Melitte [Hardcover]

Fatima Shaik (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up

In 1772, years of mistreatment force thirteen-year-old Melitte to decide whether or not to run away from the Frenchman who has kept her as a slave on his poor Louisiana farm and leave the young girl who is the only person who ever loved her.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8. Shaik explores the psychological effects of slavery in this novel set in Louisiana in the 1760s and 1770s. At the age of six, Melitte can not remember ever having a loving touch?only hard work, rags of clothing, scraps of food, and harsh words. She comes to understand that she is "owned" by a poor, hapless farmer and his cruel, selfish wife. Soon she adds child care to her never-ending chores and experiences love as she forms a sisterlike bond with her owners' baby girl. When their rough cabin burns down, Melitte and the Duroux family are forced to move onto a neighboring plantation where Melitte encounters others like herself and learns fully what it means to be enslaved. By the time she is 13, she realizes that her only hope for freedom is to escape. The emotional first-person narrative and well-researched historical detail paint a vivid picture of the times and provide a wrenching look at slave life. Shaik points out the dehumanizing effect of slavery on the slaveholder as well as on the enslaved as readers watch Melitte's owner (who in actuality is her father) become increasingly callous toward the girl, stealing the money she earned to purchase her freedom. In the hopeful ending, her loving half-sister helps her escape and Melitte arranges to be taken to a camp of runaways. Accessible and affecting historical fiction.?Eunice Weech, M. L. King Elementary School, Urbana, IL
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A novel set in Louisiana that spans the years 176572, when the colony was changing from French to Spanish rule. Narrated by Melitte, a young mulatto slave girl belonging to a feckless farmer and his sadistic wife, the story follows her from the age of six, when she is already working beyond her strength in field and cabin, to the age of thirteen, when, after an unsuccessful attempt to buy her freedom, she runs away. Shaik has vividly imagined the psychic pain of bondage as she traces both Melitte's gradually dawning awareness that her misery and lovelessness are caused by an evil named ``slavery'' and the concomitant growth of her fierce desire for freedom. In the end, Melitte must leave behind the one person she loves--Marie, the young daughter of her owners, who was entrusted to Melitte's care as an infant and who helps her escape. That Marie, the pampered young ``mistress,'' could be as daring and selfless as Shaik shows her at the tender age of six, strains credibility, but the growth of the bond between the girls is convincingly rendered. Full of period detail and vivid sensory writing, this book provides an aching answer to the question, ``What was it like to be a slave?'' (Fiction. 10-14) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Dial; 1st edition (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803721064
• ISBN-13: 978-0803721067
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,292,804 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Children's Books > History > United States > Black History

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exposes the cruelty of slavery through the eyes of a child., September 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Melitte (Hardcover)

Melitte is a slave girl. For as long as she can remember, she has been mistreated by a poor Frenchman and his wife on a failing farm in the Louisina backwoods. It is all she remembers, all she knows. Her mother is dead; she has never know love. Then Marie is born. Melitte should despsise her owners' daughter, but Marie treats Melitte as an equal, and they pledge to be "sisters and friends forever." Until Melitte learns some shocking truths: Melitte's owner is her father. Melitte wonders how her father can do this to her, to hold her in bondage all these years and now sell her. Marie risks losing her parents' love by helping Melitte escape slavery. But when they reach a remote Indian village, the Indians will only lead Melitte on, because they fear the white men will plot revenge on them for stealing a white child. Melitte faces a difficult choice: go back with Marie, or go on alone. In Melitte, Fatima Shaik captures the cruelty and horror of slavery through the eyes of a child.

5.0 out of 5 stars Melitte, November 1, 2002

By 

Hmmcat816 (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Melitte (Paperback)

This is my favorite story of all time. Even though Melitte is uneducated, she shows a greater knowledge of love, bravary, and loyality than of those who are educated. Marie is a strong character, who doesn't judge people by race, wealth, sex, beliefs, or social status, but by what's inside. Fatima Shaik paints a vivid picture of the psychological effects of slavery on the enslaved, slavers, and bystanderds of this dreadful, disgusting period of time. This story is very well researched. And I hope it will be more present on all library shelves everywhere in the furture.

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a hard-knock life when you're a slave., August 26, 2002

By 

"longlash816" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Melitte (Paperback)

Since she was six, Melitte doesn't remember ever having a loving touch, only physical and mental abuse, rags for clothes, scraps of food, and labor that is beyond her capabilty. She realizes that she is "owned" by Monsieur and Madame Duroux, an unsusessful farmer and his mean, selfish wife. When Madame has a baby, Melitte is forced to care for the child as well as cook, clean, farm, and work in the fields with Monsieur. But Melitte and Marie love each other as equals, sisters; Melitte has finally found love. Only several years apart in age, Melitte teaches Marie a coding system that is sewn into her clothing. When the cabin burns, the family moves to the Preval plantation where Monsieur works as a share-cropper, at 13, Melitte questions her enslavement, an unappreciated orphan, and her fate as being unloved and decides to secretly sew clothes for Madame Preval for money for her freedom. Monsieur becomes become increasingly callous toward the girl, stealing the money she earned to purchase her freedom. Marie helps Melitte escape to a camp of runaways. They will remember each other by heart and memory forever.
This is my favorite story of all time. Even though Melitte is uneducated, she shows a greater knowledge of love, bravary, and loyality than of those who are educated. Marie is a strong character, who doesn't judge people by race, wealth, sex, beliefs, or social status, but by what's inside. Fatima Shaik paints a vivid picture of the psychological effects of slavery on the enslaved, slavers, and bystanderds of this dreadful, disgusting period of time. This story is very well researched. And I hope it will be more present on all library shelves everywhere in the furture.