Zora and Me

July 23, 2018
In this compelling sequel to Zora and Me (both stories fictionalize the childhood of literary great Zora Neale Hurston), two best friends unearth a town’s secret. In their covert late night wandering, Zora and 12-year-old narrator Carrie discover that their mute friend Mr. Polk speaks, and, in the process, they extract a promise for a story from purported witch Old Lady Bronson. Set in Florida and told in alternating chapters that switch settings between Carrie and Zora’s 1903 African-American town of Eatonville and an 1855 plantation community in the same location, then called Westin, the parallel tale reveals the plight of Lucia, 11, a black orphan who sails from Europe with her friend Prisca and guardian Don Frederico into brutal enslavement. Lucia’s story exerts the stronger pull in much of the novel, until the two worlds collide powerfully to highlight the “unfinished business of slavery” and reveal why the town is cursed ground. The result is a thought-provoking look at racially motivated violence and the enduring wounds of slavery. An included biography offers insight into Hurston’s life and later work. Ages 10–14. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Assoc.

August 1, 2018
Grades 5-8 In 1903, 12-year-old Carrie and her best friend Zora Neale Hurston investigate missing horses and uncover many secrets about their African American town, including that the town mute can actually speak. In an alternative narrative set in 1855, an enslaved woman named Lucia recounts the story of her white half sister's murder by the plantation owner's son. Set in Eatonville, Florida, and on the plantation that preceded it, the stories (and some characters) eventually converge in an absorbing novel that reinforces the horrors of slavery and the importance of standing up for justice. A sequel to Zora & Me? (2010), which Simon coauthored with Victoria Bond, this story pays tribute to writer and anthropologist Hurston and weaves the basics of her life (she grew up in Eatonville, set many of her stories there, and, as an anthropologist, studied hoodoo practices in the Caribbean and American South) into a plausible fiction. Although the plot depends heavily on Carrie and Zora eavesdropping on the adults around them, this makes a satisfying read for historical fiction buffs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from September 1, 2018
This second novel featuring a young Zora Neale Hurston and her friend Carrie Brown is once again set in the girls' hometown of Eatonville, Florida, in 1903, less than forty years after the end of the Civil War. A year has passed since the events of Zora and Me, with bold, curious, story-loving Zora still as leader and narrator Carrie as follower (albeit an appreciative one; Zora made life in a town no bigger than a teacup feel like it held the whole world ). As the twelve-year-olds are pulled deeper into a mystery involving their tight-knit African American community, the narrative begins to alternate with that of Lucia, a girl enslaved on a Florida plantation in 1855. When the stories begin to merge?the tone shifting from suspenseful to eerie to tragic to downright terrifying?the friends are brought up against some hard truths concerning race and power, hate and love, slavery and freedom. The climactic scene?with a posse of armed white men set on taking by force the cursed ground of the book's subtitle and killing the land's owner?is heart-stopping; that it ends happily with the villain vanquished, given the realities of Jim Crow America, is not a foregone conclusion. Simon keeps the plot moving briskly and sustains suspense even as she folds in truly profound, timely, and important themes; and one of the things Zora and Carrie have learned by book's end is that history wasn't something you read in a book. It was everything your life stood on. martha v. Parravano

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2019
Young Zora Neale Hurston and her friend Carrie (Zora and Me) are pulled into another mystery involving their tight-knit African American community in Eatonville, Florida. The main narrative, set in 1903, alternates with that of a girl enslaved on a Florida plantation in 1855. Their stories merge with a heart-stopping climactic scene. Simon's suspenseful plot moves briskly even as it folds in profound, timely, and important themes. Reading list, timeline.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from August 1, 2018
A curse, the legacy of slavery, and a fight for justice collide in this fictionalized account of author Zora Neale Hurston's childhood adventures, sequel to Simon's Zora and Me, co-written with Victoria Bond (2010).Twelve-year-old Zora Neale Hurston is as brave and adventurous as her best friend, Carrie Brown, is cautious. The year is 1903, and the girls live in Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated all-black town in the U.S. Late one night, during an escapade, the girls discover their friend Mr. Polk injured outside his cabin. Mr. Polk is known to be mute, but to the girls' surprise, he speaks--though not in English--to Old Lady Bronson, the town conjure woman, when she arrives to tend to his wounds. By night's end, Zora has made a pact with the conjure woman, and she and Carrie find themselves embroiled in a half-century-old mystery involving an enslaved girl named Lucia. Through alternating chapters, narrated by Carrie in 1903 and Lucia in 1855, Lucia's story and its connection to Zora and Carrie's world come to light. Raw depictions of slavery and its aftermath provide important context as the Eatonville community's resilience is tested in the face of injustice. The voices of Zora, Carrie, Lucia, and their families and friends make for powerful, unflinching storytelling, worthy to bear the name of a writer Alice Walker called a "genius" of African-American literature.An extraordinary, richly imagined coming-of-age story about a young Zora Neale Hurston, the long, cruel reach of slavery, and the power of community. (biographical note, timeline) (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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Starred review from November 1, 2018

Gr 5-8-Two years have passed since their last adventure in Zora and Me (2010), but the fictionalized Zora Neale Hurston and her best friend Carrie Brown are as curious as ever about the goings-on in their town of Eatonville, FL, the first all-black incorporated town in the United States. When their mute friend and neighbor, Mr. Polk, is the victim of a seemingly senseless attack and speaks to the town's hoodoo lady, Old Lady Bronson, the friends use their skills and town connections to get to the bottom of the mystery at hand, uncovering a curse that dates back to the time when slavery was legal in the United States. And slavery, to the surprise of Carrie and Zora, wasn't really that long ago. The story of a city separated by 48 years and a war-1903 Eatonville and 1855 Westin, as Eatonville was formerly known-is told in alternating chapters. Simon offers keen insight into how the past affects the present, no matter how many years between them. VERDICT A worthy purchase for all upper middle grade and middle school collections.-Brittany Drehobl, Morton Grove Public Library, IL

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.