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The Middle of Somewhere: A Story of South Africa
Nine-year-old Rebecca and her family are threatened with forced removal from their South African village for Blacks in order to make room for a new suburb for whites
- GenresAfrica
154 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 5, 2008
This book is ok. It is a story about a young girl who lives in Africa. Her village is going to be bulldozed over and her family doesnt want to move. The are any exciting moments in this story. The main character's name is Rebecca. She goes through life changes throughout the story. The book may not be a true story but it tells the story of thousands of people in Africa afraid that they will loose there homes.
July 24, 2020
It was okay it wasn't really exiting or crazily well written but it was interesting to see how South Africa handled the apartheid and how the black people fight for their home/village and lives
May 21, 2008
(CIP) Nine-year-old Rebecca and her family, living in a South African village for black people, are threatened with forced removal to a bleak, distant development, to make room for a new suburb for whites.
(Claudia) This 150-page children’s novel by a South African expatriate was published in 1990, the year after the release of Nelson Mandela and seven other prominent African political prisoners, near the beginning of the reform process which led to South Africa’s first nonracial election in 1994. We are gradually introduced to both the ongoing effects of apartheid on black South Africans, and the contemporary protest movement, through the experiences of nine-year-old Rebecca, who lives with her family in a poor black township. The characters are well-drawn and sympathetic, and the political/social information is well woven-in, so the book reads as a good story and not at all as a political manifesto. The book’s main limitation is that the reading level (5th-8th grade) is most appropriate for children older than Rebecca, clearly a young child (her affection for dolls, for instance is a prominent part of the story). Jane Addams Children’s Book Award* Honor Book 1991.
* For children’s books “… that effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races as well as meeting conventional standards for excellence.”
(SLJ) “[T]his story captures [a] real feeling for the South African land, people, and language. Apartheid, with its sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant prejudice, is revealed from a young girl's perspective in this rich family story.”
(Claudia) This 150-page children’s novel by a South African expatriate was published in 1990, the year after the release of Nelson Mandela and seven other prominent African political prisoners, near the beginning of the reform process which led to South Africa’s first nonracial election in 1994. We are gradually introduced to both the ongoing effects of apartheid on black South Africans, and the contemporary protest movement, through the experiences of nine-year-old Rebecca, who lives with her family in a poor black township. The characters are well-drawn and sympathetic, and the political/social information is well woven-in, so the book reads as a good story and not at all as a political manifesto. The book’s main limitation is that the reading level (5th-8th grade) is most appropriate for children older than Rebecca, clearly a young child (her affection for dolls, for instance is a prominent part of the story). Jane Addams Children’s Book Award* Honor Book 1991.
* For children’s books “… that effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races as well as meeting conventional standards for excellence.”
(SLJ) “[T]his story captures [a] real feeling for the South African land, people, and language. Apartheid, with its sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant prejudice, is revealed from a young girl's perspective in this rich family story.”
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews