Celeste's Harlem Renaissance [Hardcover]

Eleanora E. Tate (Author)

Book Description

Grade Level: 3 and up

When Celeste Lassiter Massey is forced to live with her actress Aunt Valentina in Harlem, she is not thrilled to trade her friends and comfortable North Carolina for scary, big-city life. While Celeste experiences the Harlem Renaissance in full swing, she sees as much grit as glamour. A passionate writer, talented violinist, and aspiring doctor, she eventually faces a choice between ambition and loyalty, roots and horizons. The decision will change her forever.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7–In 1921, when her father is sent to a tuberculosis sanitarium, motherless 13-year-old Celeste takes the train from her home in Raleigh, NC, to Harlem, NY, to live with her glamorous Aunt Valentina. She soon finds herself scrubbing theater floors with Val and living in a windowless studio apartment. When Val lands a spot in the chorus of a groundbreaking Broadway musical, Celeste mixes with African-American celebrities until she is called back home to care for her abusive Aunt Society, who has suffered a stroke. This enjoyable story is crammed full of well-researched historical details. Celeste evolves from a wide-eyed, naive, bashful girl into a young woman unafraid to speak up for herself and follow her dream to be a doctor. Aunti Val is a self-absorbed yet charismatic woman struggling to make her way, too often at the expense of Celeste's needs. Tate deftly handles the complexities of their relationship. She draws her characters with charming humor and multidimensional candor. At times her tone is cloying, though, and the dialogue tends to lay on a Gee whiz! aspect with a heavy hand. She loads the book with references to real historical figures and events, sometimes to the detriment of narrative flow. The predictable plot aside, however, fans of historical fiction will stick with Celeste, eager to see her true blossoming at the end. Gail Carson Levine's Dave at Night (HarperCollins, 1999) is a faster-paced novel set during the Harlem Renaissance.–Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS
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From Booklist

After her mother dies and her father falls ill, 13-year-old Celeste is sent to her aunt Valentina, a singer and dancer in Harlem. Leaving Raleigh, North Carolina, is hard, and once in New York City, she is upset to learn that her aunt isn't a famous performer after all. Barely scraping by, Valentina asks Celeste to scrub floors for money. The Harlem Renaissance has begun, though, and Valentina introduces Celeste to the many legendary artists who congregate at the local cafe. Then Celeste is called back to North Carolina to help care for an elderly aunt, and she meets her challenges with the strength, realism, and courage she discovered during her stay in New York. Celeste's encounters with famous African Americans often feel contrived, but readers will connect with her strong, regional voice ("I felt lower than a snail's tail"), her ambitions, and the enormous responsibilities she confronts at such a young age. Both sobering and inspiring, Tate's novel is a moving portrait of growing up black and female in 1920s America. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316523941
• ISBN-13: 978-0316523943
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,591,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Celeste's Stellar Story, November 26, 2007

By 

Kemie Nix "Founder, Children's Literature for... (Peachtree City, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Celeste's Harlem Renaissance (Hardcover)

A motherless teenager at thirteen, Celeste lives with her beloved, consumptive father and abrasive Aunt Society in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1921. Despite Aunt Society's extreme strictness and terrible cooking, CeCe's life is relatively happy. She has supportive friends and recognition for her school work. Although her circumstances are modest, CeCe is talented and ambitious. She plays a mean violin, which she calls "DeDe," and plans to become a doctor. Her only other close relative is an aunt who shows up periodically from what Cece believes is a glamorous existence in Harlem.

Cece's circumstances are worse than modest, they are exceedingly precarious. When her father is sent to a sanatorium, she is bundled off to New York to live with Aunt Valentina. Auntie meets her at the train station, but instead of taking her to a beautiful home, she takes her to a theater. This is not the expected theater where her aunt is a star. This is a theater where they both scrub the stage on their hands and knees until CeCe is so exhausted, she keeps falling down on the way to her aunt's tiny, windowless apartment. Her introduction to Harlem is harsh indeed. As a former companion to an opera singer,however, her aunt does know many of the people who are part of the Harlem Renaissance. Gradually, despite the grinding work, CeCe is introduced to them.

Filled with colorful characters - including Aunt Society - the author brings to vivid life a wonderful protagonist. CeCe seems absolutely real. She is ultimately presented with an ethical decision that would stagger a wise adult. Played out against the backdrop of the segregated south with its myriad oppressions and Harlem during the Renaissance period with its myriad chances, CeCe is influenced by both but overwhelmed by neither. A strong young heroine in a stellar story.