Ghost Boy by Martin Pistorius with Megan Lloyd Davies

This is an incredible, deeply disturbing and deeply inspiring story, as told by the man who experienced it all. Martin was a healthy, carefree 12 year old from a loving family (parents and a brother and a sister) when his body betrayed him. His body and mind shut down completely. He lived in a vegetative state until he was 16 years old. Then his mind woke up - but only his mind. Martin could not move any part of his body except his eyes. He could not talk. He could not read. He could not communicate. Martin absorbed everything going on around him, but no one knew he was aware for another 9 years. Talk about a living Hell. He was abused emotionally, mentally, physically and sexually by his caregivers over the years at a variety of "care homes" that he attended during the day when his parents worked and for respite when his parents travelled. At times Martin wanted to die and I don't blame him. I can't imagine the horror he experienced with no ability to communicate what he was going through and no ability to stop it. Martin didn't mention it in the book, but I have wondered several times since finishing the book (and listening to his TED Talk) what his parents' reactions were when they found out about the abuse and whether the abusers were held accountable for their actions? Did the Pistorius family report them to the authorities?

Martin's family members were pretty incredible too. First of all, his father, who was his primary caregiver all those years until Martin started his communication journey at age 25. His father was persistent and ceaseless in his care for Martin. It made me teary-eyed reading about it. Talk about unconditional love! Martin's mother was less steady in those years, but she really stepped up once Martin started learning how to use alternative communication. She spent hours and hours with Martin, entering words and phrases into his system so that he wouldn't have to continue using his alphabet board and painstakingly spell out each word. Martin's brother, David, dragged Martin up to the top of a sand dune just so Martin could fill a small jar with sand. And his sister, Kim, was a positive spirit in his life throughout. Really, a remarkable family who lived through a terrible tragedy. Then there is Joanna, the woman who fell in love with Martin and never wavered in that love. She was able (from the start) to see the man inside, instead of the wheelchair and Martin's numerous challenges that he faces every minute of every day.

The "hero" of this story however is Virna van der Walt. Where would Martin be today if it wasn't for her? Virna (an aromatherapist) was the person who suspected that Martin could track what she was saying and doing despite his "locked body". Martin would follow her with his eyes. How incredible that she took the time to notice that! She is the one that talked to Martin's parents about AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) and encouraged them to bring him in for an assessment. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Wendy's Rating: *****

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon

Life is messy. This is a story that shows how complicated life events are. Misinterpretation. Preconceptions. Misunderstandings. Judgements. Assumptions. I teach a Crisis Intervention class and the following sentences come right out of the text book I use in class: "People hear what they expect or what they are sensitive to. When people expect others to judge them, they interpret the actions of others through the lens of their expectations." I could not sum it up any better than that!

This is a story of a 16 year old black boy, Tariq Johnson, who gets shot by a white man in the street after a chain reaction of events that occur because of misunderstanding and preconceived notions. It's set in motion by two men. One is a shopkeeper who knows Tariq and his family really well. The other is a white man who walks out of a different store and mishears the shopkeeper when he is calling Tariq back to give him his change from his recent purchase. The white man thinks (assumes?) the shopkeeper is yelling, "Stop thief!" when really he is yelling, "Stop Tariq!" As the white man grabs Tariq to stop him, he sees the "flash of a gun". Another white man stops the car he is driving, assumes Tariq is threatening the first white man and shoots Tariq dead in the street.

As the story unfolds, everyone explains what they "saw" and what they "know" about Tariq. Depending on who is talking, Tariq was actually holding a Snickers bar for his little sister, Tina, OR he was holding a gun. Tariq was a good guy who did not want to join the Kings (gang) ever, OR he was already Brick's (gang leader) right-hand man in the organization. Tariq owned a blade (a key feature of the Kings gang members) OR he was holding on to a knife for a friend who was sent to prison for killing someone. (The friend actually didn't kill the person - he cut them though. He then took the fall for the actual murderer.) Tariq was wearing gang colors when he was killed OR he wasn't.

This story shows what's wrong with our society. No one takes the time to listen or to see what is actually right in front of their eyes. People jump to conclusions based on someone's supposed connections/affiliations, or skin color, or the clothing that is being worn. The saddest thing in the book for me though is Tariq's best friend, Tyrell, and his little sister, Tina, (who has a developmental delay), misunderstanding a deed that Tariq did for a friend, which implicates Tariq and makes their understanding of him different than what they knew to be true.

This is a powerful story - and definitely relative to the things happening in our nation today. Initially it is confusing because each chapter is a different person's voice - and you don't really know who is who and how they connect to Tariq. It's like different puzzle pieces that you have to put together as you read to understand the bigger picture.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson

I really loved this book! I was a tad hesitant to read it initially because I hate reading about people who are abused and suffering. Once I started it though, I pretty much read it straight through. It is well-written and engaging and I developed strong feelings for the main characters, both negative and positive. Some people seem to be born evil - and some born kind & compassionate, no matter what their circumstances.

It's interesting what people will do to survive, especially if there is a child involved. People will make huge sacrifices for their children, even if they are suffering and scared all the time. The main character, Pheby Delores Brown, (who is based on a real person, Mary Lumpkin) was bi-racial. Her mother was a slave on a plantation and her father was the white plantation owner. Pheby was sent away from the plantation on the day of her mother's funeral by the plantation owner's wife. (Who was a nasty person indeed.) She was taken away to be a "fancy woman". "Fancy women" were sold to the highest bidder at auctions after being taken to a slave jail. Pheby was sent to one of the worst slave jails, owned by one of the cruelest jailers. Pheby refers to this man as The Jailer throughout the book.

The Jailer takes an interest in Pheby and instead of selling her, keeps him for himself. Pheby makes a decision to do what she has to do to survive. Upon arriving at the jail (called Devil's Half Acre), she figures out she is pregnant by the man, and fellow slave, she was in love with (Essex) on the plantation. Since she is worried about her unborn child (who would be born into slavery), she makes a deal with The Jailer. She will live as his "yellow wife" if he doesn't send her son away. She pretty much makes a deal with the devil. He is evil.

This is the second book I have read over the last few months where bi-racial, or very light-skinned black people, make the decision to live as white people in order to avoid racial bias and prejudice and so they can live a better life. In order to do this, they have to leave behind their heritage, parents, history. It's incredibly sad that people were forced to do this. 

Wendy's Rating: *****

The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers

This book was different than I was expecting. This is more of a coming-of-age story of a young girl in the mid-1940s than it is about the wives of the tobacco industry. I really liked it. We find out a lot about the tobacco plantations and factories as well, but 15 year old Maddie Sykes is the main character. Maddie's father dies in the war and her mother, wanting to find a new husband to take care of her, drives Maddie to North Carolina and drops her off at her great aunt's home. Her aunt, Etta, doesn't know Maddie is coming of course, so everyone's life changes instantly. Etta is a well-respected seamstress for the tobacco wives. She custom makes all of their fancy dresses. Etta also re-fits - or adds special custom touches - to ready-made dresses as well for the "second-tier tobacco wives" (the wives of the men with lower management positions within the Bright Leaf tobacco industry.) Fortunately, Maddie also has a great passion for sewing (and fashion/designing, including sketching her own ideas) and has been Etta's "apprentice" for a few years already.

There are two key factors in this story. The first one is that with the war ending (it's 1946), the surviving men are returning to the US and wanting their jobs back. So the women who have been working since the men left for war are being fired from their jobs and told to go back home where they belong. (Barefoot and pregnant, so to speak.) The working women are also being paid less than their male counterparts for doing the same job. Maddie attends a meeting of women (black and white) one night because she believes in equality for women and the meeting is about the organization of a strike against Bright Leaf. Since she works for the top management of Bright Leaf though - and her involvement affects her aunt and her aunt's livelihood (being a seamstress for the tobacco wives), Maddie tries to keep her attendance at this meeting a secret.

The other important element of this story is the executives knowing the harmful effects of tobacco on people - especially pregnant woman (in this story) and their unborn babies - but they continue to market their mint-flavored cigarettes specifically to pregnant women and young mothers because the mint "soothes their nerves". Maddie discovers this information by accident and wants to make it public knowledge. She has seen all the underweight and premature babies at the local hospital. In addition to the that, the tobacco wife who takes her under her wing when Etta falls ill, has already had one miscarriage and is struggling with her current pregnancy.

These are tough issues for a teenager to deal with. Things are initially more black & white for Maddie, who wants to do the "right" thing on all counts. She finds out the hard way that life isn't that simple.

I really didn't know what was going to happen at the end. Maddie is certainly disappointed, but she eventually develops an understanding of how complicated life can be - and that a lot of people's lives are lived in a gray area.

Wendy's Rating: ****