Kizzy Ann is both a typical middle-school student and one that stands out. It's 1963 and Kizzy Ann will be attending an integrated school in Virginia for the first time in her life when she begins school in the fall. She's 12 and her best friend is a stray border collie named Shag. Her story is told through a series of letters and journal entries over the course of that school year.
Kizzy Ann Stamps is a character that one feels drawn to immediately; somehow, no matter that her story takes place during the turbulent 1960s in the south, there is something in her story that others can relate to. Whether it's the fact that her family is looked at differently because they are black or because she is a no-nonsense girl who does what she has to do to follow her dreams, the reader feels as if Kizzy Ann's story is somehow their own.
Each of the characters in this coming-of-age story has a role to play and sometimes their role is not what the reader, or Kizzy, expects. That just makes the story that much more believable. When Kizzy Ann first talks about Frank Charles Feagans and his father, she has a definite opinion of the two of them. The negative feelings she has about the Feagans family isn't helped by the fact that Mr. Feagans is allowed to have Kizzy publicly switched for something beyond her control, simply because he is white and she is not. However, her opinions of the family, and especially Frank Charles, change over the course of her journal entries. The reader isn't surprised at the turn of events, although Kizzy Ann is.
I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher.
Read more of this review:
http://www.examiner.com/review/review-kizzy-ann-stamps-by-jeri-watts?cid=db_articles
Kizzy Ann Stamps is a character that one feels drawn to immediately; somehow, no matter that her story takes place during the turbulent 1960s in the south, there is something in her story that others can relate to. Whether it's the fact that her family is looked at differently because they are black or because she is a no-nonsense girl who does what she has to do to follow her dreams, the reader feels as if Kizzy Ann's story is somehow their own.
Each of the characters in this coming-of-age story has a role to play and sometimes their role is not what the reader, or Kizzy, expects. That just makes the story that much more believable. When Kizzy Ann first talks about Frank Charles Feagans and his father, she has a definite opinion of the two of them. The negative feelings she has about the Feagans family isn't helped by the fact that Mr. Feagans is allowed to have Kizzy publicly switched for something beyond her control, simply because he is white and she is not. However, her opinions of the family, and especially Frank Charles, change over the course of her journal entries. The reader isn't surprised at the turn of events, although Kizzy Ann is.
I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher.
Read more of this review:
http://www.examiner.com/review/review-kizzy-ann-stamps-by-jeri-watts?cid=db_articles
