Author: Brit Bennett
Illustrator: Laura Freeman
Publication Date: 2023
Plot
Excited as she is for the road trip down to Georgia and to meet her mother's family, Claudie finds herself missing Harlem pretty quickly. The two are traveling down with her mother's cousin Sidney, who tells Claudie about the family she'll be meeting on the Georgia farm, including eleven-year-old twin cousins and Claudie's maternal grandmother.
He and Mama also warn Claudie about dangers they might face. Sidney never goes even a mile over the speed limit, for fear of giving a racist highway patrol office a reason to pull him over. They skip some gas stations, because they're in sundown towns. The three must be on their best behavior, and not draw attention to themselves.
Once at the family farm, Claudie feels more at ease. She's welcomed with open arms and Southern hospitality (and, having been spoiled by not only my grandmother but also her two sisters in Atlanta, I can tell you it's awesome). Her cousins teach her to climb trees, and her grandmother tells her stories about the family and also folk stories that Claudie's never heard before.
But the unfairness of Jim Crow laws, segregation, and racist hatred can't be ignored. A nearby farm, also owned by a Black family, is torched by an arsonist. Claudie's grandmother says that trying to find out who did it will just cause more problems, but Claudie knows that Mama can't leave the story alone. She and her cousins follow Mama when she goes to investigate the burnt property at night, and end up having to hide from the local sheriff who threateningly tells Mama to leave. Back at the family farm, Claudie accuses Mama of ignoring the desires of the people who live there and just wanting fame. In the morning, Claudie apologizes for her outburst, and Mama apologizes for her deception. She tells Claudie that as a young girl, she witnessed a lynching, and it motivated her to leave her childhood home and to tell the world about what was happening to inspire people to change the world for the better. Change like how Claudie's trying to save the boarding house. She also tells Claudie that she doesn't have to write about the way things are--she can write about the way she hopes things will be.
Back home in Harlem, Claudie and the rest of the boarders finalize plans for the variety show. The morning of, Claudie is thrilled to learn they've sold enough tickets to pay the back rent. Now they can perform the show with that weight gone!
The story Claudie tells is a version of one her grandmother told her, "The People Who Could Fly," which is about the people taken from Africa as slaves. In the story, they originally had wings, but lost them crossing the Atlantic. They still possessed the magic though, and one day, a man who knew the magic told the other slaves, and they sprouted wings and flew back their homes in Africa. In Claudie's version, they fly to Harlem.
Inside Claudie's World
This time, this section explains in more detail the overt racism that was prevalent in the pre-Civil Rights South, and present but less blatant in other parts of the country. It also talks about the rich tradition and history of story-telling among African Americans in the South.
Misc
Bennett dedicates the book to her family.
The same group of people advised this book as did Meet Claudie.
At one point, Mama tells Claudie stories about Br'er Rabbit. I recently read Who's Afraid of the Song of the South, an interesting book about controversial Disney publications. Among other things, I learned that Br'er is short for "Brother" and not a version of "briar" as I'd previously thought.
"Claudie could hear owls swooping overhead." No, she couldn't. Owls have specialized flight feathers; they are silent when they fly. I've had large owls fly just feet from me (I live by a greenbelt; there are barred owls) and you can't hear a thing even though you can nearly touch them. The hooting, yes; the flying, no. It makes me very glad I'm not a prey animal to owls because I wouldn't stand a chance.
Claudie's books are, of course, primarily to teach about the historical facts of a Black girl's experience in the 1920s, and to impress upon the reader the importance of anti-racism. But there's also a persistent thread of responsible journalism and making sure the facts are accurate, which is important as well.
Claudie meets Langston Hughes! He sweetly encourages her that if she's written a sketch, she doesn't just want to be a writer: she already is a writer.
I really liked Claudie's books, but they feel incomplete. Yes, we know what happens with the boarding house, but there are other loose ends like the news stories Mama was working on and the family in Georgia. What happens next? I don't know if there are plans to publish any more books about her story. I hope we get more than two not-even-eighty-page books. I know the last historical character (Courtney) had shorter books too, but her story felt complete.
