Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4 Up - Readers met Maritcha Rémond Lyons in Bolden's Tell All the Children Our Story (Abrams, 2002), in a one-page entry that included an excerpt from her unpublished memoir. The author has now expanded her use of Lyons's memoir, family archival materials, and other primary sources to tell the story of this free black child before, during, and after the Civil War. Maritcha's achievements were extraordinary for her time, gender, and race. During her youth in lower Manhattan, she was exposed to many strong, well-educated adults. Her parents, their friends (some well known), and her own determination carried her through difficult times, including the Draft Riots of 1863, the destruction of the family home and business, and a fight for public education. Strength of family and education were the driving forces in this girl's life. Bolden emphasizes these themes as she skillfully presents interesting facts and a personal view of an often-overlooked segment of history. While the book focuses on Maritcha's childhood, a concluding note discusses her adulthood. (Lyons spent close to 50 years as an educator, including a term as assistant principal of Brooklyn's Public School No. 83.) A number of family documents and photographs are included; period sketches and paintings complete the picture of 19th-century life in New York City. The high quality of writing and the excellent documentation make this a first choice for all collections. - Carolyn Janssen, Children's Learning Center of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 4-7. "Born free in a nation stained by slavery, where free blacks had few rights and rare respect, here was a girl determined to rise, to amount to something." In this captivating biography, Bolden introduces Maritcha Reymond Lyon, born in the mid-1800s into a family of free blacks in Manhattan. Lyon found fame as a teenager in Providence, Rhode Island, when she sued the state to gain admission to the all-white high school--the only high school in town. Bolden's succinct text focuses on Lyon's growing-up, and the attractive spreads feature well-chosen archival photographs and engravings that offer a fascinating glimpse of Lyon's world of "New York City's striving class of blacks." Lyon had a distinguished family, and Bolden shows how its members inspired her to succeed against formidable odds, even when she felt that "the iron had entered my soul." Bolden supplements quotes from Lyon's accounts with extensive research and enthralling detail, and the result is both an inspirational portrait of an individual and a piercing history about blacks in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries--subjects rarely covered in books for youth. An author's note describes Lyon's adult achievements and lends insight into Bolden's research. Notes and a selected bibliography conclude this powerful volume. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810950456
• ISBN-13: 978-0810950450
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 10 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #533,262 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Changes for Maritcha, February 12, 2006

By	E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Credit publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. with a brilliant bit of promotional packaging. You want to put out a non-fiction book for children about an African-American girl growing up in mid-1800s Manhattan. Now you want this to be the kind of book that catches the eye. The book that really makes your average kid sit up and take notice. For certain kinds of girls (I don't like to be sexist about this, but this is probably how the promotional department saw the situation) historical works of non-fiction and fiction can be summed up best in two words: American Girl. I'm sure you're familiar with the American Girl franchise. You know, the dolls that got their own literary series with titles like "Meet Samantha" and "Kaya Saves the Day". American Girl books are difficult to keep on bookstore and library shelves. They fairly fly off. There was even a spin-off series of non-fiction facts with titles like, "Felicity's World", where the girl featured was shown in a big picture on the cover of the book. Do you see where I'm going with this? Harry N. Abrams, Inc. undoubtedly took note of this trend and when "Maritcha" was published, it showed a big beautiful picture of her on the cover with the subtitle, "A Nineteenth-Century American Girl". And you know what? It works like gangbusters. If I stand this book up on top of a library shelf, "Maritcha" is clutched in the hot little hands of an American Girl fanatic within seconds. Even the security guard at one of the New York Public Library branches in which I worked couldn't help but coo over this beautiful title. Now the book isn't perfect by any means. In essence, it pads out a story that could easily have taken half the time to tell. Just the same, it fills a distinct literary need, is written well, and has a lovely little Coretta Scott King Honor to its name. Not too shabby, methinks.

Maritcha Remond Lyons was born a free black in 1848. Her home was lower Manhattan and her family and family friends were an amazing assortment of highly educated, noteworthy, and prominent free black families. Her mother and father ran a boardinghouse for black sailors that doubled as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Blacks were a particularly small portion of the New York City population at this moment in history but at least they were getting along until the Draft Riots hit. In 1863, as Maritcha turned fifteen, her family was forced to flee their home and leave New York altogether. From there on in the girl went on to make history. At the age of sixteen she spoke in front of the Rhode Island state legislature so that they would allow her to attend the school of her choice. When she grew up she became the assistant principal at Brooklyn's Public School No. 83 and wrote an unpublished memoir. The memoir, in turn, fell into the hands of author Tonya Bolden and the rest is "Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl".

With so little material to work from, Bolden is often required to rely purely on speculation at times. For the most part this writing technique is used to its best advantage. For example, she is able to present a painting of blacks of the time period dancing and mingling alongside the caption, "Maritcha's parents were very social and would have attended parties similar to the one captured in this painting". On the opposite page sits a toy which, "Maritcha may have... played with homemade cloth dolls like this one". In her Author's Note Bolden mentions that, "In some cases, given the scarcity of nonderogatory images of blacks in pre-Civil War America, I settled on images that match Maritcha's era and experiences". When I read this I instantly sympathized with the author's dilemma. With such a dearth of material at her disposal, Bolden would have had to clutch at anything and everything that applied to her story and characters. Bolden also mentions that when it comes to children's books about freeborn blacks in antebellum America, you might as well ask for the moon and stars. No such books, aside from this one right now, exist. So kudos there! Of course, the book did rely on some speculations that stretched the limits of how far an author is allowed to hypothesize at times. At one point we read, "What will become of us now? Will we ever return home? Will father be safe? Questions like these no doubt hounded Marticha..." Perhaps, but statements like this can test our credulity.

There were also a couple of continuity errors that confused me at times. I was particularly baffled by the escape that Maritcha's family made during the 1863 riots. We hear that the family was attacked in their home on the second day of the riots and that before the end of the day, "they were in a far safer place, quite possibly in Williamsburg, across the East River". All well and good but a turn of the page and suddenly our heroine's parents are guarding their front hall, "That night". I, having just been told by the book that they headed out to Williamsburg "before dusk", assumed that they were protecting their new Williamsburg home. This turns out not to be the case when we are told at the bottom of the page that, "After nightfall, police officers escorted Maritcha's parents to the East River to catch a steamboat to Williamsburg". This implies that just the parents went back to their original home to protect it after leaving their children in Brooklyn. But because of the way in which this story is presented (Bolden never says that just the parents went back or that the kids were left alone anywhere) the reader ends up confused. Some judicious editing was all that was needed to clean this confusion up.

But for all this, Bolden has done an excellent job with what she had. Consider the inherent difficulties in writing about a person's life from birth to young adulthood when you've hardly any factual evidence at your disposal and very little information to divulge simply because the time period was so long ago. Bolden made it even more difficult for herself when she decided to limit herself to looking only at Marticha's youth. Says Bolden, "Another decision my editor and I made at the outset was to limit the book's focus to Maritcha's youth, a period that the book's primary readership would identify with and find most interesting". To this end the author has done everything in her power to flesh out a story that took place when first person sources were scant at best. Given the scant materials at her disposal, Bolden has culled a one-of-a-kind tale out of the ashes of the past. Few authors can say as much.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Marticha, January 19, 2007

A Kid's Review

I read the book Marticha was a great book. I thought the story was the best. It really put me in her place. I loved this book and I hope that many kids read this in the future. Marticha was a very touching story. While reading the book I realized she was luckier than most African American people.