Remember As You Pass Me By

Silvy's twelfth birthday is coming up and she wants to invite Mabelee, who’s African American, to the party. However, Silvy's mother and grandmother object. "Mabelee has her own friends," they tell her, and even though Silvy and Mabelee were best friends when they were little, that time has passed. Mabelee has new friends and no time for Silvy. They're busy painting the old school and raising money for schoolbooks, and Mabelee has started calling her "Miss Silvy" whenever they meet. Silvy's not alone for long, though. Glamorous Allie Rae moves to town with her mother, and she and Silvy like all the same things — "dying stories, riding trees, and talking dirty in disguise." Silvy thinks she's found a friend her mother and grandmother will like, but even Allie Rae has some tacky things to say about Mabelee and her friends, and Silvy's not sure who to side with. Things come to a head when the Supreme Court desegregates the schools, and Silvy’s small Texas town is in an uproar. Where will Silvy stand?

Silvy's twelfth birthday is coming up and she wants to invite Mabelee, who’s African American, to the party. However, Silvy's mother and grandmother object. "Mabelee has her own friends," they tell her, and even though Silvy and Mabelee were best friends when they were little, that time has passed. Mabelee has new friends and no time for Silvy. They're busy painting the old school and raising money for schoolbooks, and Mabelee has started calling her "Miss Silvy" whenever they meet. Silvy's not alone for long, though. Glamorous Allie Rae moves to town with her mother, and she and Silvy like all the same things — "dying stories, riding trees, and talking dirty in disguise." Silvy thinks she's found a friend her mother and grandmother will like, but even Allie Rae has some tacky things to say about Mabelee and her friends, and Silvy's not sure who to side with. Things come to a head when the Supreme Court desegregates the schools, and Silvy’s small Texas town is in an uproar. Where will Silvy stand?

KLIATT

Sylvy and Mabelee have been friends forever, laughing and playing together while Mabelee's mom works for Sylvy's grandmother This is Hughes Springs, Texas in 1954; Sylvy is white and Mabelee is black. When they were young that difference did not seem to mean anything, but now Sylvy and Mabelee are on different paths and this year Sylvy will not be allowed to invite Mabelee to her birthday party. The girls have always attended different schools, schools that have not been separate but equal. With the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education, segregation takes on more threatening overtones and the civil unrest reaches into their lives. Sylvy is struggling to understand her world, the trouble she is in for wanting a pet goat, the trouble her father is in for buying her one and the tensions between her mother and her father. She is also trying to understand the changes in the town: the building of a new school for the black children, the new friend who uses racial slurs to talk about Mabelee, the difference between being a white Methodist and a "colored" Methodist. When the new school for blacks is set on fire, Sylvy is faced with hard choices about loyalty and friendship. This is a poignant story about growing up in the years before the Civil Rights Movement. Through Sylvy, readers will see the subtle social changes of the 1950s and begin to recognize how injustice is reinforced by not doing something as much as by words and actions. Age Range: Ages 12 to 15. REVIEWER: Janis Flint-Ferguson (Vol. 42, No. 1).