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Zora and Me

3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 · rating details · 453 ratings · 142 reviews

Winner of the 2011 John Steptoe New Talent (Author) Award!

Racial duplicity threatens an idyllic African American community in the turn-of-the-century South in a dazzling debut inspired by the early life of Zora Neale Hurston.

Whether she’s telling the truth or stretching it, Zora Neale Hurston is a riveting storyteller. Her latest creation is a shape-shifting gator man who...more

Hardcover, 192 pages

Published October 12th 2010 by Candlewick Press

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One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Mock Newbery 2010/2011

21st out of 75 books — 117 voters

Newbery 2011

61st out of 139 books — 411 voters

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Dec 12, 2011 Michele rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens-chapter

This book is a fictionalized story in the life of author Zora Neale Hurston. It is described on the dust jacket as being an "echo" of "literary giant" Hurston, best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Zora is a child in the book, and one of the main characters, but she is not the narrator. The narrator is Zora’s fictional best friend, Carrie. The story and the characters are loosely chipped from Hurston’s own writings.

Zora and her best friend live in an all-black community in earl...more

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Nov 20, 2012 April rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bea-2010, middle-grade, multicultural, for-review

Zora And Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon is a coming of age middle grade fictionalization of Zora Neale Hurston's childhood. Hurston is perhaps one of the most famous female writers to come out of the Harlem Renaissance.Alright, I am putting on my history teacher hat. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of great cultural achievement for Black culture. You've got Duke Ellington making awesome music, Langston Hughes dropping mad poetry, and Billie Holiday's crooning, not to mention the Apollo The...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Ms. M rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is delightful. The voice of the narrator will draw the audience into the world of the small, all black, community of Eatonville, Florida and Zora Neale Hurston's friends and family. We get a glimpse of how Zora's creative imagination keeps everyone trying to figure out if her stories are truth, lies, or just the way she makes sense of the world. We do learn that early on, Zora is confident of her ability to tell stories and entertain others with them.

This book was written to be read al...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Jaimee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: juvenile-fiction-realistic

From Amazon:
Whether she’s telling the truth or stretching it, Zora Neale Hurston is a riveting storyteller. Her latest creation is a shape-shifting gator man who lurks in the marshes, waiting to steal human souls. But when boastful Sonny Wrapped loses a wrestling match with an elusive alligator named Ghost — and a man is found murdered by the railroad tracks soon after — young Zora’s tales of a mythical evil creature take on an ominous and far more complicated complexion, jeopardizing the peace...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Jayme Prisbell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-literature

The onset of Jim Crow laws and customs rested upon racist values of black people as culturally, personally, and biologically inferior. In the book, Zora and Me, written by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon readers are exposed to a coming-of-age story of racial dishonesty that threatens a peaceful African American community in Eatonville, Florida. This 2011 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent is inspired by the early life of author Zora Neale Hurston and is targeted for children ages...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Karen Yingling rated it 2 of 5 stars

Bond, Victoria and T.R.Simon. Zora and Me.
Zora and her friends Carrie and Teddy get into all sorts of trouble in their small Florida community in the early 1900s. Zora has a flair for the dramatic and is always making up one story or another. After a local man is mauled to death trying to wrestle an alligator, Zora comes up with two stories-- one about Mr. Pendir having the snout of an alligator, and one about what might have happened to a man found murdered beside the railroad tracks. Her stori...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Marika rated it 5 of 5 stars

Adventure, mystery, coming of age story, and historical fiction, not to mention wonderful writing and strong characters, make Zora and Me one of the best middle grade books I've read in a while. This is not a book I merely liked, Zora and Me deserves much more than that. It has a future in classrooms, being used to help children understand race in America in the early 20th century, while still being an enjoyable and compelling read. Zora and Me is endorsed by the Zora Neale Hurston Trust and a l...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Carol Baldwin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I didn’t realize when I selected Zora and Me from the audio book shelf of my local library that I would be treated to a powerful, multiracial historical novel. But I was.

Under 200 pages long, this book is the result of collaboration between Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon. Their fictionalized account of Harlem renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston’s childhood, brings the reader into gator country, Eatonville, Florida, during the Jim Crow period.

Zora’s outspoken manner and boldness is seen through...more I didn’t realize when I selected Zora and Me from the audio book shelf of my local library that I would be treated to a powerful, multiracial historical novel. But I was.

Under 200 pages long, this book is the result of collaboration between Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon. Their fictionalized account of Harlem renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston’s childhood, brings the reader into gator country, Eatonville, Florida, during the Jim Crow period.

Zora’s outspoken manner and boldness is seen through her best friend Carrie’s eyes. The two young girls get caught up into the myth and mysteries of the local “Gator King” (half-man, half-alligator) which they imagine to be ghostly white. In a line foreshadowing later conflict, Carrie observes, “If coloreds can be different colors, why can’t gators?”

When Ivory, an itinerant turpentine worker is murdered, Zora decides to apply her alligator-sleuthing abilities to solving the murder. The story gets more complicated when the girls meet Gold – a woman who is beautiful, stylish, and colored but “not like us.” Gold is engaged to a white man and the black community is horrified that she has turned her back on her people.

In a powerful scene, the girls come across Gold sitting in the forest by a fire, her clothes dirty and in disarray. By the firelight Gold “looks colored but like she’d been wiped down by chalk dust.” Zora confronts Gold on why she has chosen to pass. Here are snippets from this dialogue revealing Gold’s conflicts and motivation:

Zora asks, “Why would you want to be like white folks?”
Gold replies, “I get tired of being colored. I get tired of seeing everything the world has to offer and settling for a big bowl of nothing."

During the same scene, Gold relays a story from her own childhood. Her mother was much darker than she was. When the two would go shopping, Gold’s mother would pretend to be her nanny in order to purchase what she wanted. Gold remembers, “It’s like I was the skeleton key unlocking the other world just for my Mama.” In this conversation Gold tells the two friends, “You’re both lucky. You don’t have to make hard choices. You know exactly where you belong.”

This is a powerful story about hurt, fear, and prejudice and two young girls coming of age in a town that had previously sheltered them from the bigger scope of life’s conflicts. As Carrie realizes at the end, “The bad things in life don’t define misery—what you do with them does.”

This book would be an excellent supplement to a class in US history, or to be read during Black History month. Although the two main characters are both girls, Ivory’s plight and the overarching historical theme make this also an appealing book for middle school boys. Students and writers should both analyze the internal and external conflicts permeating Gold’s, Zora’s, and Carrie’s lives. There is much to learn from this well-written book.
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Apr 14, 2011 Leslie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: juvenile, chapter-book-8-11, concenter-ish, historical-incl-aspects, middle-school-11-14

"Victoria Bond’s & T.R. Simon’s Zora and Me is a fine introduction to Zora Neale Hurston and the world that birthed her. Told in a warm honey rhythm, the first person narrator Carrie looks back at a time in childhood spent with her best friend Zora. They were ten that year and trouble was stirring in Eatonville, not to mention their greater consciousness.

"The reader is lulled into the lives of Carrie, Zora, and Teddy with all the charm and wit Carrie can afford, and with the opening, tantali...more "Victoria Bond’s & T.R. Simon’s Zora and Me is a fine introduction to Zora Neale Hurston and the world that birthed her. Told in a warm honey rhythm, the first person narrator Carrie looks back at a time in childhood spent with her best friend Zora. They were ten that year and trouble was stirring in Eatonville, not to mention their greater consciousness.

"The reader is lulled into the lives of Carrie, Zora, and Teddy with all the charm and wit Carrie can afford, and with the opening, tantalizing story of a gator attack. We wait for the murder that centers the mystery the three would set out to solve. And then we wait to solve it. Meanwhile, there is that landscape to mind.

"Zora and Me begins as if to seat the reader firmly into the setting. And the imagery is successful in transporting the reader into the landscape, both physical and cultural. I had been under the assumption that the story was to revolve around a murder mystery, but it is less plot driven than that. The landscape set about isn’t a mere backdrop. The story refuses to move away and make way for an “adventure story.” The title is more apt than the dust jacket I’d read. The reading soon reveals that it is the plot’s premise that is the backdrop to this character driven portraiture of Zora, “me,” and Eatonville, Florida 1901 (?). Needless to say, those interested in character-driven stories will not be disappointed.

"Those readers who are fans of Zora Neale Hurston will not be disappointed by Zora and Me either."

[...]

"I figured 170-pages and I could breeze through. It does read smoothly, though I couldn’t say evenly paced; like honey. And like honey, traces linger. I would like to say that Zora and Me is as uncomplicated as you make it, but it remarks on too many relevancies.

"Zora and Me is an ambitious novel. Besides illuminating the childhood of an important, influential author, it would honor said author by sharing her concerns."

L @ omphaloskepsis
http://contemplatrix.wordpress.com/20...(less)

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Feb 12, 2011 Lars Guthrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

People tend to denigrate adaptations, abridgements, those shortcuts to understanding that all of us use from time to time despite their reputations.

Admit it. As a student, you read the Cliff Notes, or more likely these days, the Wikipedia summary, of a required text rather than do your homework. Perhaps as an adult, you’ve refined the process. A few reviews, and you blithely pretend that you’ve read the book they’re talking about at the dinner party.

One of the joys of working with kids is that...more People tend to denigrate adaptations, abridgements, those shortcuts to understanding that all of us use from time to time despite their reputations.

Admit it. As a student, you read the Cliff Notes, or more likely these days, the Wikipedia summary, of a required text rather than do your homework. Perhaps as an adult, you’ve refined the process. A few reviews, and you blithely pretend that you’ve read the book they’re talking about at the dinner party.

One of the joys of working with kids is that you get to read kids’ books. They’re easily digestible, but you can still feel like you aren’t cheating. They’re real books. Many are just as much works of literature as anything the older crowd might consider paragons. Plus you can learn something.

Such is the case with ‘Zora and Me.’ By reading a clever little mystery that could stand alone as just that—a clever little mystery—you’re exposed to a fascinating slice of history. Eatonville, Florida, was ‘the first incorporated all-black township in the United States.’ That was in 1887. It was also the place where the family of Zora Neale Hurston, one of America’s most esteemed writers, moved in 1894, and where she grew up.

So you’re also introduced to Zora, or a fictionalized fourth grade version of Zora Neale Hurston. Besides appending their book with a timeline of her life and a bibliography, Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon also include a list of children’s books based on folktales that Hurston collected. So you can follow up, if you so desire.

But that’s not a requirement. Which brings me back to the clever little mystery.

Cassie has a friend, Zora, already known for her fascination with the tales adults tell, and her own story-telling abilities. When Old Lady Bronson is mysteriously injured at a pond called Blue Sink, Zora conflates the reality of a man-eating alligator and a reclusive old man to produce the story of a man who ‘can take on the face of a gator.’ Or it seems that is what Zora is doing.

Then an event of greater import happens in Eatonville—murder. Cassie, Zora, and their friend Teddy set out to prove the gator man is guilty. And there is something to Zora’s theory. But the real shape-shifting, it turns out, has a more insidious source than ghostly gators.

The mystery is wrapped up in a wistful coming-of-age story told in wonderfully evocative language—a story where Zora’s father lights in on her with special vigor because, ‘Sometimes there’s nothing more aggravating than looking in a mirror.’

A story that takes place in a time before ‘the moving pictures and before the radio’ when: ‘people were accustomed to silence; we even used to hug up on it once in a while. I never though of it as special then, that we could just sit and stare and luxuriate in the comfort of our own thoughts. Without time to think, we wouldn’t have had anything to talk about in the first place.’

See? You should read kids’ books. Kids need adults, and other kids, who can tell them what’s good. ‘Zora and Me’ is.

Recommended for fourth graders on up.(less)

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Dec 22, 2010 Rory rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kids, memoirs-and-bios

I fundamentally disagree with the impulse of so many authors/illustrators/publishers to "expose" children to famous authors/artists with these sorts of works. Zora Neale Hurston wrote some incredible things. These things were not meant for children. There's no reason to write a story based on a fictionalized account of her young life in hopes of attracting children to Hurston--it won't, and it shouldn't. Just write a good story for kids. This one was fine. A typical old-timey rural action-packed...more

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Oct 18, 2010 Margo Tanenbaum rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, african-american, mysteries

Zora and Me by debut novelists Victoria Bond and T. R. Simon is one of the most anticipated children's releases this fall, and has already received a starred review in Kirkus and was selected for both the Kids Indie Next List and the Fall Okra List from the Southern Indie Booksellers.

The novel is inspired by the childhood of noted novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, perhaps best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. I must admit that I have never read any of Zora Neale Hu...more

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Oct 17, 2011 iubookgirl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Zora and Me is a young adult novel that has garnered much praise since its publication including the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Award, an Edgar Award nomination and selection for the Booklist 2011 Top Ten Historical Fiction/YA Junior Library Guild list. The novel is told from the perspective of ten-year old Carrie, best friend of the ten-year old Zora Neale Hurston. Zora, an imminent story teller at a young age, believes one of the local men can turn into an alligator. The murder...more

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Mar 04, 2011 Bobby rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: african-heritage, historical, mystery, kidsstuff

Told from the perspective of Carrie, a fictional friend of the young, future author Zora Neale Hurston, this historical mystery finds the two friends involved in a brutal murder, a supposed half-man/half-crocodile creature, and a black woman who's been "passing" as white. It has wide-appeal for those looking for a dark mystery or historical fiction, especially around Black History Month. The fictional portrayal of young Zora is an intriguing one as she's very internal. She's intelligent but has...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Jennie added it

Zora and Me is a fictional novel based somewhat on the early life of author Zora Neale Hurston. Admittedly I knew nothing about Hurston, and I still know very little other than the fact that she is renowned storyteller. Just as she is in real life, Zora in the story is quite the storyteller and that can get her in trouble. The story about the alligator is fun and draws people in, while the back story helps young readers learn about race relations and the past. We have come a long way; however ra...more

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Oct 06, 2011 Josiah rated it 3 of 5 stars

"I thought about the difference between a mama's girl and a daddy's girl. I decided that a daughter who belongs to her daddy expects gifts, while a daughter who belongs to her mama expects a lot more. Not from her mama. From herself."

—Zora and Me, P. 69

Right off the top, there are a few things about this book that stir my curiosity. How much of the story is an authentic biographical portrait of the young Zora Neale Hurston? Was this intended to be pretty much an accurate account of a real ser...more "I thought about the difference between a mama's girl and a daddy's girl. I decided that a daughter who belongs to her daddy expects gifts, while a daughter who belongs to her mama expects a lot more. Not from her mama. From herself."

—Zora and Me, P. 69

Right off the top, there are a few things about this book that stir my curiosity. How much of the story is an authentic biographical portrait of the young Zora Neale Hurston? Was this intended to be pretty much an accurate account of a real series of episodes in her life, or was it only the characters that were real, while the narrative was mostly dreamed up by the authors? Or were even some of the characters made up, or even all of them, except for Zora herself? I would have been interested in reading an additional appendix to Zora and Me that spelled out the answers to some of these questions. Unresolved wonderings aside, though, I must say that this is an impressive book, engagingly written and overflowing with much real experiential wisdom. I heard a minor amount of Newbery buzz surrounding Zora and Me for the 2011 awards, and I have no trouble seeing why.

In turn of the century Florida, young Zora Neale Hurston and her friends Carrie (from whose first-person perspective the story is told) and Teddy are living in a town of modest means. Zora never fails to spice up her friends' lives with her imaginative storytelling, though; in fact, there's not a kid anywhere around who can resist the pull of her gripping tales, even among those who would prefer not to be under Zora's spell. When a gruesome murder is committed nearby and none of the adults have any solid leads as to who might have perpetrated the crime, Zora comes forward with her own perplexing explanation... and few people want to hear it. Zora and her two closest friends, Carrie and Teddy, resolve to find the solution to this case on their own, without the interference of grownups who refuse to believe what Zora has to tell them. The reason they won't believe is because what Zora claims to have seen is so bizarre and unexpected that no one would ever think that there could possibly be any truth to it, but that won't stop Carrie and Teddy, at least, from having faith in their best friend's story.

On their quest to bring a killer on the loose to justice and prove themselves to a town that looks on them as nothing more than helpless kids, Zora and her two accomplices will learn a lot about themselves, also, and what their connection to each other, their families and the town in which they live really means to them. Carrie and Teddy may not know for a fact that Zora is going to grow up to become a famous author, but the handwriting is already on the wall that she's bound to be off for somewhere big someday. She just has that kind of charisma about her, which is a big part of the reason why her tall tales are so irresistible to all of the other kids. Growing up to adulthood isn't an eternity away from happening for Zora and her friends, and they realize deep down that eventually they're going to lose their close friendship. Someday they're not going to be able to walk a short distance to see each other. There will be miles, maybe hundreds or even thousands of miles, separating them, and distance always changes things. Much of the poignancy to Zora and Me is rooted in the growing realization by the three friends that they don't have forever together as they are now; and since the ideal of Forever seems to be locked away in the heart of every man, woman and child who has ever lived, anything short of that mark will never be enough. It just won't be.

I definitely would give two and a half stars to this book if the option were available, but without that, I had to give a lot of careful thought to if I wanted to round my rating up or down. Ultimately, I chose to round up with Zora and Me, because it has such a strong finish and some very memorable philosophical quotes that are sure to stick in my head for a long while. Authors Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon have done a nice job with this story, and I absolutely see them as writers to watch for in future years when awards season rolls around. I'm glad that I decided to take a chance on two authors I'd never heard of before and read their debut novel, and I'll make a point of being aware of whatever their second book is when they release it.

"(B)efore the moving pictures and before the radio, folks were accustomed to silence; we even used to hug up on it once in a while. I never thought of it as special then, that we could just sit and stare and luxuriate in the comfort of our own thoughts. Without time to think, we wouldn't have had anything to talk about in the first place."

—Zora and Me, P. 155

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Mar 06, 2011 JG (The Introverted Reader) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 4_stars, author_american, fiction, middle_grade, read_in_2011, reviewed, setting_us, southern-lit, strong_females, historical_mystery

Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville, FL, "the first incorporated all-black township in the United States." In this fictional account of an incident in her childhood, Eatonville at first seems to be idyllic. Sure, the residents aren't very well off, but they're safe and free to be whoever they'd like. After a headless corpse is found by the railroad tracks, Zora and her friend Carrie's perspectives are changed forever.

This was a very fast read. Zora herself is a delight. She reminds me a bit...more Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville, FL, "the first incorporated all-black township in the United States." In this fictional account of an incident in her childhood, Eatonville at first seems to be idyllic. Sure, the residents aren't very well off, but they're safe and free to be whoever they'd like. After a headless corpse is found by the railroad tracks, Zora and her friend Carrie's perspectives are changed forever.

This was a very fast read. Zora herself is a delight. She reminds me a bit of Anne Shirley in that she names everything around her and has her own mythology to explain the world. She's the leader of this little group of friends and she keeps friends Carrie and Teddy on their toes.

Zora and Carrie get a little too caught up in the events surrounding the murder at the train tracks. They've been on the edges of a lot of the events leading up to the event and curious Zora is trying her best to put all the pieces together. Seeing the world through their innocence, and seeing them just starting to lose that innocence, feels very real. They don't have the experience to really understand what they're seeing at first, but they gain that experience the hard way.

The novel becomes a good introduction to race relations in the US. I can't imagine that it would be an easy read for youngsters, but these kinds of books never are. Nevertheless, it is important that we know our history. The authors don't shy away from alluding to lynchings (note that I did write "alluding to"--nothing is spelled out) or using "the N word," so if your child isn't ready for that, it might be best to save this book for later.

All of that makes the book sound very heavy and depressing. It's mostly not. Zora and Carrie have to deal with some grown-up issues, but they also have fun playing and getting licorice and just being children.

This is a very well-done book that I enjoyed. I recommend it for anyone, but it would be an especially good conversation-starter for parents with children old enough to handle the subject.(less)

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May 06, 2011 Raquel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An amazing book written by two incredibly talented women. The language in the book is beautiful and I love how we learn about Zora Neale Hurston's adventurous spirit and talent for story telling through a fictional story as told by a character in the book. It's a great way for kids (and let's face it, this adult) to be introduced to Zora Neale Hurston. The first thing I wanted to do after reading this was pick up Their Eyes Were Watching God!

Zora loves to tell stories and all the school children...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Dawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio, gscba-2013, historical-fiction, upper-elementary-lit

The childhood of Zora Neale Hurston is explored through the eyes of her best friend Carrie in this adventurous novel. Carrie shows us who Zora is and articulates the Eatonville that shaped Zora’s life. There is a clear understanding of the differences between the African-American and white worlds in which these girls seamlessly pass through. In fact, when a young man’s body shows up by the railroad tracks in Eatonville, these two worlds mesh in unexpected ways.

While I loved the insight into Zora...more

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Mar 27, 2011 Nikki Warnke rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: yal-genre-project

Two best friends are caught in the middle of a mysterious series of murders in their small Florida town during the late 1800’s. Zora’s story-telling abilities enable her to catch the attention of family and friends while she and her best friend search for a connection between the unexpected murders. Told from best friend Carrie’s point of view, this story tells a tale of three young children who try and help their community unmask a tricky web of lies that has their town in a state of havoc.
Rec...more

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Feb 13, 2011 Samantha Tai added it Recommends it for: People interested in black history.

Recipient of the Joe Steptoe New Talent Award, Zora and Me tells a fictionalized account of African American author Zora Neale Hurston's childhood with her best friend, Carrie, in Eatonville, Florida. When a young man is found murdered along the railroad tracks, the mysterious circumstances threaten peace and security of the small town. Zora has an idea of who killed the man, but she's afraid no one will believe her. This is a book I probably wouldn't have picked up if it hadn't received the awa...more

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Jul 06, 2012 Judy Desetti rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: gr-3-4, historical-fiction, award-winners

Won the John Steptoe award. A Kansas WAW selection for 2012-13.

I enjoyed the book but other than the anme and living in the same town I saw no connections to the famous author Zora Neale Hurston, which I had never heard of before, but read about at the end of the book in a skeleton biography by the author.

A short book about two black girls in the late 1890's or turn of the century who in their fourth grade school year are witness to a death and several strange events. In their attempt to make s...more

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Apr 17, 2011 Pam Torres rated it 5 of 5 stars

See complete Review at soimfifty.blogspot.com.

First Line: "It's funny how you can be in a story but not realize until the end that you were in one."

One Great Line: "We hopped and skipped like coal embers were grazing our toes right through our shoes" (76).

What I Thought: When I first read The Bluest Eye and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings , I realized I had heard a new voice, one that was absent from my white middle-class upbringing. I hungered to hear it again and went on to read more. What I l...more

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Jul 23, 2010 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Young Zora is a good friend and confidant to the narrator, a young girl named Carrie. Zora is a gifted and imaginative storyteller whose curiosity and naivety lead Zora, and her friends on adventures that have the potential of ripping apart their racially complicated community. This fictional story is based on the life and short stories of Zora Neale Hurston and combines history, folklore and imagination in an engaging tale. As I began reading, I half expected this story to be a reworking of The...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Rubi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Zora and Me is a book of friendship, adventure and mystery. I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend school's to include in their libraries. Older children will enjoy this book as they read the fictional story of Zora who tells her own interesting and imaginative stories. Zora is convinced that unusual things are happening, she is sure that Mr. Pendrick is an alligaor man. When residents of Eatonville are injured and someone is murdered, Zora's story starts to sound true . I really enjoye...more

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Feb 21, 2011 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: civil-rights, friendship, historical-fiction

This short book is beautifully written and kept my interest. It's a fictionalized story about the childhood of Zora Neale Hurston and touches on themes of friendship, racism, life in the Jim Crow era, childhood innocence and parental loss. It would probably work best as a read-aloud. Although I enjoyed it, I'm not sure many middle-school students would be as captivated. I especially loved the author's creative use of metaphors and descriptive language throughout the book such as:

"The trees swaye...more

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Apr 29, 2011 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, children-s

I really wanted to like this book! Zora and Me is a fictional story about Carrie and Zora Neale Hurston. Zora is an imaginative storyteller and Carrie buys into her friend's incredible stories. The dialect and pacing were great and the book would make a fun read aloud. There are some story elements that I think are a bit mature or now quite interesting/appropriate for elementary aged students. There is quite a bit about race relationships, which can be tricky to handle with kids. A man is also m...more

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Feb 15, 2011 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fabulous book. Very well written. Good, thought-provoking story. One of those that you need to read at least a few times: first time to know what happens because the suspense makes you stay with it until it's done; second time to see all the foreshadowing and beautiful weaving of details and imagery and all the lovely writing; third time to think about the themes and messages--there is a lot there (it's a coming of age novel), much to ponder on. I like it for me and other adults and I highly app...more

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May 18, 2011 Becky Birtha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: african-american-interest, middle-grade-novel

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Drenched in sense of place and time, Zora and Me brings the Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston to life as a spunky ten year old, growing up in turn of the century (19th to 20th) Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated all Black town that Hurston paints so well in her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, and her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Told from the point of view of Zora's friend, Carrie, the novel is rich in language and full of all manner of characters. We encounter a gator wrestler, turpentine workers, Joe Clark the storekeeper and the storytelling idlers on his porch, the white man who delivered Zora as a baby, and the cliquey girls at school whose fathers are all professional men. Because Zora is always poking her nose into the affairs of grown-folks, there are also some rather adult concerns, as the town finds itself grappling with a murder, and Zora, Carrie, and their friend Teddy take on the task of trying to set a soul at rest.

As fantastical as some of the characters and events might seem, the authors have not made this stuff up, but have drawn heavily on Hurston's autobiography (although no one can exactly vouch for the truth in that). A central element of Zora and Me is Zora's storytelling-- or is it lying? And a central theme is distinguishing between lies and truth. That was also a theme in the real life of Hurston, who held lying contests to collect folktales, as part of her anthropological research while a student at Barnard, and whose lies about her age fooled both school admissions staff and biographers. Zora and Me includes a biography, a time line, and an annotated bibliography, for young readers who want to get the facts straight. My own fact checking with the biography of Hurston by Robert Hemenway that I'd read long ago, confirmed for me how thoroughly these authors did their homework.

The book's short length (167 pages), and intriguing cover portrait, place it squarely in the middle grades, belying the difficult decisions, profound ideas, and complex subjects with which the youngsters in the story must wrestle. There is much for readers to ponder here, if they're up for it. If not, they can simply enjoy the story. Midway through the book, there seemed to be so much going on, so many strands and threads to the story, that I wondered if the authors could actually pull it all together into a real plot, and then move that on to a real resolution. A character in the book tells Zora, "Only very special people can put real life puzzles with human pieces together." And in the end, that is the evalutation that I have to hand to Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon.

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Dec 06, 2010 Karen rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was a book I really wanted to like, but I feel like it is one of those books adults like and therefore want kids to like. It reads more like a coming of age novel written for adult. I had trouble feeling much for any of the characters. Carrie's adult voice acted as a barrier to letting Carrie, Teddy and Nora act and be real children. As one of the othe reviewers said, I would have liked more description---to get a better feel for the time and place. I think the language used by the authors...more

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About Victoria Bond

Victoria Bond and T. R. Simon met ten years ago while working together in publishing and became fast friends. After kicking around the idea of a collaboration for years, the idea of writing a middle-grade novel about Zora Neale Hurston emerged, and both knew they had stumbled into the project of their dreams. Excited and humbled by the opportunity to expose young readers to a seminal figure in twe...more

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Quotes from Zora and Me

“I thought about the difference between a mama's girl and a daddy's girl. I decided that a daughter who belongs to her daddy expects gifts, while a daughter who belongs to her mama expects a lot more. Not from her mama. From herself.” — 6 people liked it

“I reckon everyone's got someone they're looking to find. Sometimes the problem is trying to find somebody who don't know they lost or don't want to be found.

—Ivory” — 2 people liked it

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