Roosevelt Grady

by Louisa R. Shotwell

A Negro boy, son of a migrant family, yearns for the day when they can all settle down

Genres: Childrens

Paperback

First published January 28, 1963

Reviews

[A B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of my mother's books from her teaching career, well over 40 years ago. She bought books and set up a little lending library for her students to compensate for the school's unimpressive collection.

I read it as a child and enjoyed rereading it as an adult. I didn't remember too much about it except that Roosevelt was smart and likeable, and had an adorably named little sister.

It's the story of the Gradys, a loving, hard-working family that has fallen on hard times and must follow the crops. The migrant lifestyle isn't suitable for their oldest child, Roosevelt, who loves math and reading and absolutely thrives in school. He wants a chance to settle down and attend school. It is downright heartbreaking at times. Roosevelt meets an orphan named Manowar who works the migrant circuit with another crew. They eventually wind up at the same farm again and concoct a plan to try to stay put.

The Gradys are African-American but this is only indicated in the illustrations. There are no issues or themes about race and prejudice. It was probably partially due to when this was printed, but I like this for readers too young to understand such issues. They just get to root for a nice family and a young fellow that would make a good friend. A sweet book with an absolutely wonderful ending.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

About to start. Appears to be a bit like The Velvet Room or Blue Willow but this time about a Black boy instead of a White girl. Another reviewer says that race isn't a factor... so I'm predicting it will be more about class? Or maybe just circumstances of heredity of career? We'll see. I'm reading it simply because LFL discovery that intrigues.

Ok done.

Yeah, little of the 'Black' experience is relevant... it's not erased, but it's less significant than the fact that the family is one of many agricultural migrant workers. It really is more about unfortunate circumstances than anything, although the father reminds me of Pa Ingalls.

Anyway, it's mostly boring imo. I appreciate it for the right audience absolutely. But young me would not have gotten anything out of it, and adult me has pretty much seen it all before.

[Ed Lehman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as a child and the experience stayed with me even though I had totally forgotten the story. Decided to revisit it 50 years later.

[Laura Koerber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this book five stars based on the fact that I remember it from when I was in elementary school, and I am seventy now.

I grew up in an all white, middle class, university town. I literally had never seen a black person when my Sunday school class read this book. My parents were active in the Civil Rights movement doing fundraising for Freedom Riders. We read this book so that us white kids could find out about how some other people experienced life in America.

It's the kind of book that contemporary conservatives are having one of their manufactured faux outrage hysterical fits about: WOKE!!!!CRT!!!!AHHGGGHHH!!!!!!

Fuck that shit. We are one nation, but we can't be one nation if white people can only "feel comfortable" when nonwhites are quiet and sitting off in the corner somewhere on the periphery of our society, leaving conservatives to feel all safe and cozy on the pedestals they built for themselves.

Dear conservatives: You will be much happier and will be better citizens when you get over yourselves and acknowledge that other people matter just as much as you do.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book that my mom had when she was a little girl. I really liked the story a lot.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a strong smell of Blue Willow about this book. Gates's novel was published nearly 30 years before Shotwell's, but the similarities made me wonder if she had read the older book. The protagonist and his family are meant to be African Americans, but there is nothing at all that differentiates them as written from white people; even the illustrations look like white people shaded over, with a few very minor changes.
We are told that Shotwell wrote many stories and books for young people, and that this is her most popular work. It left me underwhelmed. For a woman who was supposedly involved in the Civil Rights movement, it made me wonder how much actual contact she had with real people of colour of any sort. It's meant to be social realism, but it certainly doesn't seem so. I honestly could not recommend this book to anyone.

[Margaret Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before there was The Circuit and Esperanza Rising, there was Roosevelt Grady. This is the book on this subject that I read when I was a child, back in the sixties. It stands the test of time.