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Leaving Gee's Bend (2010)

by Irene Latham(Favorite Author)

3.97 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0399251790 (ISBN13: 9780399251795)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Putnam Juvenile

review 1: I read this book because I saw the exhibit of the quilts made by the women of Gee's Bend at the Art Museum in Houston, TX. According to Wikipedia, Gee's Bend is a "poverty-stricken African-American community in a large bend of the Alabama River in Wilcox County, Alabama." The women of the community have been recycling fabric into quilts for generations. When an item of clothing was too worn to wear, it was cut up to be reused. They made those quilts from whatever they had, and they had very little.Irene Hunt has written a book for younger readers that tells the story of Ludelphia Bennett, a native of Gee's Bend, who has never been anywhere except where she is. Ludelphia likes to sew, and has learned how to make a quilt. When her mother becomes deathly ill with pneumon... moreia, Ludelphia decides she must go to Camden, the nearest town, to get a doctor, rather than accept the dire prognosis of the local healer. When the going gets tough, it is the quilt squares in her pocket that give her comfort and courage, for she is making the quilt for her mother.I think this would be a good book for young people to read to gain an understanding of what life was like in 1930's in Alabama. I think they might be surprised to know how much responsibility was placed on children of those times. They weren't hauled around to dance class or treated to fries at MacDonald's. Life was hard, and everyone in the family had to pull together in order to survive.
review 2: Ten-year-old Ludelphia Bennett had never set her bare feet on any dirt outside the small sharecropping community of Gee's Bend, Alabama. There was never a need for it. While her daddy and brother were in the fields pulling cotton, Ludelphia helped her mama around the house. When there wasn't work to be done she pulled the small scraps of cloth and needle from her pocket to work on her story quilt. Stitching the tiny pieces together settled her thoughts and comforted her. As time passed, Mama needed her help more often. It seemed that the bigger the baby grew inside Mama, the weaker she became. One morning, a series of coughing fits seized Mama and caused her to collapse on the floor. She couldn't get back up. It was all Ludelphia could do to get Mama across the room and onto the cornshuck pallet she used for a bed. It was too soon for the baby to be born but it couldn't be helped. Without a doctor or time to spare, Ludelphia and her neighbor, Etta Mae, did everything they knew how to do. When her mama's health takes a turn for the worse and her family says there's nothing else they can do, Ludelphia takes matters into her own hands. She decides that her mama's only hope is for her to leave Gee's Bend in search of a real doctor with real medicine. The perilous journey to Camden is over 40 miles long and danger lurks at every turn. Ludelphia's greatest strength is her ability to draw on the words of wisdom her mother instilled in her over the years. Will this inner strength be enough to carry Ludelphia to Camden and back in time to save her mother's life? Leaving Gee's Bend is set in 1932 in the dirt-poor sharecropping community of Gee's Bend, Alabama. The language used is authentic to the period and people. The characters and landscape are vivid. The author moves smoothly between Ludelphia's inner thoughts and the world around her. Although the protagonist is only ten, Leaving Gee's Bend will appeal to more than a middle-grade audience and is reminiscent of Wilder's Little House series. Latham has successfully woven together a novel that reflects the deep faith and inner strength of the people of Gee's Bend and offers a glimpse into the area's rich quilting history. less

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