I've had this book sitting around for a proper review for years, and now I'm finally able to do it. Patricia C. McKissack's The Dark-Thirty is a collection of 10 stories from and about the American south, primarily the african-americans who lived there. Told for that fleeting 30 minutes after the sun sets and before it gets dark, these tales are made for telling friends and family gathered around for a spookfest. It's been one of my favorite story collections for years, even sending a few unsettling feelings over my spine re-reading it today. Its also the first Newbery Honor book we've reviewed on site. This book's got class.
Each of the 10 stories are prefaced by a short paragraph about the story, often a short historical blurb about the times of that particular tale, from defining the Pullman train car porters and their jobs, the Montgomery Bus Boycott from 1955-1956, to even a short unimpassioned historical clip of the Ku Klux Klan (remember, this book is a children's book, and while scaring them, it also instructs and educates the young reader). These blurbs ad context to each story without needing to go into it in detail in-story.
What draws the eye to the few illustrations (there's one per story), are the unique way they are constructed. Save for the cover, above, each of the illustrations are in black and white. They look as if they were drawn on black scratchboard, which lends this ephemeral yet hard quality to the linework. What you'll see, then, is an illustration looking as if it was drawn in negative. They're all powerful images, and very strong ones that compliment the story. They are magnificent.
I won't go into an in depth review of each story, like I did in the Eerie Animals book, mostly because I believe this book is still in print (widely) so its easier to get a copy, and because these tales are really ones you have to read to really get a good feel for the life and times of these people that I can't possibly provide myself. I will, however, give you impressions of stories that stuck with me all these years.
Of the 10, my favorites were "The 11:59", "The Woman in the Snow", and "Boo Mama". "The 11:59" tells the story of a train car porter attempting to elude the fateful 11:59 train, The Death Train that claims all porters when their time is up. I remember telling this story at a party when I was young, only I never got to finish it. I hope somehow the listeners found out how it ended. It makes for a great campfire tale; not too spooky but just atmospheric enough (and one hell of a lot less complicated and more subtle than the Death Escape movies they call the Final Destination series).
"The Woman in the Snow" and "Boo Mama" both are quiet but heart-wrenching tales of mothers and children. The former tells of a mother ghost wandering in the snow, hoping for the compassionate hand of a bus driver after being denied a ride to the hospital in life but a calloused white driver. More than teaching lessons of racism and equality, "The Woman in the Snow" is most about compassion to a fellow man/woman, even if they are no longer in this world. Its a hard story to not feel anything by the end (and it always makes me a bit misty eyed).
"Boo Mama" is a unique tale that has elements of the otherworldly not in the form of ghosts or magic, but in cryptozoology. A mother loses her son in a forest, but months later he is recovered, unable to speak anything but an odd unknown language and no worse for the wear. But when the boy begins to exhibit odd behavior and transformations, his mother must make the hard choice between protecting and keeping the child she loves or letting him go where he can be safe. Its also a hard story to read, but its touching in its own way.
I adore folk tales almost as much as I adore mythology and tales of the supernatural. These tales tell a lot about culture as much as they entertain and scare, which is why I really like the book. The illustrations, the content and the style of the stories are so well done that its a joy to read and a good folktale book to give to one's children. You won't be disappointed. Highly recommended.
--Dio (10/19/11)
(Illustrations copyright by Brian Pinkney, 1992)