The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis

Mother and Jimmie cannot dissuade him, and Deza is too upset to even say goodbye.Īfter a month passes without word from Father, Mother learns that she is out of a job as her wealthy employers are going to Europe. Father decides on the heels of that defeat that he must leave Gary to try to find work in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. Just as Father begins to sound like himself again, he and many other Americans suffer a disappointment: The Black American boxer, Joe Louis, strongly favored to win a much-hyped boxing match against the white German Max Schmeling, loses. Mother, Deza, and Jimmie help nurse Father back to health. Their small rowboat lost its anchor, drifted, and flipped. A week passes before Father finally comes home injured and traumatized.

Mother and the wife of another man in the fishing group find their abandoned truck, but there is no sign of the men. To Deza’s shock and dismay, Father does not come home.

Father goes on a fishing trip with three of his friends to Lake Michigan, despite Mother’s warnings against the dangers of the open water. Summer begins, and Deza spends time at the public library with her best friend, Clarice. Needham gives Deza a new dress and shoes out of kindness. Needham also tells Deza she has great promise as a scholar and offers her advanced tutoring. Needham, in an effort to calm Deza’s flowery language and overly long pages, gives her an A- instead of the A+ she expected. The essay is about her family, and she knows it deserves six pages instead of the requested two. Needham, her wonderful sixth grade teacher. The narrative opens with Deza checking over her last essay of the year for Mrs. She also loves to read and hopes to be a teacher someday. Deza enjoys school and is proud of her excellent marks. Deza, however, has a spirited, optimistic outlook, and she handles difficulties admirably with her family members by her side: Mother, who cleans for a wealthy family Father, who looks for work every day and Jimmie, Deza’s 15-year-old brother, well-known locally for his impressive singing. The ongoing Great Depression serves up plenty of challenges in her life her single pair of shoes are too small and have no heels, for example, and without money for a dentist, her painful cavities worsen. Deza Malone is a 12-year-old Black American girl who lives in Gary, Indiana in 1936.

The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis