The Mighty Miss Malone

by Christopher Paul Curtis, Bahni Turpin (Reading)

"We are a family on a journey to a place called wonderful" is the motto of Deza Malone's family. Deza is the smartest girl in her class in Gary, Indiana, singled out by teachers for a special path in life. But the Great Depression has hit Gary hard, and there are no jobs for black men. When her beloved father leaves to find work, Deza, Mother, and her older brother Jimmie go in search of him, and end up in a Hooverville outside Flint, Michigan. Jimmie's beautiful voice inspires him to leave the camp to be a performer, while Deza and Mother find a new home, and cling to the hope that they will find Father. The twists and turns of their story reveal the devastation of the Depression and prove that Deza truly is the Mighty Miss Malone.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens, Historical, Audiobook

Audio

First published January 10, 2012

About the author

Curtis was born in Flint, Michigan on May 10, 1953 to Dr. Herman Elmer Curtis, a chiropodist, and Leslie Jane Curtis, an educator. The city of Flint plays an important role in many of Curtis's books. One such example is Bucking the Sarge, which is about a fifteen year old boy named Luther T. Ferrel, who is in a running battle with his slum-lord mother. Curtis is an alumnus of the University of Michigan-Flint.

Curtis is the father of two children, Steven, an ensign in the United States Navy, and Cydney, a college student and accomplished pianist. His third child is expected to make an appearance in 2011. Christopher modeled characters in Bud, Not Buddy after his two grandfathers—Earl “Lefty” Lewis, a Negro league baseball pitcher, and 1930s bandleader Herman E. Curtis, Sr., of Herman Curtis and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression.

Curtis moved to Detroit, Michigan in January, 2009

Reviews

[Caz (littlebookowl) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually said "awww" out loud in disappointment when the story ended. I wanted more! I was so drawn to Miss Deza Malone, I could have listened to her speak all day long.

I loved how she told stories and spoke with such love and pride about her family. I loved seeing her interact with the people around her. I loved her love for reading and writing. Mostly, I loved seeing the experiences of the Malone's, an African American family affected by the devastation of the Great Depression, through the eyes of such a young and intelligent girl. You follow Deza as she becomes aware of her situation as a black girl in a society filled with prejudice and racism. The passages where she explains how she can't see herself in stories, where the characters are always described as "pale" and "fair", broke my heart.
Despite the constant struggles, heartache and pain Deza and her family experience throughout the novel, Deza's voice is bright, hopeful and inspiring. Had another character narrated the story it likely would have been more depressing, but I don't think it would have been nearly as impactful.

[Julie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Larry McMurtry wrote Moving On, the first novel of what would later became his Houston series, he introduced a “B character,” a friend's mother, named Aurora Greenway, a young widow with a highly comical habit of parking her giant Cadillac yards from the curb so she wouldn't scrape its pretty tires. This friend's mother appears in only two scenes of that novel, but she captured Mr. McMurtry's attention to the extent that he could not stop thinking about her. The only solution, ultimately, was to give her a novel of her very own: Terms of Endearment.

Something very similar happened when Christopher Paul Curtis wrote his Newbery Medal winner, Bud, Not Buddy. A 12-year-old girl named Deza Malone shows up for 5 pages of Buddy's story, and she just couldn't help herself. . . in five pages she captured not only Buddy's heart, but the hearts of both the author and the readers.

Thirteen years later, Mr. Curtis decided he must give Deza her very own novel: The Mighty Miss Malone.

I mean no disrespect to any man reading this review, but. . . damn, when you have a colorful, complex female in your story, real or fictional, all other characters pale in comparison.

This is a brilliant work that was about 50 pages too long and didn't know quite where to end, and still my two daughters and I will think about Miss Deza Malone for the rest of our days.

Remember, much is required of her to whom much has been given.

Bravo, Mr. Curtis!

[Minne · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I know now is, I will never disrespect money again. Period.


Have you ever imagined what life would be like if you were gravely poor? To have to suffer worm and bug infested oatmeal because that's the only way you'll ever make your three meals a day, or endure endless, painful bites of stones through your sole less shoes because it's either that or no shoes at all? Have you ever imagined a life of impoverishment? I'm a hypocrite. I know I say I love books that indulge all my faculties, books that push me over the edge with plaguing thoughts and musings, but I don't like to think about things like this. I hate having to think about things like this. I do not want to imagine a life of poverty, of rationing and mincing and penny-pinching. I prefer being oblivious to it all - to the hard truth that there are people who really have to live through such. I am very grateful to this book for not sparing my petty feelings at all.

“Once upon a time …” If I could get away with it, that’s how I’d begin every essay I write. -Deza

And yet, If books could be described in terms of dispositions, I would say this book is quite bouncy - even though it's filled to the margins with gloomy themes, hopeful, extremely hopeful.

We are the only family in the world, in my ken, that has a motto of our own! That motto is “We are a family on a journey to a place called Wonderful.”
I can’t wait until we get there!

▶ THE STORY LINE
This follows the story of a 12 year old girl, Deza Malone, and her family, as they try to navigate through the difficulties that came with living in one of the darkest times in American history. We get a daunting view of what life was like for their African American family in the time of The Great Depression.

▶ LITTLE PICTURES AND BIG PICTURES
The way I see it, this story can be painted in two pictures.
✔ The phenomenal story of one family's journey in a time of great hardship.
✔ Life as it was in the time of The Great Depression.
And the incredible thing about both pictures is, they aren't mutually exclusive. They're like two great halves of one great, big picture. I was torn between wanting to be part of the the first picture - Deza's inspiring family, and dreading and cringing at the high cost it came with. Because, like I said, both pictures aren't mutually exclusive, so I very well couldn't be part of the first picture without suffering through the second. And that's why this was a fine mess of a story that continuously left me with a bitter sweet feeling.
My rollercoaster of feels

There's that lingering feeling of sweetness that comes with reading about the significance of love and the most basic human connections and relationships: Marriage, family, siblinghood, friendship, relationship - platonic and otherwise. Knowing that sometimes they are the only things that last, the only things we have when all is truly lost, is honestly one of the sweetest and most humbling things to read about. You'd never imagine that a family could be so broken, but manage to get by without actually breaking.

❗ I'll point out that I'm actually still struggling, trying to figure out which one of the two is the big picture, and which one the little.

▶ THE TRUTH ABOUT LIFE
There was a poem recited by Deza's teacher that really stuck to me. The great truth of it did.

"That’s from Burns, my favorite Scottish poet. We’ll be studying him later.
The poem is called ‘To a Mouse.’"
Mrs. Needham closed her eyes.
“The best-laid schemes
o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft a-gley
And leave us nought
but grief and pain
For promised joy.”

I didn’t understand a bit of it.
Mrs. Needham said, “Burns wrote this after he was plowing his field and accidentally destroyed a mouse’s nest. He tells the mouse that even though its home is ruined, it’s still better off than most humans because the mouse only looks at the present, while people look to the past and end up being sad, or look to the future and end up worrying. No matter how well a mouse, or a human being, plans for the future, those plans ‘gang aft a-gley.’ In other words, no matter how well you think something through, many times schemes simply will not work out. They will go astray.”

This life truth is applied at various times in the story. Plans and schemes simply will not work out sometimes. It's the truth. It's law. It's life. It's something not even fictional characters are immune to. It's something Deza and her family continuously experienced and suffered through. I don't know much about the Great Depression really, but I do know it was a very severe time to live in. This book explores all of it in ways accessible to readers of the middle grade age. At first I thought," Why, why in the world would anyone shelf this as a children's book? If I had read this when I was younger, I would have grown up a faithless child." But I don't think that's true now I've had time to think about it. Deza is such an inspirational character, and she makes this book bright and enthralling despite all the sad little bits of it that hurt. But I'll also say, for all her uniqueness and remarkability, her older dumbo of a brother is truly the hero of this story. He makes me want to ring my brother up this instant!

▶ DEZA IS JUST ANOTHER FICTIONAL CHARACTER I WISH I COULD KNOW IN REAL LIFE
Take the words bold, verbose(good-naturedly), conversationalist, curious, brilliant, kind, brave, optimistic, bibliophile. Mash them up together and you have the portrait of an astounding character like Deza. Hence the title, The Mighty Miss Malone.
The book tells us that Deza didn't speak until she was three years old. And when she did, when she finally did, she made a lasting memory of the moment by letting out a long string of words that fell right into a conversation(her father who was carrying her almost dropped her in surprise - or shock). I didn't know it was possible, but I fell more in love with Deza's character after that little revelation from her mother.
Deza sounded very much like the learned girl she was, and as young as she was, her words oozed wisdom and confidence. I had to remind myself enough times that it was a 12 year old girl I was actually reading about. The little girl had such a beautiful mind, and to top it off, a red-hot fevered love for books.

I live for books! One day I may even be a writer.

My dream is to read every book in the Gary Public Library and to be a teacher who is tough but fair

I'd hate to see what she would do to non-readers who would dare scorn a reader's reading lifestyle. It could range from mild:


To really ugly:




Okay. I'm kidding she's not that volatile. Maybe.

▶ TEAR JERKER??
I know I already established that the answer was no, but my eyes did fill up at certain points in the story. Things just got so messy, times grew harder and Deza's family was split up, and it was all just a big mess. And that great big mess succeeded in messing up my feelings greatly.

I just wish someone had told me it was going to be okay. That these characters were going to be okay. That's all I wanted to hear


I honestly am at a loss for words to describe how I feel right now, so I'll borrow Deza's.

“A masterpiece, a work of true genius! What a tragedy, a true tragedy that it had to end!"

SOME QUOTES I LOVED

I turned the paper back over. Maybe I saw it wrong.
I looked again but it was the same.
One sign that I had toughened up was that instead of crying I thought of a little joke that Jimmie said he did whenever he didn’t like his grade.
“I turn the paper over, then, the same way people bang on a machine if it ain’t acting right, I smack my hand on the paper. Maybe if I bang it hard enough my grade will jump up a mark!”

Hearing a story from Mother is like you’re looking at the story from inside that boxcar. Things are swooshing by so fast that it wouldn’t pay to get too interested or curious about any of them. With Father it was like you were strolling along a road, holding his hand and stopping whenever something caught your fancy.
-Deza

Two little boys from Flint came in one day all by themselves. One of them reminded me of myself. He seemed scareder than his friend so I took him under my wing.
He was very nervous and shy, but you could see how sweet he was too.
-Deza

Hoping is such hard work. It tires you out and you never seem to get any kind of reward. Hoping feels like you’re a balloon that has a pinhole that slowly leaks air.

THIS IS ACTUALLY A 12 YEAR OLD GIRL TALKING.

You can tell you’re reading a really good book when you forget all about everything else and know you’ll die if you don’t get to at least the end of the chapter.
-Deza

I didn’t stop reading, though, I knew when I finished the book my hands would shake, my eyes would rim with tears and I’d say, “A masterpiece, a work of true genius! What a tragedy, a true tragedy that it had to end!
-Deza

Maybe it was just relief, maybe you can hold on to something bad for so long that when you put it down you don’t trust the feeling.
-Deza

I only did it because of that. And because I can trust my brother.
-Deza

I know I said you can’t read what a person or a house is like by the way they look, and that’s mostly true. But some people have kindness and gentleness wrapped around them like a blanket and there’s no doubting who they are. Jimmie’s Dr. Mitwally was that way. -Deza

I cried so hard the cabdriver said, “I told you I’d wait, miss, don’t cry.”
I said, “I’m not crying for that, I’m crying because I have the best brother in the world and I am so proud of him that I could bust.”

This place is the end of the road for so many dreams.

I put the lid back on the box. I would never read these letters. Never. They would be filled with nothing but pain.
-Deza

I looked at Mother. Her 1-1-1 lines were back. She gave me a sad smile.
Before I could say anything, Father cleared his throat and started reading the signs only he could see:
“He had heard that hope has wings
But never believed such lofty things .
It took time to set him straight ,
To learn hope was an open gate .
Try as he might, he didn’t see
That hope lived in his family .
He had learned that hope has wings …”
Father pulled his bony hand down and grabbed mine and Mother’s in both of his and finished,
“And now he’ll live by these joyous things.”

[Bonnie Cassidy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 5th grade daughter was a few chapters into this book when she told me I "had to read it." The book tackles issues (race, poverty, literacy) in a way that is accessible to young people and provided me with a valuable entry point for discussing these issues with my daughter and her friends. My daughter is an avid reader, and she was struck by one passage in which Deza, also an avid reader, starts to lose her love of reading because she can't relate to any of the characters in the books she is required to read in her new school. And even though my daughter matches the "blonde haired, blue-eyed" characters that Deza was chafing against, she still seemed to understand how it would feel to be excluded from the books you love.

We don't often get to have open discussions about race, but to my mind everyone benefits from having an "eye" into how others move through the world. I think The Mighty Miss Malone further opened our eyes (mine and my daughter's) to the differences between people, but also to the similarities. My modern, white, well-off daughter loved and related to Deza, a Depression-era, African American girl--and thought they would be good friends. We are lucky in that our daughter has friends of different races/ethnic backgrounds and religions, but the best literature can help people without a diverse community around them see that they could still find similarities with people who are different. We have now given this book as a gift to a few other girls, and hope to continue the open dialogue it has spurred.

[Terris · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an enjoyable read! This is story of Deza Malone, an intelligent, vivacious, African American 12-year-old girl, trying to survive the Great Depression with her family. I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot too :)

[TheBookSmugglers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally reviewed on The Book Smugglers

I am absurdly delighted to be writing this review because books like The Mighty Miss Malone are extremely rare in their awesomeness. I loved it. I LOVED IT. I heart Deza Malone with the fire of a thousand suns.

Here is why, in a nutshell:

The storytelling is fabulous: it has great moments, sad moments, and happy moments. It is a great story because it is a story about a family at its heart, and about a country, in the great scheme of things. It is a historical piece but also extremely relevant to the present. The prose is awesome and this review could easily be written around its many wonderful quotes. It features a plethora of superbly written characters, a family that is both ordinary and extraordinary, and a main female character with complexity, agency, voice. It is an inspiring, thoughtful and engaging book.

In fact, the more I think about it the more I want to sing its praises to the entire world.

***

Deza Malone is the narrator of The Mighty Miss Malone and the youngest member of the Malone family which, by the way, is the only family in the world that – to her knowledge – has a motto of their own: “We are a family on a journey to a place called Wonderful”. Unfortunately for the Malones, their journey to Wonderful is via a strenuous, unrelenting, hard road and they travel through Tragedy Place, Homeless Town and the long Separation Avenue on their way there.

It’s 1936 in Gary, Indiana and the country is still in the throes of the Great Depression. Deza’s father has been doing menial work on and off and things are only getting worse. Her mother is a cleaner for one of the rich families but her job is equally unstable and whilst her older brother Jimmie does the odd job here and there, they live in extreme poverty. Jimmie has stopped growing for lack of nutrients, Deza’s teeth are rotten and she has never visited a dentist, their clothes are falling to pieces and most of their food comes from donations. When the father is badly injured in an accident, he has no choice but to go look for work elsewhere. Things get worse when the mother is laid off, they become homeless and the family sets out to find the father and reunite the family – whatever it takes.

For all of the above sadness, this is a hopeful, uplifting, romantic and at times, extremely funny book – and it’s all because of the Malones, their frustrations and hopes:

Roscoe is the father – a smart man who dreams of being a carpenter. He loves alliterations and his children are supposed to refer to him as Dearest Delightful Daddy or Fine Friendly Father Figure. The mother is Peggy – or the Marvellous Mammalian Matriarch – equally intelligent, resourceful and determined. Jimmie – Genuine Gentle Jumpin’ Giant – is the oldest son, loyal to his family and an extremely gifted singer.

And then of course, we have Deza, the Mighty Miss Malone. She is an energetic, smart 12 year old who takes great pride on being the best student at her school and a member of the Malone family.

As Deza herself puts when writing an essay for school:

"My most endearing trait, and being as modest as I am, I had to ask my brother Jimmie for this, is that I have the heart of a champion, am steady as a rock and can be counted on to do what is required. Jimmie also said I am the smartest kid he has ever met, but my all-encompassing and pervasive humility prevents me from putting that on this list.

My dream is to read every book in the Gary Public Library and to be a teacher who is tough but fair"

The core of the story is the Malone family, their hardships and their journey to find each other after they get separated. As the main characters of the book they are an extraordinary family, and characters that are well-developed and complex. Unlike my supremely clumsy attempt to pin them down in the few lines above, the author takes his time to draw them in depth. As such, the family has its moments of despair, of fury, of making mistakes and paying for them. Deza for example, comes to learn that she can defend her older brother against bullies and that she likes it, she likes to fight and punch people – because she realises she loves to feel powerful and in charge. At the same time, she doesn’t like this side of herself because she understands that she often reacts impulsively and she believes that fighting is wrong.

These are also extremely ordinary people when considering the larger picture. They are not the only family to go through these hardships as theirs is a plight that afflicted an entire nation. Beyond that, the author also incorporates African American history in the narrative and reveals the pervasive racism in society. One of the greatest moments in the book – and in history – deals with the expectations and hopes of African Americans for the Joe Louis–Max Schmeling boxing match.

This brings me to possibly my favourite aspect of the book. Beyond history and family, the story is also Deza’s journey to awareness. Just before the great match, she is told by a friendly white librarian that Joe Louis is “such a credit to your race” and has to grasp the full meaning behind this sentence. In a similar fashion, she has always been an A+ student at her old school and she is extremely enthusiastic about learning. But when joining a new school whose teachers are primarily white, she finds herself getting grades no higher than C, her teachers don’t call on her when she raises her hand and she becomes an uninterested student as a consequence. In that moment, she finds solace in the books she loves so much – Deza is a keen reader – but the more she reads, the more she realises that she hardly sees herself reflected in the stories she loves so much:

"When I was in Gary and I would read novels I used to put myself right in the middle of the story. I knew it was a great book when it felt like the author was writing about me. Some of the time I’d get snapped out of the book when I read things that I couldn’t pretend were about me, even if I had the imagination of Mr. William Shakespeare.

Words like ‘her pale, luminescent skin’ or ‘her flowing mane of golden hair’ or ‘her lovely, cornflower-blue eyes’ or ‘the maiden fair.’ I would stop and think, No, Deza, none of these books are about you."

This passage is all the more heartbreaking when we consider that nearly 80 years later, whitewashing and underrepresentation of People of Colour in literature are still an unfortunate reality. Thankfully we have books such as The Mighty Miss Malone which is a bright, shiny light of sheer awesome – a plain good story that is also an important one.

In conclusion: The Mighty Miss Malone is a Superlative Stupendous Story and a Totally Awesome Book.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This lovely little lady is a charmer, and her family is gorgeous as they navigate the bitter and the sweet of life together (and sometimes... apart).
A very good read!

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fact: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a new book from Christopher Paul Curtis is a great good thing.

Fact: There is a new book out there. It is by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Opinion: It doesn't work.

When you hand a kid a Christopher Paul Curtis novel you can rest safe and secure in the knowledge that the book you're handing over is going to have humor leavened with little moments of surprising heart and clarity. You know that the title is going to make an era from the past more real to the child reader than any number of history textbooks at school. You know this. And the remarkable thing about The Mighty Miss Malone, Mr. Curtis's newest novel, is that it manages to accomplish all these things, and accomplish them well, without being a particularly good book. There are times when Mighty Miss Malone sparkles and crackles and comes to life on the page. Of course there are. This is Christopher Paul Curtis we're talking about here. But those moments are buried deep beneath a plot that is at times quite slow, a protagonist that is passive, and a plot twist that seemed so nice he used it twice. Mr. Curtis is one of our finest writers for young people working today and this is not his finest work. It's fine. Not great.

If you were paying close attention to the book Bud Not Buddy then you might have caught a glimpse of a girl named Deza Malone when Bud stopped in a Hooverville for a while. Turns out that there's more to her situation than meets the eye. A formidable student and smart gal, Deza spends much of her time defending her older (yet shorter) troublemaking brother Jimmie. But when their father has a horrible accident out on Lake Michigan everything changes for the worse. The man who returns to them seems like their dad but there's something different about him. Before they know it he's left town to find work, their landlord kicks them out of their home, and their mother is determined to go to Flint, Michigan to find Deza's dad as well as some work of her own. Sometimes the biggest plans are the most difficult to carry out, though. And sometimes help comes from the most unexpected of places.

A quick note: If ever you heard the words "Spoiler Alert" you are hearing them now. I have every intention of giving away every plot twist, every surprise ending, every little secret Mr. Curtis has tucked away in the folds of this novel. Should you wish to be surprised by ANYTHING in the book, cease and desist with reading this review right now. Seriously, I don't want to ruin something for you that you might really enjoy. Go. Shoo. Scat. Off with you unless you're fine with that (or have read the book already). All gone? Then let's begin.

I think the key to the novel lies in its creation. In a note to the reader, Mr. Curtis recounts how the idea for this book came into being. He was invited to speak to an African American mother-daughter book club in Detroit about Newbery winner Bud Not Buddy. "Big mistake". According to him the minute he walked in he was confronted by some of the moms wondering what exactly happened when that random girl in the Hooverville kissed Bud. Explaining that they were only getting half the story Mr. Curtis found that the seeds to this new book were planted in his noggin. He'd been criticized for not writing any stories with girl characters as the heroines. Now here was his chance to right/write that great wrong. A good story, but I think there may have been a reason Mr. Curtis had avoided the female point of view until now. He still gives all the good stuff to his boy characters.

Curtis does a perfectly serviceable job of getting inside Miss Malone's head to sound like a girl, no question. So why the heck isn't she allowed to save the day? We spend a great deal of time hearing from the adults in this novel how Deza's clever head will be what saves the family someday. There's a lot riding on her brains and everyone from her schoolteacher to her parents to her older brother is sure that she'll be the saving of them all. This would seem to imply that by the end of this book Deza will do something clever that will save the day. Not so much. The only time she does anything particularly surprising and of her own initiative is when she sneaks off to Detroit to find her brother. When she does she sees he's doing well, ends up back home again, and that's that. And later when it turns out that someone mysterious has bought the family a home, who's the true hero of the book? None other than Jimmie, the short troublemaking brother with the voice of an angel. By the time I got to the end of the book I realized that Jimmie was the true hero of the novel. He's the one that goes through the most personal growth and change. To my mind Mr. Curtis clearly wanted to be writing about him rather than Deza. In Jimmie you've got a shyster with a heart of gold that goes on to make good and save his whole family. Now THAT's a story! Deza? She just sort of goes along for the ride. Not what you'd hope for with Mr. Curtis's first true heroine.

None of this is to say that Deza isn't appealing. I liked seeing her initially as a kind of Depression-era Anne of Green Gables with a subconscious that talks like Edward G. Robinson. Her daydreams, where she snickers over the graves of her fallen tormenters, are fantastic, as is her voice. There's a lot of pluck in this gal, a fact that makes her eventual passive status all the more frustrating. Even the letter she forges isn't even her idea but her brother's. Do you see why I think he was supposed to be the hero of the book?

Other problems had to do with how unclear her point of view was. We're seeing everything in this book through her eyes and you know that she's willfully trying not to see the truth about certain things. For example, late in the book when she believes her father has bought a house for the family I think we're supposed to understand that she's ignoring the facts that don't make sense. The trouble is that there are ways of making it clear when a character is ignoring the truth of a situation and Mr. Curtis never attempts any of these. Then there's the fact that we hear one thing and see another. Early on Deza tells us that her father is taking a while to recover from his initial ordeal but that's not what we see. She's telling us and Mr. Curtis isn't showing us. What we see is a guy who is laughing and making jokes and might be a little quiet now again, but there's nothing to really suggests the accident has significantly changed him.

For all of this, the problem that really hurt was the fact that the big climax where Deza and her mother find her father in a poorhouse was basically a reworking of the moment earlier in the book when he's brought home from a hospital after his accident. In both cases he's unrecognizable. In both cases Deza doesn't run to him. In both cases it's her mother who knows him first and best. Then I think of Mr. Curtis's previous novel Elijah of Buxton and the sheer gut-punch of that amazing ending. I expected something like that which is probably my own fault. What I got instead was something repetitive, so naturally I was disappointed. Kids reading the book won't have such high expectations but even they will recognize that the climax is essentially just a repeated beat in the end.

I complain but honestly there's a lot to enjoy here as well. I loved that Deza did not appreciate the significance of the Joe Louis fight and that her father explains it to her ending with "It's ironic, but Joe will show we're human by savagely beating the stuffing out of someone." Great line. Here's another good one: "The smell was like a living animal, it clawed at your nostrils and rubbed against your legs like a overfriendly cat." Mr. Curtis is also king of the stinging detail. The fact that Deza's father has to turn his face when she kisses him because of the stink of her rotting teeth . . . that's the kind of image that stays with a person. Of course it did rankle a little since it was clear that if Deza heard that as one of the reasons her father was leaving she would jump up and inform him that her teacher had promised to take care of her teeth and that he didn't need to leave. But that's neither here nor there.

When I read The Mighty Miss Malone it started out slow and steady. Then the father disappeared and it picked up like a racehorse. But that energy eventually works itself out so that by the end it's just sort of plodding along. The trouble may be in having too high a set of expectations. If this book had been written by anyone else I bet I'd be singing its praises to the skies and forcing it into the arms of unsuspecting infants. But since Christopher Paul Curtis wrote it I expect the best of the best of the best. To encounter merely the serviceable instead is disappointing. There is a ton to love about this book, but if you're looking for something of the caliber of The Watsons Go to Birmingham1963 or Bud, Not Buddy or Elijah Of Buxton you not find that here. This book is fine, but we may have to wait for Mr. Curtis to take on a boy's perspective once more before lightning strikes again.

For ages 9-12.

[Chantel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We are a family on a journey to a place called Wonderful."

Thus concludes an essay written by the Mighty Miss Malone and Chapter One of this insightful book written about a black family struggling to survive during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

We read this book for my girls' book club, made up mostly of 6th and 7th graders. I loved it. Deza Malone is magnetic, her parents are wise, and her brother is endearing. Add to that the delightful, almost poetic prose and the engaging story line and you have the makings of a book that's hard to put down. I found myself shedding actual tears for the palpable heartache felt by the Malone's in the midst of the setbacks and challenges they faced as they embarked on a pilgrimage toward a better life. My heart leaped when they experienced joy, and all along the way I rooted for things to work out in their favor.

Most importantly, however, the book inspired me to explore that period in American history and to discover deep within myself what I am personally willing to sacrifice for the fifteen million American children living in the throes of poverty today.

May I be willing to engage in a story with others that enables us all to say, "...and they lived happily ever after."

[Shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing! I love the writing to it and everything. I feel really bad for the main character because she has go face many struggles in life and sometimes she can't fix them, but it gets really good and has a great ending to it. I LOVE this book!

[Book Concierge · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Bud, Not Buddy, Bud met a precocious girl at a camp next to a railroad track near Flint, Michigan. That girl was Deza Malone and this is her story.

It’s the Great Depression, and times are hard in Gary, Indiana, where the Malone family lives. Mr Malone has a hard time finding work; the few jobs available don’t go to black men like him. He makes the difficult decision to leave for Flint, Michigan, where he’s heard there may be a job. But when the family doesn’t hear from him for weeks, Mrs Malone decides to take Deza and her older brother Jimmie, and go looking for him.

I just love Deza Malone! She’s smart, courageous, resilient and big-hearted. The family’s journey is perilous at times, and Mrs Malone’s worry is well-founded. But they also have moments of joy, and meet with kindness and compassion from total strangers. There are many twists and turns in their journey, but they continue on despite any setbacks, certain that their destination is “a place called Wonderful” and that together, they will make it there.

Middle-grade readers will learn some history and how people dealt with homelessness, hunger and racism in that era. Curtis also give a strong message on the power of family unity, of working together for a common goal, and of never giving up your dreams.

[Anna Melomed]

Such a moving book, I loved it soooooooooooooo much, if you like inspiring books, READ IT.

[The Dusty Jacket · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men/Gang aft a-gley
And leave us nought but grief and pain/For promised joy.

Her teacher told her that it was from a poem by Robert Burns called “To a Mouse”. Deza didn’t quite understand what those words meant—especially the “gang aft a-gley” part—but Mrs. Needham said that it just meant that even the most carefully planned out things could go wrong. Deza knew about this since a lot of the Malone family plans haven’t been quite working out lately. But if there’s one thing that the Malones do well it’s sticking together. After all, their motto was “We are a family on a journey to a place called Wonderful”. Before the Malones could get to Wonderful however, Deza and her family would have to travel through a whole lot of awful first.

Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, homeless camps, speakeasies, and the much-hyped 1936 boxing match between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, Curtis gives us yet another story centered around a tough-as-nails, plucky, and absolutely endearing main character. At twelve, Deza Malone is the smartest in her class and destined for something special. With a dictionary in one hand and a thesaurus in the other, she’s more than ready to take on the world one adjective and adverb at a time. Deza is charming, loyal, fiercely protective of her family—especially of her older brother, Jimmie—and principled to a fault. Deza is not a girl who’s afraid to take matters into her own hands in order to set things right…even if it means a little forgery or rule breaking now and then. Struggling to make something of herself while fighting racial prejudice, financial hardship, and social injustice may prove to be formidable challenges for some, but not for the mighty Miss Malone.

The Mighty Miss Malone is the second book by Curtis that I’ve read (the first being Bud, Not Buddy). In both stories, he gives us a main character who rises above their circumstances with grace, dignity, and integrity. His stories are built around the strength of family, the importance of hope, and the resilience of the human spirit. Through Deza Malone, Curtis reminds us that even though plans “gang aft a-gley”, tomorrow is always a brand-new day that brings with it another opportunity to get a little bit closer to a place called Wonderful.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally reviewed here.

Listen close, because when you pick up the audio for Christopher Paul Curtis’s The Mighty Miss Malone, you are on a journey to a place called Wonderful. Set during the Great Depression, and featuring a struggling African American family, The Mighty Miss Malone had so many opportunities to be tragic and heart wrenching, but it didn’t take them. Instead, The Mighty Miss Malone was one of the most warm, welcoming, delightful reads I have had in some time, and I have no qualms against naming this my absolute favorite audiobook of 2012 thus far. Bahni Turpin’s narration is utterly fantastic, from her ability to capture the childlike wonder and steadfast heart of Deza, to Jimmy’s hypnotic singing voice. This may only be my second audiobook under her narration, but between this and The Help, Bahni has insured herself a spot as one of those narrators I will follow from book to book whether I know anything else about it or not.

As wonderful as the story and narration both were, I also feel it’s my imperative to take a moment and applaud this cover. Seriously, the people over at Random House got this one right. Not only do they feature a person of color front and center, but this young model captures the spirit of Deza perfectly with her bright but curious eyes. I love that she’s the cover, and that there’s nothing else going on. Highly approved of!

Christopher Paul Curtis’s novel holds within it so many rich moments it is practically brimming with them, though more than anything, it is a story of family. The Malone’s aren’t so bad off as some in the time of the Great Depression, and their community in Gary, Indiana has provided a lot of opportunities for them, particularly for Deza. Her parents know that their Darling Daughter Deza is the best hope for their family with her astounding intelligence, kind heart, and good nature, but unfortunately, tough times sometimes mean that not even the closest families can stay together. After a boating accident on Lake Michigan, Deza’s father leaves Gary in hopes of finding work elsewhere, and the rest of the family heads to Flint in hopes of tracking him down. There, Deza is faced for the first time with a harsher kind of racism than she has ever encountered before, as well as the heartbreak and fear of losing one’s home, and losing one’s brother to a dream.

Friends, I absolutely adored the Malones. What a fantastic family. Deza’s mother and father have taught her and Jimmy to be kind, careful, and intelligent in their decisions. The children know that not everything or everyone can be judged on appearance, and that any time anyone is trying to convince you of an opinion, you must beware of them driving the “Manipula-mobile” to get you to believe their case. They always take care of family first, even when they’re far apart. They’re encouraging of one another’s strengths, kind but firm about mistakes, and loving to no end. Additionally, I just dare anyone who loves reading to not like Deza Malone. This girl understands what it’s like to get so lost in a book you feel like you’ll just die if you don’t finish the next chapter, and reading her story I felt the same.

You heard it here folks, if The Mighty Miss Malone doesn’t win a whole heap of awards, I will be shocked. Shocked, I say! The story was phenomenal, I learned about life in the upper Mid-West during the depression, was able to understand the historical and cultural significance of Max Schmeling and Joe Louis, and was able to view the world from an alternate perspective. It will make you ache, it will make your heart soar, and most of all it will remind you to keep close the ones you love. If someone doesn’t hand Christopher Paul Curtis an award, I will do so myself!

[Michelle Isenhoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this one! It has everything in it that I appreciate about children’s literature: style, humor, beauty, depth—even history! I have absolutely no complaints about the story. It does have some incorrect grammar and spellings, but that’s because it’s written from the firsthand perspective of twelve-year-old Deza Malone. I don’t like such inaccuracies in books written for young children (like Junie B. Jones, by Barbara Park), but by fifth grade, the approximate reading level I’d give this one, most students have mastered these skills to the point that they will recognize and laugh at the imperfections. In this case, it adds richness. And is the cover not adorable?

Deza lives in Gary, Indiana with her parents and older brother, Jimmy, right smack in the middle of the Great Depression. Times are tough. Mrs. Malone has a steady job cleaning the house of a wealthy white family, but Mr. Malone’s employment is intermittent at best. They can’t affort to bring Jimmy to the doctor to find out why he stopped growing, Deza’s cavities are so bad her breath reeks and she stuffs camphor-soaked cotton balls in her back molars to numb some of the pain, and the family is reduced to eating buggy oatmeal. Then tragedy strikes. Eventually, Mr. Malone goes off in search of work. Then Mrs. Malone looses her job. She and the children “ride the rails” to Flint, MI in an attempt to find Mr. Malone and end up living in a “Hooverville,” a shack village at the edge of town.

This is a startling look at the Great Depression and a great way for today’s kids to gain insight into that period of history. It’s told from a Black perspective in a day and age when Blacks were basically considered sub-standard citizens and contains many moments or racial prejudice. When Jimmy steals an apple pie, Mrs. Malone is hugely relieved that it wasn’t from a White windowsill, a resulting lynching being implied. The snobby White woman Mrs. Malone works for holds Negroes in contempt and the “letter of recommendation” she writes shows it. There are also multiple references to the derogatory phrase being a “credit to your race.” But in a great cultural irony, it also features the historical boxing match between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling (One could write a book about the implications of that match!) and shows the tremendous affect it had on both black and white Americans.

Overall, the book is clean, historically accurate and beautifully written. Mr. Curtis includes an afterward that sheds some additional light of the boxing match and the history of the time. Then he claims “we haven’t come very far” and compares the plight of today’s “15 million poor Americans” to the Great Depression, calling welfare reform “immoral” and “selfish.” Such political posturing marred this tremendous book for me. Granted, we are in an extended recession, but unemployment today hovers just under the 10% mark. In the GD, it touched 25%! Another 25% could only get part-time work, and pay cuts crossed the board. People were starving to death. Today, we have a welfare subculture, including third generation recipients, and when I walk through the government-subsidized housing in my town, the “poor” have cell phones, pricey exercise equipment, cable, and plasma tvs–luxury items I’ve gone without for years to get ahead on bills (while funding them for others). Can I submit that personal choices and family structure have much to do with economic station? I, for one, still loudly call for reform.

Sorry for ranting like that, but that afterward really rubbed me the wrong way. But I can give my 100% support to a fabulously told story.

[Kristin Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to preview it for my sixth grade class who is currently reading Christopher Paul Curtis’s, Bud, Not Buddy. I wanted to be able to recommend this book to them as well, and I definitely will.

Besides the skilled craftsmanship of this novel, I loved that the main character is resilient and gritty. This is a female heroine who is dealing with poverty, prejudice, and the division of her family during the Great Depression, yet she holds onto hope and persists anyway. This is a great middle grades novel to pair with Bud, Not Buddy.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deza Malone is the kind of character who jumps right into your heart and makes camp there.

Yes, this is a wonderful historical fiction book about the devastating effects of the Depression on families in the American Midwest - especially African American families. The casually racist ways that adults speak to Deza spoke volumes about the institutionalized attitudes of the day. More than that, though, this is a book about a whip smart little girl who treasures books, her family, and has boundless hope for the future.

Read it for the eloquent writing. Read it for the glimpse into the past. Most of all, though, read it to fall in love with Deza Malone.

[Soraya Laboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Curtis has gifted us with a powerful- a mighty -African American family. We see everything through 12 yr old Deza's eyes. It's a touching story about a family who is doing the best they can to stay loyal, loving, and true in spite of difficult circumstances.

[Donna Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most amazing books I've ever read. Definitely not just for younger audiences. I am completely in love with this girl. I laughed, I cried, it moved me. I highly recommend this book about a young girl with an unsinkable attitude that makes her a winner in the midst of the depression. Pure bliss.

[Laura5 · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If I ever give one-half a hoot what a lot of other people are saying, you have my permission to slap me silly." -Deza pg 4

"Nothing is as obvious as we want to believe it is. There are different shades and interpretations to every story." pg 302

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved the characters in this book, especially Deza. Curtis is a master at depicting the intimacies of family life. I enjoyed the way the Malone family interacted so much that I wished I could become one of them. All the characters in the book were interesting, even the not-so-nice ones.

Father was a complicated character. He loved his family but at the same time seemed uncertain that they would love him back. If he really loved and trusted them to accept him no matter what, he would have told them the truth from the beginning. Luckily, his family did love him unconditionally, and all turned out well.

I felt sorry for Deza with her rotten teeth. My sister is a dental hygienist, so I'm sensitive to oral health. I don't know how she managed daily life, and, as Dr. Mitway said, managed to get good grades in school, with a mouth that had to be in constant pain. There's a new book out called Teeth by Mary Otto that deals with how African Americans and other minorities have never had the same access to good oral health care as white people have. I will have to read it now to find out why (though I can guess).

This book also gave me insight into why Gary, Indiana, and Flint, Michigan, were the way they were back in the '60s. I remember hearing about race riots and other troubles along that line in those places when I was growing up. The author includes an afterword that talks about how incredibly important the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling boxing match was. It had to be something big, because after my father died we found a full page from a newspaper all about the fight that he had saved--and my father was not a boxing fan. It wasn't just a sporting event, it was racially as well as politically significant. Nothing like it has been seen since.

The story ended leaving me with a good feeling and a smile on my face, and I'm sure it will do the same for other readers. Highly recommended!!

[Shiloah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has many good, some intense themes. It made a great read-aloud and we could discuss things as they came up.

[Janet C-B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings. There are parts of this that are lovely--not just "shining moments", but threads woven throughout, and excellence in description over all. But I thought the plot didn't live up to the rest of it. Books about people who have good things happen to them because they're somehow "special" often rub me the wrong way, and I want to know what happened with Deza's more ordinary friend Clarice more than I want to read about the two most talented kids in Gary who will go far in life etc. There were also aspects that didn't seem likely to me, moments of serendipity that were a little too convenient. The ongoing mini-sub-plot about Deza's rotting teeth was perhaps my favorite thing about the book, the thing that kept it most grounded in reality. Also all the parts about living in the homeless camp, which made it sound almost a little fun, just as I think it would have seemed to young people at times.

I can't decide whether Deza is a sort of slow bloomer and that's okay, or whether Curtis missed the boat and wrote a ten-year-old girl instead of a twelve/thirteen-year-old girl. Adding pubescent/adolescent angst to this book would have made it one of those dreaded books where the author Tries to Do Too Many Things... and yet.

[Sherril · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very strong ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2, easily rounding up to 4. The audiobook was perfectly narrated by one of my favorite readers, Bahni Turpin. She does a great job with the voice of a young girl, as well as the adults around her.
At first I was thinking of it as a charming story written for children, with an appeal to adults. By the end of the book and after listening to the author’s afterward, I realized The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis was also a very important story. It is told by a 12-year-old African-American Deza Malone, who lives with her family, father, mother and older brother, Jimmy in Gary, Indiana during the worst of the Depression. The depression is felt by all Americans, but it hits Blacks far worse than Whites. The book effectively deals with the themes of poverty, homelessness, racism as well as deep family bonds that can and do help to live with and overcome the hardships. It is real in a way that can help to educate younger people and open their eyes to these realities, as much in today’s world, as in the historical context of the Great Depression. I personally learned about a momentous event, the boxing match between American Joe Louis and German Max Schmeling, which captured the world's attention on June 22, 1938, but perhaps more importantly the hopes and dreams of the average African American and when Joe Louis lost the fight, it was la stupendous gut-punch to their hearts and souls. I learned also, that ultimately Schmeling and Louis became close friends.

I will end with a quote and a hope.

“Hoping is such hard work. It tires you out and you never seem to get any kind of reward. Hoping feels like you’re a balloon that has a pinhole that slowly leaks air.”

I hope this book will find increased readership by school aged children and their adults.

[Randi B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Paul Curtis has done it again! I love books I can recommend to kids and adults alike.
This book was very entertaining, never a dull moment. Deza and her family went through so much. None of it was predictable, and when it ended I was like wait a minute, I’m not done yet!

I am quite pleased that this takes place in the same universe as “Bud,not Buddy”. Buds version of certain events don’t quite add up. And I’m going with Deza when it comes to the truth, mhmm.

[Maggie Hundshamer-Moshier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was beautiful. It was a great depiction of what life for a poor family during the depression was like and what lengths they had to go to survive and to look out for one another. I can’t wait to pass this on to the next person to love! Great read!

[Linda Lipko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slated as a possible 2013 Newbery medal winner, this book is well deserving of that honor...if indeed it is chosen.

A stand alone sequel to Bud, Not Buddy, the character of Deza Malone was first introduced in that book.

Life was brutal during the depression, and exceedingly so for poor black families. Work was hard to find and the author accurately portrays the difficulty of finding work if you were white, and almost impossible, if your skin color was black.

Poor in finances, but rich in the solidarity of family and in the concept of hope, we see the Malone family through spunky, intelligent and sensitive twelve year old Deza's eyes.

Her brother Jimmie is a hair's length away from embracing a path with near do wells. Her father is loving and kind but his spirits are severely depressed because he cannot support his family. In addition, he is haunted by memories of a fishing trip wherein he was one of few who returned. Deza's mother is solid, loving and nurturing.

Deza is very smart and at the top of her class. She and her family have high hopes.

When their father leaves Gary Indiana to search for work in Flint, things spiral out of control. After months with no contact from him, Deza and her family journey to find him. Riding the rail cars, sleeping in shanty shacks and meeting a host of characters, Deza proves to be the Mighty Miss Malone.

This is an incredible story written by the hands of a master story teller. Not only does Christopher Paul Curtis portray the hardship of the depression, but he has an incredible ability to accurately depict poverty and loss and the brutal day - day existence.

With the backdrop of the importance of the Joe Louis - Max Schmeling boxing matches, this book packs a whallop of poignancy.

Five Stars

[Laura Salas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always think I'm not a historical fiction fan until a writer brings a story to life for me. And then I am.

Christopher Paul Curtis does it again. Deza Malone lives in Michigan in the 1930s. Her family is poor but hardworking and funny. Deza's older (but smaller) brother, Jimmie, keeps things...interesting. And the father is quite a wonderful storyteller (just like CPC, based on the two times I've heard him speak!). Deza is smart and tries really hard to be the smartest person possible. And Deza's mom is the glue of the family. But when the Depression hits and Deza's dad is involved in a terrible accident, the family is put to very trying tests. The truth of life back then, especially for African-American people, was ugly and unfair. This story was really dark at times, but ended hopefully. And even through the darkness, Jimmie's singing, Deza's determination, and CPC's humor and warmth kept me going. From train-hopping to Hoovervilles, from rotting teeth to a speakeasy, this book put me there (even when it was uncomfortable to be there).

(Review copy purchased by me at a children's literature conference.)

[Jim Sibigtroth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was reading Bud Not Buddy to a 5th grade class and they said there was a connection to this book so I read it to see if/how the two books were related. As much as I like Bud Not Buddy, I like The Mighty Miss Malone even better. The two books intersect in a short scene where the two main characters meet very briefly in a hobo camp one night while they are cleaning dishes (old tin cans) after an evening meal at the camp. This isn't a critical scene in the plots of either book so this isn't really a spoiler. Both books describe the same scene which features an awkward kiss. It is VERY interesting to see how differently the two characters viewed this encounter. Even though this intersection is brief, it shows how knowing the contents of one book enhances your understanding of the other. A much more extreme version of this happens in Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card. In the Ender books, both books cover basically the same time period and the both main characters interact throughout the books.