or at least have an advisory attached tot he case. These are not your simplistic, fluffy, bouncy fairytales. On the other hand, some of the Grimm fairytales were rather...well grim, with witches dining on oven-fresh children, so maybe it's not that bad in comparison?

The titles in this collection are:

• Animal Tales
1. He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh Rabbit
2. Doc Rabbit, Bruh Fox, and the Tar Baby
3. Tappin, the Land Turtle
4. Bruh Alligator and the Deer
5. Bruh Lizard and Bruh Rabbit
6. Bruh Alligator Meets Trouble
7. Wolf and Birds and the Fish-Horse
• Tales of the Real, Extravagant, and Fanciful
1. The Beautiful Girl of the Moon Tower
2. A Wolf and Little Daughter
3. Manual Had a Riddle
4. Papa John's Tall Tale
5. The Two Johns
6. Wiley, His Mama, and the Hairy Man
• Tales of the Supernatural
1. John and the Devil's Daughter
2. The Peculiar Such Thing
3. Little Eight John
4. Jack and the Devil
5. Better Wait Till Martin Comes
• Slave Tales of Freedom
1. Carrying the Running Aways
2. How Nehemiah Got Free
3. The Talking Cooter
4. The Riddle Tale of Freedom
5. The Most Useful Slave
6. The People Could Fly

I loved these stories and moreover, they're a great source of inspiration for writers looking to write something that's not a tediously warmed-over fairytale.

Zeely by Virginia Hamilton

Title: Zeely
Author: Virginia Hamilton
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Rating: WORTHY!

Illustrated by Symeon Shimin

Zeely, believe it or not. is a story about Elizabeth Perry and her brother John who go to the country to spend the summer with their uncle, Ross. On the train there, they change their names to Geeder (soft 'G') and Toeboy for the summer for reasons unexplained.

This is a short novel, only a hundred pages or so, and an easy read - not just because of the comfortable writing and leisurely pace of the novel, but also because the story is very entertaining. But don't make the mistake of thinking it's too leisurely. The story moves.

Geeder and Toeboy decide to "camp out" at night, and they sleep in a field near the house which has a view of the road through the bushes. One night they see a tall white shape go silently past, and Geeder tells her brother that it's a Night Traveler and he must never talk to it or let it see him.

It turns out that the night traveler is really Zeely, the daughter of a guy who rents part of Uncle Ross's farmland to raise "hogs", because naming them pigs is just too real. There has to be a distance between the adorable animal out in the field and the dead meat which we wolf-down from our plates, doesn't there - otherwise it gets personal? So Sheep become mutton, cow becomes steak, pig becomes hog in the field because that sounds more horrible, and it becomes pork on the plate, because hog isn't edible. Pork is. Trust the French to make it palatable.

But that's not what this story is about. It's about the relationship which develops between Elizabeth and Zeely. Zeely is a Tutsi, referred to in this novel as a Watutsi, which is a group of people who colonized what is now Rwanda in Africa. Along with the Dinka people, the Tutsi are considered the tallest of all peoples in the world, averaging around six feet in height. By comparison in the US, men average five feet ten, women five feet five, so at this time of year, a tipsy Tutsi would be rather noticeable!

Elizabeth, aka Geeder, gets to know Zeely, whom at first, she thinks is an African queen due to an article she espies in a National Geographic magazine. It turns out that Zeely is actually from Canada, and not a queen, but the relationship between them, Geeder's activities, and the chat she has with Zeely about her life, are really well written and fascinating to read. I recommend this novel.