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Rainbow Jordan
Here is Rainbow Jordan: too brave to be a child, too scared to be a woman. "Powerful, eloquent, revealing...the memory of this exceptional heroine is likely to linger a long time."
128 pages, Paperback
First published June 17, 1981
3 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
About the author
Alice Childress
35 books65 followersAlice Childress (October 12, 1916 – August 14, 1994) was an American playwright, actor, and author.
She took odd jobs to pay for herself, including domestic worker, photo retoucher, assistant machinist, saleslady, and insurance agent. In 1939, she studied Drama in the American Negro Theatre (ANT), and performed there for 11 years. She acted in Abram Hill and John Silvera's On Strivers Row (1940), Theodore Brown's Natural Man (1941), and Philip Yordan's Anna Lucasta (1944). There she won acclaim as an actress in numerous other productions, and moved to Broadway with the transfer of ANT's hit comedy Anna Lucasta, which became the longest-running all-black play in Broadway history. Alice also became involved in social causes. She formed an off-broadway union for actors. Her first play, Florence, was produced off-Broadway in 1950.
Her next play, Just a Little Simple (1950), was adapted from the Langston Hughes' novel Simple Speaks His Mind. It was produced in Harlem at the Club Baron Theatre. Her next play, Gold Through the Trees (1952), gave her the distinction of being one of the first African-American women to have work professionally produced on the New York stage. Her next work, Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White, was completed in 1962. The setting of the show is South Carolina during World War I and deals with a forbidden interracial love affair. Due to the scandalous nature of the show and the stark realism it presented, it was impossible for Childress to get any theatre in New York to put it up. The show premiered at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and later in Chicago. It was not until 1972 that it played in New York at the New York Shakespeare Festival. It was later filmed and shown on TV, but many stations refused to play it.
In 1965, she was featured in the BBC presentation The Negro in the American Theatre. From 1966 to 1968, she was awarded as a scholar-in-residence by Harvard University at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Alice Childress is also known for her literary works. Among these are Those Other People (1989) and A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich (1973). Also, she wrote a screenplay for the 1978 film based on A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich. Her 1979 novel A Short Walk was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Childress described her writing as trying to portray the have-nots in a have society. In conjunction with her composer husband, Nathan Woodard, she wrote a number of musical plays, including Sea Island Song and Young Martin Luther King.
(from Wikipedia)
She took odd jobs to pay for herself, including domestic worker, photo retoucher, assistant machinist, saleslady, and insurance agent. In 1939, she studied Drama in the American Negro Theatre (ANT), and performed there for 11 years. She acted in Abram Hill and John Silvera's On Strivers Row (1940), Theodore Brown's Natural Man (1941), and Philip Yordan's Anna Lucasta (1944). There she won acclaim as an actress in numerous other productions, and moved to Broadway with the transfer of ANT's hit comedy Anna Lucasta, which became the longest-running all-black play in Broadway history. Alice also became involved in social causes. She formed an off-broadway union for actors. Her first play, Florence, was produced off-Broadway in 1950.
Her next play, Just a Little Simple (1950), was adapted from the Langston Hughes' novel Simple Speaks His Mind. It was produced in Harlem at the Club Baron Theatre. Her next play, Gold Through the Trees (1952), gave her the distinction of being one of the first African-American women to have work professionally produced on the New York stage. Her next work, Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White, was completed in 1962. The setting of the show is South Carolina during World War I and deals with a forbidden interracial love affair. Due to the scandalous nature of the show and the stark realism it presented, it was impossible for Childress to get any theatre in New York to put it up. The show premiered at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and later in Chicago. It was not until 1972 that it played in New York at the New York Shakespeare Festival. It was later filmed and shown on TV, but many stations refused to play it.
In 1965, she was featured in the BBC presentation The Negro in the American Theatre. From 1966 to 1968, she was awarded as a scholar-in-residence by Harvard University at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Alice Childress is also known for her literary works. Among these are Those Other People (1989) and A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich (1973). Also, she wrote a screenplay for the 1978 film based on A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich. Her 1979 novel A Short Walk was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Childress described her writing as trying to portray the have-nots in a have society. In conjunction with her composer husband, Nathan Woodard, she wrote a number of musical plays, including Sea Island Song and Young Martin Luther King.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 12, 2011
I loved this book when I kid! It's a completely different cover than the one I grew up with but seeing this book still brings back so many memories.
February 1, 2008
Ah the obstacles brought on by teen misery...we all went through it or are still going through the faze
April 17, 2018
I recently finished this book for a class I'm in, and wow is it something. I'll be up front and honest, I was a little speculative about beginning this, not really sure what it was going to be like, having only read adult black literature, but it's something to behold. It's constantly in conversation with the idea of the black aesthetic, and remains to me as a definition of Afrocentricity.
This book finds ways to discuss aging and getting older, becoming a woman, from topics such as beauty, school, friends, boys, and trust. As Rainbow grows both further and closer to Miss Josephine, her struggles get harder as well--the more she comes to terms with Miss Josephine, the more she comes to the realization that she has no idea where her mother could possibly be. Even so, she remains as positive as she can, though that positivity looks like trouble in some adults' eyes.
Alice Childress has mentioned before that she doesn't write about the entirety of the 'black experience,' but can only write about one experience at a time. I think she does that especially well here in Rainbow Jordan, as she doesn't make anything too overbearing or too heartwrenching. It just is, and I appreciate that.
Review cross-listed here!
This book finds ways to discuss aging and getting older, becoming a woman, from topics such as beauty, school, friends, boys, and trust. As Rainbow grows both further and closer to Miss Josephine, her struggles get harder as well--the more she comes to terms with Miss Josephine, the more she comes to the realization that she has no idea where her mother could possibly be. Even so, she remains as positive as she can, though that positivity looks like trouble in some adults' eyes.
Alice Childress has mentioned before that she doesn't write about the entirety of the 'black experience,' but can only write about one experience at a time. I think she does that especially well here in Rainbow Jordan, as she doesn't make anything too overbearing or too heartwrenching. It just is, and I appreciate that.
Review cross-listed here!
August 23, 2016
OMG! I am having the time of my life rating the oldies but goodies. I am so glad that these authors know that only the times change not living. Living for the most part is the same! Rainbow Jordan was one of the first few books I read in an urban setting. I was like ...RIGHT! OMG! My friend told me about that happening. ...or my aunt was like that. Rainbow Jordan showed just how much strength girl power has. This was a great read if you want to understand the life and emotions of a lesser lived child. I was her from many different angles...maybe not as bad but when you are a kid its always bad!
December 7, 2012
I am not a fan of the writing style used in this book. It just seemed choppy and there was a definite disconnect. I didn't feel for Rainbow like I should have. The emotion in the book falls flat and it ruins the reading experience. Anyway, this is a book about a young girl whose mother is young and living her life while attempting to raise her daughter. The state is really raising Rainbow and she has to make some very tough decisions concerning her future and her mother.
February 4, 2014
Very good>contains a young black teenaged character, Rainbow, who's maturity and outlook on life is better than the other characters in the novel! Looks like young people aren't the only ones who "comes of age."
November 26, 2016
I loved the first half of the book: the voices, the story, the three different points of view... But after such a strong beginning, the plot slowed down somewhat and halfway through the book I got a little bit tired of it. And the ending seems a little bit rushed and too tidy, too easy.
August 15, 2010
I, of course, wanted to take Rainbow home-give her a good meal and do whatever I could to make her feel better about herself. I felt for her and enjoyed her story.
October 26, 2014
First, Goodread's cover is atrocious. That aside, this book was a bit disappointing--it was okay, but not as thought-provoking as her other novel, Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich, or her plays.
August 9, 2016
A nice little book about a teenager's struggles. Very well written from the point of views of several of the characters.
March 3, 2017
One of the first books I picked as a teenager for myself. I can't remember the story at all but something about it stuck with me because it's always one of the first titles I think about.
July 25, 2024
Rainbow Jordan is one of those books that I just randomly came across and hadn’t heard of before. It was intriguing to me because of the talent and writing of Alice Childress on the page and the stage, however, so when I found it randomly in a library discard pile and say I could read it in one or two sittings, I gave it a shot.
This book is definitely a book of the time it came out, and doesn’t age as gracefully as it could have but remains a bit of a product of its 1981. It tells the story of Rainbow Jordan, a young woman who is tossed between her careless mother, a foster home that takes her every time her mother disappears with this guy or that guy, and a group of friends with teen pressures and concerns. Rainey is a girl who processes it all with grace and small dreams, if only to get clackers in her hair. She is on the line of adulthood, and struggles with both sides of her age – not yet a woman and not taken seriously and only barely able to take care of herself when mom is gone, and already receiving the attentions and pressures of boys that she tries desperately to hold off for just a little while longer.
It is a great story with strong characterization. My favorite part of the piece is the three different narrators (Rainbow, Josephine the foster parent who runs a clothing and alterations business, and her mother Kathie) and how each sees the same world in such stark differences. The only complaint is that it was written with heavy attention to dialect, details, and a style that only seems like it was going to fit the early eighties to the early nineties and now seems somewhat tacky and ingenuine. Well written for that time, however. It needs to get dusted off, and that aspect will unfortunately make it less and less relevant over time despite the coming of age universality at its core. A good book that I enjoyed, but it is definitely going to remain in the past in a lot of ways.
This book is definitely a book of the time it came out, and doesn’t age as gracefully as it could have but remains a bit of a product of its 1981. It tells the story of Rainbow Jordan, a young woman who is tossed between her careless mother, a foster home that takes her every time her mother disappears with this guy or that guy, and a group of friends with teen pressures and concerns. Rainey is a girl who processes it all with grace and small dreams, if only to get clackers in her hair. She is on the line of adulthood, and struggles with both sides of her age – not yet a woman and not taken seriously and only barely able to take care of herself when mom is gone, and already receiving the attentions and pressures of boys that she tries desperately to hold off for just a little while longer.
It is a great story with strong characterization. My favorite part of the piece is the three different narrators (Rainbow, Josephine the foster parent who runs a clothing and alterations business, and her mother Kathie) and how each sees the same world in such stark differences. The only complaint is that it was written with heavy attention to dialect, details, and a style that only seems like it was going to fit the early eighties to the early nineties and now seems somewhat tacky and ingenuine. Well written for that time, however. It needs to get dusted off, and that aspect will unfortunately make it less and less relevant over time despite the coming of age universality at its core. A good book that I enjoyed, but it is definitely going to remain in the past in a lot of ways.
December 4, 2022
I've had this book on my shelf since I was a teenager, and am just now getting to it.
What I appreciated most about Childress' book is that she handles the many stages of womanhood with a care that shows how each woman, regardless of their age, is really justifying to figure it all out.
Rainbow is a teenager, who spends a great deal of time in post care with Josephine, her "interim" caregiver. For the most part, Rainbow just wants someone to love her and to find her place in the world.
Kathie, Rainbow's mom, is a woman who felt she had all the time in the world until she became a teenage mother and was left to fend for herself with only her looks to sustain her. Like Rainbow, Kathie wants love, but keeps settling for the worse kinds. Her missteps are her own, but Rainbow ultimately ends up being left holding the bill.
As for Josephine, the oldest of the three women, she feels she's running out of time to make something of her life, like Kathie. Yet, all Josephine wants is to be seen and valued, just as Rainbow hopes to be.
Childress does a wonderful job of drawing comparison between Black girlhood and womanhood while allowing each of her characters' lives to be fully their own. It's one of my favorite YA books for how realistic the story feels.
Highly recommend!
What I appreciated most about Childress' book is that she handles the many stages of womanhood with a care that shows how each woman, regardless of their age, is really justifying to figure it all out.
Rainbow is a teenager, who spends a great deal of time in post care with Josephine, her "interim" caregiver. For the most part, Rainbow just wants someone to love her and to find her place in the world.
Kathie, Rainbow's mom, is a woman who felt she had all the time in the world until she became a teenage mother and was left to fend for herself with only her looks to sustain her. Like Rainbow, Kathie wants love, but keeps settling for the worse kinds. Her missteps are her own, but Rainbow ultimately ends up being left holding the bill.
As for Josephine, the oldest of the three women, she feels she's running out of time to make something of her life, like Kathie. Yet, all Josephine wants is to be seen and valued, just as Rainbow hopes to be.
Childress does a wonderful job of drawing comparison between Black girlhood and womanhood while allowing each of her characters' lives to be fully their own. It's one of my favorite YA books for how realistic the story feels.
Highly recommend!
August 14, 2022
I read this book for my linguistics/CRT class. In terms of language, Childress did an excellent job writing the individual voices of each character. The story feels very real and so do the characters. Each principle character has a fully fleshed past, inner world, and realistic flaws. Rainbow's POV definitely reminded me of adolescent/teen self. It was also refreshing to read about complex older female figures, such as Mrs. Josephine.
November 24, 2019
There were certain things that I really liked about this book, like Miss Josephine's relationship with Rainbow and the way that Rainbow matures throughout the text. However, this just wasn't the book for me. That being said, I do think it will be a really great lens through which to discuss ethnic and post-colonial criticism with in class.
April 6, 2025
i know the entire thing was mainly slice of life and character driven but i wanted more. i wanted some conclusions with elijay, janine, beryl, beryl's weird "friend", and kathie. i was happy with the ending though.
April 8, 2025
I found this book at a feminist restaurant & bookstore. I love how Rainbow’s youth and dialect are written in the pages and the way her life events in the end of the book are intertwined with Josephine.
August 20, 2020
I never understood why she kept her friend or boyfriend around if they was never on her side. What kinda guy brings another girl with him to your house.
September 1, 2021
This is a good book for tween girls.
February 22, 2012
This was a pretty good book a little slow in the beginning but overall it was an ok book.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews