Zora and Me: The Summoner

Starred review from September 1, 2020

Gr 5 Up-In the final installment of the Zora and Me trilogy, readers return to life in Eatonville with 14-year-olds Carrie, Zora, and Teddy. A few years older, we find the trouble that always seems to follow this fictionalized version of acclaimed author Zora Neale Hurston has grown, too. When a white vigilante group sweeps through idyllic Eatonville, the first incorporated all-Black city in the United States, they leave the town reverberating with the shock of a man lynched within their borders. As with the other entries in this series, Zora's mind begins to spin a web of stories to explain the seemingly inexplicable events around her. Who is summoning the dead in Eatonville, and why? Through lush, descriptive language, readers see the trio wrestle with fear, grief, relationships, changing family dynamics, and of course, racism at the turn of the 20th century. With short chapters, Bond ushers readers through this well-crafted historical novel with hints of mystery. VERDICT Readers who are unfamiliar with the first two novels in the series will miss some of the allusions to earlier events, though the book could stand alone. However, the full character arcs unfold beautifully over the course of the trilogy, one that has a place in any school library.-Monisha Blair, Rutgers Univ., NJ

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2020
This final entry in the Zora and Me trilogy (most recently, The Cursed Ground, rev. 9/18) is the darkest, with "an epistolary prologue" noting the year in which the novel is set, 1905, as one of "grief and loss"; the book opens with a chain-gang escapee hunted down and lynched by white vigilantes and closes with fourteen-year-old Zora Neale Hurston leaving Eatonville, Florida, forever. This installment is a departure in that it focuses less on the mystery plot and more on Zora's personal story: tensions between Zora and her self-aggrandizing preacher father escalate to the point where, after her mother's death and her father's remarriage, she leaves the family and moves away. But before that, there is a mystery for Zora and best friend/narrator Carrie to investigate -- and as always in this series, it's one tied to the realities of life in the Jim Crow South. After elderly resident Chester Cools dies, his grave is desecrated and his body goes missing. Several clues lead Zora and Carrie to believe he might be a zombie, and in fact the troubled man had referred to himself that way. The girls eventually learn that he had been lynched as a youth and survived: "Chester Cools understood perfectly what he had become: a zombie, which by another name meant the victim of trauma who'd never really healed." An epilogue flashes forward to describe (fictional) Zora's later life and (real-life) accomplishments; back matter fills in the story even more completely, with a biography, timeline, and bibliography.

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2020
This final entry in the Zora and Me trilogy (most recently, The Cursed Ground, rev. 9/18) is the darkest, with "an epistolary prologue" noting the year in which the novel is set, 1905, as one of "grief and loss"; the book opens with a chain-gang escapee hunted down and lynched by white vigilantes and closes with fourteen-year-old Zora Neale Hurston leaving Eatonville, Florida, forever. This installment is a departure in that it focuses less on the mystery plot and more on Zora's personal story: tensions between Zora and her self-aggrandizing preacher father escalate to the point where, after her mother's death and her father's remarriage, she leaves the family and moves away. But before that, there is a mystery for Zora and best friend/narrator Carrie to investigate -- and as always in this series, it's one tied to the realities of life in the Jim Crow South. After elderly resident Chester Cools dies, his grave is desecrated and his body goes missing. Several clues lead Zora and Carrie to believe he might be a zombie, and in fact the troubled man had referred to himself that way. The girls eventually learn that he had been lynched as a youth and survived: "Chester Cools understood perfectly what he had become: a zombie, which by another name meant the victim of trauma who'd never really healed." An epilogue flashes forward to describe (fictional) Zora's later life and (real-life) accomplishments; back matter fills in the story even more completely, with a biography, timeline, and bibliography. Martha V. Parravano

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from September 1, 2020
Zombies, grave robbers, and grief feature in this trilogy finale fictionalizing author Zora Neale Hurston's early years. In 1905, 14-year-old Carrie and her best friend, Zora, begin eighth grade, their final year of primary school in their hometown of Eatonville, Florida, the nation's first incorporated Black-run town. When a violent White lynch mob arrives hunting a Black fugitive and terrorizing Zora, Carrie, and their families and neighbors, the future seems uncertain. A grave robbery and talk of hoodoo and zombieism heighten tensions within the community. In the midst of the turmoil, Zora's self-important father decides to run for mayor against the town's founder as Zora's mother's health worsens. Zora, smart, ambitious, and sharp-tongued, boldly challenges traditions, especially those that limit opportunities for girls and women, even as she navigates uncertainty and loss. Bond does the real-life storyteller Hurston proud, weaving an absorbing tale of the everyday horrors Black people faced in the South at the turn of the 20th century, even within the bounds of communities such as Eatonville. Both fans of and newcomers to the award-winning Zora & Me series will thoroughly enjoy this thrilling conclusion. A sweet, lyrical, finely crafted mystery and a testament to the deep bonds of friendship. (biography, timeline, bibliography, adaptations of Hurston's work for children) (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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