50% Off The Criterion Collection Shop Now

Mister and Me

Add to Wishlist

Mister and Me

eBook

$5.99

eBook
$5.99

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.

WANT A NOOK? Explore Now

Buy As Gift

Related collections and offers

Overview

Jolene's family was just Momma and Grandpa until big, loud Leroy Redfield started taking Momma dancing. Jolene refuses to call him anything but "Mister." Without a name, he isn't a real person to her. But then Jolene learns that Mister wants to marry Momma. Is there anything Jolene can do to make him go away?

"The warmth and love in the Johnson household envelops the novel... Jolene's willingness to face the uncertainties of her future may well give courage to readers confronting sea changes of their own."-Publishers Weekly

Awards:

( New York Public Library "100 Titles for Reading and Sharing"
( A Texas Bluebonnet Master List Book

Product Details
About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101077078
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	11/01/2000
Series:	Chapter, Puffin Series
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	80
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Kimberley Willis Holt is the author of My Louisiana Sky and the winner of the 1999 National Book Award for When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. She lives in Amarillo, Texas.
Leonard Jenkins lives in New York City.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

Holt (My Louisiana Sky) returns to Louisiana for this touching slice of life in a 1940 mill town. Young Jolene Jasmine Johnson can't change certain things about her world, like having to sit in the rear balcony at the movie theater, and acting polite to "Miz" Logan, the mill owner's wife for whom Jolene's mother sews dresses. But the outspoken heroine believes that she can keep things happy at home. That is, until logger Leroy Redfield, a man "dark as a starless night, tall and thick as a long-leaf pine tree," comes courting her widowed mother. Holt handily employs Jolene's first-person narration to focus more on the music of Louis Armstrong, community dances and family life than on societal clashes; the warmth and love in the Johnson household envelops the novel. The author balances Jolene's blatant displays of resentment toward her mother's beau (at one point, she cuts up the expensive fabric he has bought for Jolene's mother) with patience and tolerance from Leroy ("plain Mister" as Jolene calls him), and he eventually secures his future stepdaughter's trust. Jolene's acceptance of her mother's upcoming marriage comes gradually and convincingly, and her willingness to face the uncertainties of her future may well give courage to readers confronting sea changes of their own. Illustrations not seen by PW. Ages 7-11. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 4-6-In this touching short novel set in a 1940s logging community, Jolene Jasmine Johnson is perfectly content with her close little family made up of just herself, Momma, and Grandpa. Then along comes Mister Leroy Redfield, a logger who spoils everything by distracting her mother and wheedling his way into the family with his charm. Although she has no memory of her father, the girl clings to the idea of him, providing her with one more reason to resent the newcomer's intrusion. Despite her efforts to make Mister disappear, Jolene's misdeeds only seem to strengthen his resolve to win her approval and become a permanent fixture in her life. Separate seating areas in the movie theater and her mother's part-time work sewing for white women make it clear that the story takes place in a racially segregated town, but these references are not fully explained. The focus of the story is Jolene's emotional growth and her eventual acceptance of this man whose love and patience allow her to expand her notion of family. Too bad this slim title may fall prey to that ever-important criteria of a requisite number of pages so valued by some teachers.-Lynda Short, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Lexington, KY

School Library Journal

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Related Subjects

Customer Reviews