Mayfield Crossing - Softcover

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, originally from a small Pennsylvania town, now resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her husband.

Grade 3-5-- The old rural school at Mayfield has been closed, and Meg, her brother, and her friends are being sent to the larger Parkview school. It is 1960, and racial integration in schools is a tender issue. Parents gently warn the country kids that they may encounter discrimination in the new school, and sure enough, it happens. Meg is the only black child in her class. When it is time to pick teams for baseball (an important event for Mayfield kids), they are ignored. A subplot involves a shell-shocked war veteran the kids call Old Hairy and who eventually becomes their protector. Meg and Billie are unwillingly drawn into a playground fight, but all ends well with a good baseball game. The racial tension inherent in this story is diluted: all of the children from the old school are picked on, black and white alike. The author attempts to portray prejudice without using pejorative language, but it just doesn't sound scary, only inappropriate. The power to make the story zing is not here. --Ruth Semrau, Lovejoy School, Allen, TX
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.