Toning the Sweep (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner) (Hardcover)

by Angela Johnson (Author) "My grandmama Ola says that yellow is the first color she ever remembers seeing..." (more)
Key Phrases: Miss Sally, Little Rock, Martha Jackson

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Fourteen-year-old Emily learns the ritual of "toning the sweep," a way of drumming a plow to create a sound that honors the deceased, in this tale of mourning and healing. Emily, her mother and terminally ill grandmother, Ola, meet at Ola's home in the desert to pack her up for a move to Cleveland, where Ola will live out the rest of her days. The three extraordinarily strong females reveal stories of grief and hardship--including the lynching of Ola's husband in 1964 Alabama--that have undoubtedly fostered the inspirational resilience in each of their personalities. Narrated by all three, this bittersweet tale offers hope, humor and insight. It won the 1994 Coretta Scott King Award.

From Publishers Weekly
With several picture books already to her credit, Johnson ( When I Am Old with You ) makes an especially promising foray into YA fiction with this thoughtfully nuanced and penetrating novel. Emily, the 14-year-old who serves as the principal narrator, spends a bittersweet few days with her much-loved grandmother, Ola, who lives in the California desert. Ola has been diagnosed with cancer, and Emily and her mother are helping to pack up the house so that Ola can move into their home in Cleveland. Ola, Mama and Emmie, all three African American, are almost extraordinarily resilient and independent, but Johnson portrays them believably. Traits that might have come across as quirky instead seem well integrated as Johnson delicately and gradually unfolds the past events that fostered such inner strength--events including the lynching of Ola's husband in 1964 Alabama. Although plagued by occasional moments of self-importance ("You can't get away from the things that make you sad, Mama says. I believe that. Sad can be bigger than happy sometimes"), the prose is generally understated, gaining added texture from passages narrated by Ola and Mama. Depicting a heroine who learns to balance the most urgent feelings of love and loss, Johnson herself balances powerful themes with poise and skill. Ages 11-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 103 pages
• Publisher: Orchard Books (NY); 1St Edition edition (April 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0531054764
• ISBN-13: 978-0531054765
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,034,029 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Toning the Sweep, November 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Toning The Sweep (Mass Market Paperback)

Toning the Sweep is a great book by Angela Johnson. The main characters of this book are a girl named Emily, her mother whose name is Diane, and her grandmother, whose name is Ola. Ola and Emily are very close. Throughtout the novel, you can tell that Emily's mother is jealous of the relationship that Emily and Ola share. Towards the beginning of the book Emily and her mother find out that Ola has cancer. There are alot of happy moments in the book such as when Emily viedotapes her grandmother under the Joshua tree. In the book you can see how much Emily cares for her grandmother. The book is based on relationships between mothers and daughters.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Toning the Sweep, May 27, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Toning The Sweep (Mass Market Paperback)

Toning the Sweep is about Emily, a rebellious young adult who lives with her family in Ohio. However, the story is set in the desert where Emily's Grandma, Ola, lives. Unlike her mother, Emily loves the desert and is devoted to Ola and their annual trip to the desert is the highlight of her year. When Ola becomes ill with cancer, in their concern for Ola's health, Emily's family decides to have Ola come and live with them in Ohio. In her last summer in the desert,Emily makes a videotape of the desert for Ola and in the process finds out about her family history and the tradgic death of her Grandfather. I enjoyed this book because I think that it is well-writen and I admired the way that Ola is dying with grace in the story.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars [e-mail]'s Review, November 21, 2000

By	[e-mail] (New Pennwashington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toning The Sweep (Mass Market Paperback)

In the novel Toning The Sweep, Emily, who is the main character, is telling her story about how she and her mother, Mama, are going out to California. They are going out there to pick up Emily's grandmother, Ola, who has cancer. Ola is slowly dying. She moved out to California after her husband was killed. Ola has many friends in California but she had to leave them because she is going back to Cleveland, where Mama and Emily are going to take care of her. The book get the name toning the sweep came from a local custom that occurs when someone dies. They hit a plow so that it makes a loud tone to let everyone know that someone had died. Emily learns this as she get to know her grandmother more and more. The book shows how three generations can come together and share what has happened and what they think will happen. Although I did not like the book that much, I thought that it was good in telling everything that can be learned by talking to different generations.