Monday, March 26, 2007

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy: A Book Review

Gary D. Schmidt, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (New York: Clarion, 2004), 219 pages.


It’s 1911. The Buckminster family moves to Phippsburg, Maine where Turner’s father has been called as the pastor for the Congregational Church. But Turner isn’t happy about the move. They don’t play baseball in Maine like they do in Boston. He has a hard time making friends and quickly gets into fights with the local boys while upsetting many of the townsfolk. His father, a strict disciplinarian, requires Turner to make amends by visiting the elderly Mrs. Cobb. He spends afternoons reading and playing the organ for her. Although Turner doesn’t make many friends in town, he befriends Lizzie Bright, a young Afro-American girl who lives on Malaga Island. As their friendship grows, Turner begins to learn some terrible truths about his town.

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy is written for 6th to 9th grade students. The novel is set against the backdrop of an actual racial cleansing, the forceful removal of black citizens from Malaga Island. The reason for their removal is economic, the town wants to develop the island and they don’t want to support the island residents on their welfare rolls. Some of the residents move voluntarily, but those who remained were moved to a state mental institution. According to documents from the time, one of those who were forcefully removed was a young girl. Although her identity isn’t known, Schmidt gives her a name and creates her an identity in the character of Lizzie Bright while telling the Malaga Island story through the eyes of a boy.

At first Turner’s father seems to sides with the interest of the town. Everyone is worried that the shipyard is going to close and if so the town will fail. They want to develop a tourist industry. But Turner father’s changes his position and challenges the removals as illegal and immoral and against the principles of the gospel. For this, he’s attacked by the town’s leading citizens. The attacks are not just verbal and he dies from a fall he takes when wrestling with a man as the island is being attacked. The surprise in the book is that Mrs. Cobb dies and bequeaths her home to Turner. Turner wants to allow Lizzie to live there, thinking that’s what Mrs. Cobb wanted, but in the end he and his mother move into the house. Lizzie dies in the insane asylum.

Schmidt does a wonderful job in showing Turner’s growing love for life by the ocean. In Lizzie’s dory, he see’s a whale up close. It’s a life changing experience.

I found that the adult characters in the book to be too predictably. Their language is filled with clichés. However, in my life, I have heard some of the same “economic logic” be used by people trying to legitimize their own racial feelings. Also, there are some characters in the book that don’t seem fully developed. One is Mrs. Hurd, an old woman who is sent by her son to the insane asylum. Another is Jonah, Lizzie’s father, who is mentioned throughout the book as if something happened to him, getting me curious, but you never learned what did happen to him and why was he named Jonah (did I miss it, was there a clue in the whales?) However, I find this to be a good book. It opens our eyes to the problems created by prejudices and I plan to reread it with my 3rd grade daughter.

24 comments:

  1. You read this on your own or were you pre-reading for the daughter?

    I always like the historial take that can be found in "kids books" like Strawberry Girl or Johnny Tremain.

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  2. Is it illustrated? The cover picture is cool.

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    1. No.......... It is actually really boring. tryed reading it and stopped because it was boring...............

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  3. Murf: it was given to me by someone who thought I would enjoy it--and I decided that my daughter should also read it.

    Peri: no, the only illustration is on the cover.

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  4. Someone thought you would enjoy a 6th - 9th grade book? I love this person! :-)

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  5. It's important to remember the not so nice moments in our Nation's history, and to try to learn from those mistakes.

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  6. Excellent review. Sounds like St. Simons Island to some degree. The developers have tried to get the black population to sell for years and so far, most have stubornly resisited. I hope they younger generations hold out too.

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  7. Murf, what do you mean?

    Kevin, check it out--it's a good read.

    Diane, Agreed!

    Pat, a difference is that these folks didn't have good deeds to the land (that they'd lived on for over a hundred years), and they were not paid. Having grown up on the coast of NC, I remember some communities along the sound that was made up of afro-african fisherman, most of those have been developed into condos.

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  8. Sage, even though I generally don't have time to add books to a reading list, I love reading your reviews. It broadens my knowledge if only bit by bit. Thank you.

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  9. One day...one day. Actually I've decided to make a list of some of your reviews and go out and buy one. That way we will have shared a book!

    I'm going to do my Larry Brown reviews as soon as I get back and caught up blogging!

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  10. I was entertained at the thought that someone thought your reading and comprehension ability was that of a 6th-9th grader. :-)

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  11. Tim, thanks!

    Deana, maybe we'll have to choose a book together :)

    Murf, aren't newspapers generally written on a 5th grade level? Just because it was written at a lower grade level, doesn't mean I won't learn something...

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  12. I bought this book a while backfor my older daughters, but never read it myself. I read it last night at the request of my daughter's 4th grade teacher - she's thinking of having her higher level kids read it, or in the alternative, using it for a read-aloud. It's a great story, and while the some of the subject matter is heavy, I think it'd be a worthwhile book for those kids to read.

    Thanks for your review.

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  13. A couple years ago the Bangor Public Library (Maine) picked this as the book for everyone to read for the year. I had my 2 oldest sons (5th and 8th grades then) read it, because I think it is better than most children's literature and has some beautiful writing in it. They didn't care for it. I think due to content young adult and adult probably get more out of it. Although possibly it would appeal to girls more. Not sure about that. I also did a review on my website and have some discussion in my forums.

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  14. It's really a brilliant book that I have read! It talks about how two colored skin people- black and white makes peace with each other and how did they make the whole town impressed about that relationship. Unfortunately, the town people from Phippburg and Turner's own dad were planning to make lizzie's people to go away for tourist attraction.

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  15. I'm a 7th grade English teacher in Tulsa, Ok. I absolutely loved this book, although I think it's probably a little too old for my age group. I think high schoolers would probably enjoy it more than middle schoolers.

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  16. Anonymous (the one who says it is a lame book), as you are not spam, I allowed your comment to post. However,the brevity of your comment (without any support as to why you think that way) along with the fact that you are posting anonymously speaks volumes about the validity of your thoughts.

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  17. The book was not to bad but I think that too many people at the end died....

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  18. I loved the book but the end was kinda sad it made me really upset :(

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  19. It was hysterical when Mrs.Cobbs real last words were "Oh he!! its hot in here get me a ginger ale" instead of her beatiful planned out one about God leading her towards the mountains.

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  20. Im reading this book now and want to keep reading on... Its so interesting!!!

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