Full Cicada Moon - review
"Girls learn how to cook and sew so they can be good homemakers. Why would you want to make a bookcase when you can make a cake?" But I want to ask her why wouldn't I.
- Flying to Vermont - January 1, 1969
It was like we were all in the Other check box, having in common speaking English, being American, and feeling that we didn't belong either in our parents' worlds or in this one.
- Flying to Vermont - January 1, 1969
Even now, that day reminds me that raindrops are stronger than hammers.
- Summer 1969
Half-black, half-Japanese Mimi just moved to a mostly white town in Vermont. It is 1969, and girls are expected to take Home Ec and grow up to be housewives or maybe teachers. Mimi is different. She wants to take Shop class and she wants to be an astronaut. Her teachers and classmates may laugh, but Mimi is determined. When the people in town look at her, they see what is different about her and make comments about her race. Mimi wants to take shop and she won't let anything stand in her way, not even the rules or the principal.
I liked this book. Mimi is a strong female character. She doesn't let people tell her no. Even when people look at her and judge her by her looks or her sex, she doesn't let that stop her from trying to get what she wants. The novel is written in verse and takes place over the course of a year as she adjusts to her new town.
This is a good story to show kids what it means to be a friend and how one person standing up for what they believe in can make a difference.
