Publishers Weekly
This lumbering first novel takes place during the summer of 1978, when 10-year-old Sylvia moves to rural South Carolina with her mother, who has found a job picking peppers. On her own during the day, the African-American youngster strikes up a friendship with Miz Lula Maye, her 100-year-old neighbor. When the girl's mother, who refuses to discuss their family history with her daughter, asks Sylvia if she really likes "hanging out with that old lady," the girl defensively replies, "What do you mean? What's wrong with being friends with an old lady? She makes me feel alive! We have fun together doin' things and talkin'! I like spendin' time with Miz Lula Maye besides, she doesn't even act old!" Sylvia's first-person narrative frequently sounds forced and becomes burdened with inconsequential details. After eating lunch one day with her elderly friend, for instance, Sylvia helps the woman tend to her cat's broken tail and then lies down to nap, noting, "As I drifted off into a much needed and deserved sleep, my last thought was that I was surprised I hadn't thrown up that delicious ham sandwich." With its sleepy pace and overly neat conclusion (Miz Lula Maye's long-lost grandson reappears and turns out to be Sylvia's father), this will likely hold little interest for most young readers. Ages 8-12. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Children's Literature
Pansy Hart Flood writes a short illustrated novel so full of voice, it hardly needs the accompanying pictures by Felicia Marshall. Sylvia and Miz Lula Maye is the story of two friends¾ten-year-old Sylvia and one hundred-year-old Miz Lula Maye. Sylvia, who has just moved to Miz Lula Maye's small South Carolina town, delivers mail to the elderly woman and these two feisty females soon become friends. Sylvia savors Miz Lula Maye's wisdom and feels "we's somehow connected by some kind of inside spirit." Miz Lula doctors her nine cats, runs a spotless kitchen and teaches Sylvia to make sugar toast, and listens to her. Sylvia needs this warmth because her momma is "close to herself." Miz Lula Maye asks the child to be patient and loving as "your momma's in need of healin' from something. I'll pray for her and a change will be soon to come." Clues about this change are hinted at in stories of their adventures and evolving relationship, but it's still a surprise when "Mystery Man" enters at the end of the book. Mystery Man has quite an effect on everyone. He's Miz Lula Maye's missing grandson and the father Sylvia has never known. Miz Lula Maye is so surprised she can hardly speak because "My nerves is all tore up." Sylvia throws a giant fit at one more change in her life and wants to "Chew him up like Wrigley's spearmint gum and spit him out like sour milk." But in the end, the revelation turns the two friends into family and Miz Lula Maye promises, "... when we gets to heaven, we'll be friends there, too. We'll water wildflowers with our tears of joy." We care about these characters, are carried along by the plot and the development of their relationship, but the true power of the book is itsvoice, which gathers strength from expressive dialogue, colorful dialect and the exuberance of the opinionated and vocal Sylvia. 2002, Carolrhoda, $15.95. Ages 7 to 10. Reviewer: Susie Wilde
School Library Journal
Gr 3-6-When Sylvia Freeman moves with her mother from Florida to South Carolina in 1978, she doesn't know a soul in town. With her mom out working in the pepper fields all day long, the African-American child is on her own and befriends an elderly neighbor. An unlikely best friend for the almost 11-year-old, the 100-year-old woman shares her life and wisdom with the lonely girl, and Sylvia feels special in her presence. The plot thickens when a strange "Mystery Man" arrives and turns out to be her father-and Miz Lula Maye's long-lost grandson. Soon after Sylvia's parents met, her father was drafted and lost touch with her mother when she stopped writing. She never told him about their daughter. When he returned from Vietnam, the disoriented veteran was unable to locate either his sweetheart or the grandmother who had raised him. Now that he's finally back, he and Miz Lula Maye have a touching reunion, though the storybook ending stops there. Ms. Freeman is still not in love with him and the family's future is uncertain. The only sure thing is that Sylvia and Miz Lula remain the best of friends. The protagonist is a spirited, sassy girl with a strong, engaging voice, and the old woman is warm and spunky. Despite the somewhat convoluted plot, this first novel is a satisfying, humorous read.-Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A move to the South Carolina countryside brings two unlikely African-American characters together in an ever-deepening friendship that has more consequence than one of them can foretell. Ten-year-old Sylvia Freeman, new to this country road with only three houses, befriends Miz Lula Maye, who is almost 100 years old. Told in Sylvia's first-person voice, the story reveals a burgeoning fondness between the two, as they spend more and more time together. Despite her age, Lula Maye shares the child's sense of vivacity and engagement with life. Sylvia, never the dispassionate observer, offers her editorial comments on everything. Most of this is delightful, but debut novelist Flood sometimes has the girl slip from a little girl's vernacular to a more knowledgeable narrator's voice, with words like "savory," or constructions like "As I drifted off into a much needed and deserved sleep." Meanwhile, the pair's friendship takes an unexpected turn one morning after Sylvia spends the night at Lula's, only to find a strange man staying with her momma. It turns out that blood is thicker than tearful water when all is revealed at church that day. Sylvia's world is temporarily turned upside down, but friendship wins out after all. This story is more complicated than the narrative first suggests and too much must be explained at the end-its abruptness maybe because the momma character has not been developed enough to foreshadow the revelations of the story. Or perhaps, because more of Sylvia's adventures are planned and the author was concentrating too much on introducing the major recurring characters. Marshall's pencil drawings dramatically complement this pivotal moment in a young girl's life.(Fiction. 8-10)
