If you were to ask me what happened in March, I wouldn’t even be able to tell you. For some reason, March is a blur for me. I remember being happy about the start of a new season with the earth coming back alive again. But the rest seems to have fallen out of my short term memory. Which…I guess that means nothing of significance happened to or around me for the month of March. Just work, home, sleep. What an awful rut that is.
Anyway! I read two books for March, and again, they were children’s books but I still enjoyed them just the same.
Born on the Water (1619 project)
I first heard of the 1619 project a few years ago but never looked much into it to see what it was really about and what the authors were trying to achieve. The book I saw was an adult book. I happened to find this children’s version of the 1619 project in one of my university buildings during a huge book giveaway. One of the old buildings is getting renovated any many employees were moved to new areas. Anything they didn’t want was left in the building and anyone could come and grab whatever they wanted. All the books were piled into one room and open for the taking. I grabbed this and a few other books.
This little book tells the story of a little girl who is discovering where her ancestors come from. She is in elementary school and one of the activities she had to do was tell about her family and where they came from. She was originally sad because she did not know where she came from whereas everyone else in her class could tell stories of their family members being from Germany or China or Brazil or anywhere else in the world. The only thing she knew about her ancestors were that they were slaves here in the U.S. So, the story follows her grandmother telling her about how their ancestors came from a kingdom in Africa before the slave trade. The grandmother said a name that I can’t remember as of typing this, but the area today would be a part of the west coast of central Africa, specifically.
Overall, it was a very sweet story and I’m sure many Black Americans will feel some kind of connection to it. As for me, I felt some distance from the story because even though I am considered “black” in this country, I know that my ancestors were not from Africa. Darker skinned indigenous American tribes existed here in the U.S.A, mostly in the south east, and they were enslaved right alongside the African imported slaves.
I have spoken with my grandmothers and my great grandmother who is still alive today at age 99. I have seen the pictures of my ancestors before them. I have and am continuing to do my own genealogy research. And what I’ve found is that my ancestors have always been right here on American soil. I have seen the records where the race has been changed for the same ancestor across different records. I’ve seen that they used to have land then suddenly they didn’t. I’ve done the research on how the colonizers wrote in their journals that were found that the darker skinned “Indians” looked just like the Africans and “negroes”, and how it was put into law that anyone that looked like a “negro” would be considered one. I’ve seen how natives were listed down on records as Indian, then changed to “mulatto”, then “negro”, then “black”, then “African American”. My second great grandmother is one specifically that I’ve found where this can be seen across her records. I’ve spent a lot of time and money tracing my family history.
I can appreciate this book, but all of us are not from Africa just because we have dark skin and textured hair. Would I still recommend this book? Sure. I don’t see why not. But keep in mind that it does not represent all Black Americans. The answers for your family history are in your own genealogy.
A Midsummer Night’s Faery Tale
I picked up this book solely because of Wendy Froud. I know that she is the wife of Brian Froud who has done work such as Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. I love their imagination when it comes to mythical creatures such as faeries and goblins and anything else from the realm of the fae. This book is filled with pictures of Wendy Froud’s dolls in her and Brian’s signature style and I loved every minute of gazing at this book!
The story is about a little root faery named Sneezle who goes on a quest to retrieve the queen’s crown so that the faerie queen can be crowned for the Midsummer festival. Of course there is adventure, and danger, and new friendships, and another faerie trying to steal the crown so she can be crowned instead. It was a fun little adventure book and it launched me back into those feelings of childhood where absolutely everyday is filled with imagination and magic. I recommend this book whole heartedly. If you are an adult and are thinking about getting this for your young child, maybe read it first because some of the faeries can be a little mean spirited at times.
Well, that was it for my reading month. I did not get to a novel length book this month, but that’s okay. I still enjoyed what I read. So far, my reading month of April is going well and I’m looking to complete 2 or 3 books this month. I’ve also started writing again which has been quite fun for me.
Thanks for reading!
~ TheCloudRunner 💜
The Cloud Runner 