Midnight Without a Moon
by Linda Williams Jackson
Hi! Have you ever felt favored by a teacher or a parent or a coach? Or have you ever felt the opposite? Rejected or mistreated? Well, Rose has felt mistreated just because of her skin color. All she wants to do is get out of Mississippi.
This book is set during the time of Emmett Till. He was a black boy who was shot because he whistled at a white woman. It sparked a change in Mississippi and it was how blacks started getting equal rights.
Rose has had a hard life ever since she was seven years old. She never knew her Daddy and her Mama left to marry another man and take care of his kids. Rose was left with her grandparents, Ma Pearl and Papa. Ma Pearl was extremely strict. If you got dirt on a dress, for example, she would whip you! Rose has been experiencing some hard things just because she is “colored.” She wants to get out of Mississippi and make a new life for herself. However, when she has been denied the opportunity to learn, she doesn’t know how she’s going to do it.
This book was a little hard for me. After Abraham Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation, I thought that blacks had equal rights. But, they didn’t really. This book mentioned some people getting shot just because they registered to vote! It was pretty sad to think about what they had to go through.
I love the character Hallelujah, who is Rose’s best friend. He might have been afraid to stand up for his rights, but he did it anyway. He also smuggled Rose some newspapers that talked about the hard things that were going on that some other papers tried to cover up. I would like to be as brave as Hallelujah because bravery isn’t being unafraid, it’s being afraid and still overcoming the fear.
I cannot think of another book that’s like this one. However, there is a sequel to Midnight Without a Moon. It’s called A Sky Full of Stars. I can’t wait to read it!
Will Rose be able to get out of Mississippi? Will all of these hard things stop happening? Or will everything remain the same in Mississippi? As I always say, read the book to find out!
A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:
“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor – zero being not scary at all and five being majorly scary): 4
“Yucky-Lovey Stuff” (how I describe the romance factor – zero having no yucky-lovey parts in it and five having major yucky-lovey parts): 4
I give this book 5 wands.
I really loved this book! It shows you some of the hard things that exist in the world that some people might not be able to understand. The great thing about books is that they can give you a perspective that you might not have been able to have if you didn’t read them.
A note from Emmie’s mom: This is a beautiful story that I loved reading as well! However, there are some mature and difficult themes in this book. I actually read this book several years ago, and have just now decided that it was an appropriate time for Emmie (11 years old) to read it. I would recommend that you read it first to decide if it is appropriate for your child.
